EBME Forums Forums Free discussion Free discussion How Many Techs.?

Taking this statement on to it's logical conclusion for myself: I will, by the above rule of thumb, expect one technician to cover the 300 ICU ventilator services I have touted for, across the UK, and another to cover the 300 nebulizer compressors in one hospital nearby that has some work going. Thanks Geoff - 2 technicians per 600 assets - it's simple when you know how!

Sorry, Richard, but that's not an Asset Register as we know it, is it?

Depends what your definition of "Asset" and "Register" is. Personally I consider any list (register) of associated equipment (Asset) to be an "asset register" in the context of establishing "assets to be maintained". - Joe Benzini asked the question:

This was in response to your initial posting. I think it's whatever items of medical equipment, in this context, you're asked to maintain. I also think that this definition is vitally important in assessing the resources needed to perform servicing along with the number of assets since they go hand-in-hand don't they? i.e. once you have defined an asset you place it on the asset register. Once you have the total number of assets of a certain type you can then assess what resources are required to maintain it. And so-on for each type of asset whatever it is. Any equipment can be maintained by any organisation that is prepared to arrange for it to be serviced so it doesn't necessarily matter what the asset is, equipment-wise, but to do the necessary planning surely you need to know what the equipment is and what's involved with maintaining it - some of the very first questions that should be asked of the supplier, when purchasing new, in fact.

Anyhow irrespective of what the definition of an "Asset" is; what relationship does this have to the number of beds and how does the number of beds relate to the resources e.g. manpower required to service those assets? Given that a hypothetical hospital has 700 beds this doesn't really tell you much about the assets and how to go about allocating maintenance resources does it? Without considering the individual assets that are on the asset register then it's guessing, not even estimation, unless you know how the number of beds correlates with number of assets. Even then you don't know what is required in servicing these unknown assets. Guessing has little to do with planning. First step in planning to maintain should be establishing an up-to-date asset register. When asked to tender or provide a contract for servicing equipment most private, profit making, medical companies I'm aware of want to know what the equipment is and how much of it there is of it not how many beds have you got?

I have a question - "How does the number of beds correlate to the number of technicians required to adequately maintain the assets on your asset register?" Answer this and I will concede that your rule of thumb is something more than a guess based on past experience, under specific circumstances, e.g setting up hospitals for the military in Saudi Arabia and Iraq where you were probably already fully aware of what equipment was going into the hospital plus how many beds there were. Try this planning without all the information and then what's on the asset register probably becomes the most important factor not the number of beds.

Our establishment has a recorded 3,500 medical devices on our device database. These are all medical devices that require/ will require PPM or may be servicable by an outside source.
We have around 450 plus beds, excluding day wards.

WE HAVE ONE FULL TIME ENGINEER.

Are we under resourced ? a difficult one to answer, some may take the view like others that not all the time spent is spent performing PPM's or bench repairs, but the issue of filing job sheets, chasing people, parts, paperwork orotherwise I would consider to be a drain on resources, wherby that technicians time could be spent providing a more valued service.

Aren't those aspects of the job you refer to, as a drain on resources, the bits that are necessary to do the PPMs and repairs? The stuff I do associated with filing, enquiries, etc, etc is to do with processing my repairs through the maintenance system. Can't be done without performing ancillary tasks or each technician having a technical clerk or secretary to send emails, letters and suchlike - it isn't realistic to expect non-technical individuals to be able to do a lot of this since it's related to technical stuff.

As an addendum to this thread … I learned today from one of the “corporate” suppliers of on-site biomedical equipment repair and maintenance services, that contracts people within that particular company work on a figure of one tech per 1,000 items of equipment. There are also response times and other contractual obligations to be met.

I wonder if techs stay very long working under that sort of pressure, and whether they are happy in their work. Or perhaps they are just very well paid (actually, I already have the answers but it would be nice to hear of the experiences of others, both those working for such companies, and also from their customers).

So, the questions are:- 1) Who would you rather work for in-house - NHS EBME (etc.) department or one of the companies, and 2) Which approach gives the better quality service to hospital departments, and why?

I have 4950 and rising asset's to maintaine with 4 Tec's and me doing the manager bit. We are running at 20% behind on our PPM's. I keep asking for more resourses but it is not forth coming. With the A4C happening as we speak the time I am spending on job descriptions is causing me grief. Gone are the days when I bounced out of bed to get to work and enjoy it.

1) Who would you rather work for in-house - NHS EBME (etc.) department or one of the companies, and Answer = EBME every time (unless circumstances forced otherwise)Why? better security, (not sales driven), better conditions (sick pay, pension etc), better employer confidence, better hours, better pay in comparison. 2) Which approach gives the better quality service to hospital departments, and why? Answer = EBME the user gets a hell of a lot more than just charged for work done to equipment supplied by company.

As far as staff numbers based on number of items in inventory. What are the items 5000 single flowmeters or 5000 fully kitted out catheter laboratories.

I was hoping to avoid having to labour the point, but there seems to be a bit of misunderstanding about how to go about putting together an Asset Register, especially regarding relative weightings of different types of equipment. But, here goes:-

The Asset Register should not be simply a complete inventory listing of every single item of equipment. To accurately define the maintenance commitment, only items for which planned maintenance (routine inspections, periodic electrical safety testing etc.) is either obviously applicable or a foreseeable requirement should be included. These will be, in the main, electromedical or medical gas equipment, mechanical items critical to patient care and equipment providing essential support services. Such items will come under (what may be known as) Type A (see below), justifying an individual entry in the Asset Register.

Simple items of multiple quantity requiring a lower level of maintenance effort should not be listed as single entries or else an inflated Asset Register will result. Such items may be known as multiple maintainable items, and will be either Type B1 or Type B2 entries according to their distribution. In order to account for work, time and parts expended against such items, a record (on file or computer) should be kept under “Miscellaneous & Minor Equipment” for each User Department (or sub-location). Each of these records should be allocated an equipment Control Number as if it were for a single item of capital equipment. Electrical items requiring periodic safety testing should not be included under this heading (as these should have individual records).

In general, “Miscellaneous & Minor Equipment” should be those items that ordinarily do not warrant individual records, and may include, for instance:-

Flowmeters
Instruments (eg, scissors, ophthalmoscopes, surgical instruments).
Medical Gas Cylinders
Pipeline Suction Units
Pressure Regulators
Sphygmomanometers
Stethoscopes
Stop Clocks ... etc.

Types of Asset Register entry (meaning a single equipment record card or file in a manual system, or a single record input to a computer system: each entry should be given a unique equipment Control Number):-

Type A: Individual Entry: where a single maintainable item of equipment, or each individual example of a maintainable item of a particular type, justifies its own record. Such equipment would be individually scheduled for planned maintenance.

Type B1: Collective Entry - Grouped: a single entry of items of simple equipment of the same type, that can be grouped together for the purposes of maintenance (ie, stored, or used, in the same location or close proximity). Such equipment would be scheduled for planned maintenance collectively, by type and location (eg, "all flowmeters of a certain type in Ward 12").

Type B2: Collective Entry - Dispersed: a single entry of multiple items of simple equipment of the same type, that are in various locations. Such equipment would be scheduled for planned maintenance collectively, by type only (eg, "all bag resuscitators, throughout the Hospital").

Any further questions?

Where did you get these "definitions" from Geoff ?