EBME Forums Forums Management Professional Issues Equipment Library Database

Could anyone suggest a good Equipment Library database that can be purchased. It needs to be used only for operational matters i.e. delivering, recording and recovering the use of medical devices. There is no need for it to have an ability to record maintenance issues as we have a different database for that.
Ours was made 'in house' a number of years ago and needs to be taken off line very soon. We are looking for a suitable replacement. Any recommendations/suggestions?

Wouldnt you be better interfacing it to the MEMS so that when things come back to the library and are due for service etc the library staff can see its due and bring it through.
This reduces backlogs, downtimes etc.

No, not really. We already know when every item in the Library is due for service etc. Our Library Assistant brings all devices that are due for service into EBME before their 'due date' anyway. The reason we need a separate system is that on our existing database we record patient usage. That's not part of our current maintenance database.

Do you have a programmer who knows mysql, build a new model!

@Mike: am I reading you correctly here ... that you're abandoning your tried and tested (and familiar) system because it records patient information?

Can you not simply stop doing that?

Otherwise, how "simple" does your new system need to be? Do you have on outline spec. for us?

Is the system to be "standalone", or networked?

Can you not manage with just an Excel *spreadsheet? Or (perhaps) "prototype" your new ideas in Excel (deciding upon the data structures, etc.) before solidifying a final design?

Lastly, remember this good old thread?

@Neil: if Mike coughs up a spec., maybe your MySQL guy can knock up a system for him!

* Or even a good old fashioned logging in and out book!

Geoff, at a cost!

Mike, what is your budget?

Geoff - As you rightly hint at, we have had a superb system in place for about 12 years. Works really well. Unfortunately it is linked to a system called PAS which IT are about to scrap. We had an IT Programmer many years ago who built it for us under our spec's. Alas, that option is no longer available. We don't programme in EBME, got enough repair/maintenance work to do etc.

Yes, the system is pretty simple. It needs to be able to record an equipment number, a patient D number, a Ward, a date and have an ability to generate reports based on patient/equipment usage. There are other 'minor' things that it does, but what I have described is the basics really. It is the fact that it is linked to the PAS system that makes it useful for us, i.e. the patient details come from PAS. We use that for audit purposes. It is a standalone system.

Neil - aaah, the keyword - budget. What I have been asked to do is get some prices for a new system that is suitable for us and then we will 'take it form there'.

I do understand that is probably not enough info' for you but it is very difficult to string together a comprehensive sentence using the words NHS, EBME, budget, resources, Finance dep't, Equipment Library and cost. Hopefully you will understand what I mean.

Ball park figure then, 10K, 20K or above. Had a chat with one company about their Asset management programme and was quoted 40k for a stand alone, one computer system. Buying off the shelf does not come cheap.

On the other hand ... it can be done for nowt!

If Mike (or anyone else) wants to have a go with this, gets it downloaded, fires it up and then looks under the menu option:-

Forms | Equipment moves ...

... it won't be exactly what you're looking for (Mike), but if you like the look of that style, and (or) think it can be adapted to suit your requirements easily enough, then I would be happy to discuss it further.

In other words, use that as a "basis for discussion" (template for developing a spec., whatever).

By the way, if you can find them (under Forms | Formatted reports), the related reports are named Move_01 to Move_06 ... but you won't see much until you have loaded in some data.

Lastly, that version of TM has a few known bugs. Those have since been *corrected. The latest version is in bits at the moment, but shall hopefully be in a reasonable enough state to be issued soon.

* But don't worry, new ones have been added (and no doubt previously hidden ones shall emerge)!

OK Mike, so you're quite rightly escaping from the confines (and fickle demands) of IT.*


Anything else? Like "signature(s)", equipment condition, etc., etc.

And what information do the Reports need to generate?

The only PAS "screen" I have ever seen looked pretty much "DOS based" to me (but none the worse for that, I might add). So have you any idea what your current (and apparently well-loved) system is written in, Mike?

I'm wondering if it was good old dBASE?

* Just as Neil was able to do.