EBME Forums Forums Maintenance Biomed Databases PPM SCHEDULE

I am working in a Private specialist hospital in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia . We are a Joint Commission International ( JCI ) accredited hospital. We follow ECRI protocol while scheduling ppm frequency for medical equipment based on Risk factor, maintenance requirement, functionality, etc. Now, our biomedical engineering department is thinking strategically in order to utilise resources ( human, financial, equipment and the like ) effectively . While incorporating those strategies, we thought of eliminating PPM for certain low risk category medical equipment like otoscope, diagnostics sets,mechanical stretchers, etc or make once in 2 years instead of current practice of once a year on these devices.

We would appreciate if any one of you would advise us the various low risk medical devices which could be scheduled for preventive maintenance once in 2 or 3 years or eliminate PPM for good if deemed necessary.

Look forward to your list and full justification for a good practice of PPM scheduling on low risk medical devices.

Regards

Sen

Mr. Sen,

If you are obliged to conform to accreditation stipulations, and are already following ECRI guidelines, it sounds to me that you’ve “got it made in the shade”, as they say. With respect, how can any advice given on this website carry any weight against anything written in tablets of stone by such mighty and revered bodies as these?

You’re right, in my humble opinion, to organize your PM in a risk-centred way. You may like to refer to previous threads on this website on that very topic. And, yes, it’s the way forward if you’re serious about efficient use of resources whilst doing the work that really needs to be done. But I suspect that you may not have such freedom where you are, so why not just do what you can within whatever the JCAHO and ECRI “allow”?

Nice weather out there at this time of year, isn’t it?