EBME Forums Forums Management Medical Equipment Management KPI - Key Performance Indicators

"Take it or leave it"? Is there a choice? Leave it, then.

OK, the cure to get rid of all these pen pushers, button bashers and reformat wizards is for everyone to do an honest days work for an honest days pay and to do the job they a paid to do.

Hmm when will this happen? I wonder!. Until that day just wish them a good day because they are earning a living due to others (shall I say) trying to cheat the system

Ah - Utopia - no reality tv there.....

As Editor in Chief, I would reject the word "earning". Please insert "taking", or better yet, gouging!

Hi fellow techies,

Thanks for the replies, cynical or otherwise. I will give Brian's suggestion of google search a try. I have had personal e-mail replies from others and have found them helpful also.

Will endeavour to put something together, perhaps submitting on the EBME forum when complete?

Jim

That would be very helpful Jim.

Thanks.

Key performance indicators - read slowly and each word in turn.

KPI's should be the fundamental "Mission Statement" of your business

Key factors - To the nurse is that the equipment is fixed
Performance - how well or quickly was that task performed
Indicators - Some measurable quantity which can be assessed in order to IMPROVE it.

Basically steer away from "Statistics" like How many devices you have, how much work you do as this is all statistical rather than a performance indicator

I would suggest that "Equipment Downtime" is a perfect indicator or your department’s ability to meet the customers need.

Our main KPI is "70% of all corrective repairs presented to the EBME department will be repaired within 5 working days, irrespective of spares availability, manpower or manufacturers repairs"

We can also provide this KPI with a view to maintaining or improving it while examining the influencing factors such as Total available manpower %, Workload figures for corrective, planned, misc

Feel free to contact if you want a copy of the raw figures or a report.

Joe

Sorry, old mate, but I can't let that one slip through! Irrespective means "regardless", so how can your assertion hold up if spares (for example) cannot be obtained within five working days? I expect you mean "except in cases of ... ", don't you?

Sorry to disagree too about "downtime". Imagine that an old SAM pump has been laying in the corner of the workshop for a number of years. So what (apart from total slackness, of course)? The hospital probably has more than enough. And ... has the user ever asked about it (the nurse involved has probably retired by now)? Is it being missed? Is the user dissatisfied? No, the "downtime" argument is best applied to production scenarios (factories), where loss of production may well occur if a particular item is down. It doesn't really cross the divide well into an hospital setting.

Whilst I'm on the case, why not aim at 100% of corrective repairs in the shortest possible time, but put more emphasis (KPI-wise) on PM (which can easily be recorded, and shown to be within "limits" or not, as the case may be)?

All repairs are due to "failures" (almost by definition). Whilst PM is meant to be about preventing failures. Furthermore, PM (procedures etc.) can be easily documented, and PM activity easily recorded (it was either carried out at the due time, or it was not). Think PM!

I assume he means to reduce 70% of repair time to less than 5 days. Probably by means of keeping stock levels of spares. Otherwise how can you keep repair times down regardless of manpower. Looking at the worse case if you have zero manpower you still have to keep repair time down to 5 days!

This depends on the hospital, in some instances due to varying factors (including financial and product use) downtime can be a major issue. MS26 syringe drivers here have to be given a prompt turn around, mainly because these devices are often dispatched into the community with patients and often never get returned. The same can be said of nebulisers, if a patient who has been receiving palliative care in the community dies understandably return of hospital equipment is the last thing on the relatives mind.

What you're talking about there is something that would be familiar to any biomed with a month or two's experience ... that is, prioritizing the work.

Only mindless fools (and, there are some about, I can assure you) would simply take the next job off the pile, without regard to how urgently it is needed, and whether some other piece of kit needs to jump the queue.

Being able to recognise what is more important than what (that is, an appreciation of the clinical need) is a major part of what being a biomed is all about.

That's why I gave the example of the SAM pump, and not the CT scanner!

By the way, I can't see how losses due to theft warrant too much special consideration when it comes to jumping the repair queue. We've been through this before:- if a patient takes away a piece of kit, then it gets signed for. If it doesn't get returned, someone gets billed. What's wrong with that? If the staff concerned are too "busy" (or careless) to bother about "such minor matters", let them find the funds for replacements themselves (preferably from their own over-inflated salaries)! But if the real problem is a shortage of equipment, why aren't steps taken to obtain more of it?

I Quite agree Geoff!