EBME Forums Forums Management Medical Equipment Management Forceps, Scissors,etc Classification?

Much of the equipment commonly encountered within healthcare establishments is clearly not "medical" (eg, building services plant, ambulance vehicles, medical gas pipelines, laundry, entertainment, office, audio-visual, catering and cleaning equipment etc.), but for some others the demarcation between the engineering disciplines is open to question (eg, blood refrigerators, radio paging, sterilization plant, special hospital furniture etc.).

Whilst management has an obligation to ensure that all items are covered by some form of maintenance policy, care should be taken not to overload the biomedical technician(s), whose proper role is the technical support of medical, or clinical, equipment. The biomedical technicians' skills, although readily applicable to many tasks, should not be routinely misdirected towards work easily accomplished by others (eg, electricians, mechanics, other tradesmen and storemen usually available within an healthcare establishment - and medical and nursing staff)!