Hi Folks,
To add more feathers to the hat, I would like to share my experience with you by saying that general trend for life time of medical equipment is between 7 - 10 years. Again, class and type of equipment are considered while making such derivation. Critical care equipment, anesthesia equipment and OR equipment are slated for 7 years and rest of them fall within the range. Manufacturers make equipment obsolete for various reasons to sustain in the market due to technological advances, competition and the like and stop production initially and support spare parts for 7 years before they wind up complete support for any given obsolete product. Having worked both in medical equipment companies and hospitals, I could make such differentiations. As explained very well by others that there are a lot of factors which come into picture before we make decision to condemn/ make medical equipment obsolete in a healthcare environment. Cost, usage, technically and clinically unaccepted, better technology equipment, depreciation, cost Vs benefit, risk of using the equipment, etc. We enter 10 years by default on our dbase for all medical equipment and analyse and monitor case by case basis.
Hope this helps.
