Proposal for quantitative evaluation for medical equipment acquisition

Abstract

This paper proposes a method to evaluate the ideal number of medical equipment to be acquired by a Brazilian healthcare institution. The number of equipment needed (“n”) in a hospital sector can be calculated with one expression, where the following parameters are taken into consideration: number of beds or users (“nb”); number of existing equipment (“m”); recommended rate of equipment per patient (“rr” that was obtained from Brazilian standard published by the Health Ministry); equipment importance to patient care (“v” that could be: life-support, improvement of the service or advisable); and the equipment condition (“c” that results from maintenance history data). These variables were obtained with data gathered from database and medical equipment preventive maintenance reports of the University Hospital of Londrina – Paraná – Brazil (HURNP/UEL). Two case studies were carried out. In the first case, the method was applied to work out the ideal number of infusion pumps needed for two different sectors (ICU and Nurseries) in the hospital. The second study compared the ideal quantities of different equipment (pulse oximeter, oxicapnograph and multiparameter monitor) that offered the same function (oximetry), in a surgical center. These results showed that this methodology is simple and easy to apply, although there must be an improvement of some aspects such as the local where the equipment is working and the possibility of different equipment performing the same function. Additionally, this paper showed the importance of implementing a prioritizing method among hospital sectors, because it will help to allocate resources where they are really necessary.

Keywords

• Clinical Engineering
• Acquisition Process
• Quantitative Evaluation