Hideaki Kamijo, Clinical Engineer, Tsukuba Medical Center Hospital, Tsukuba Medical Center, Public Interest Incorporated Foundation
One of our duties as clinical engineers is to maintain and inspect the portable medical equipment used within the hospital.
Ideally, medical devices should be operated within the service life stated in the attached documents and instruction manuals, but they may be operated for long periods of time with repeated repairs. The devices analyzed this time were 36 "small infusion pumps." In our hospital, they are mainly used to continuously administer narcotics to relieve pain. In many cases, patients carry them themselves, and medical staff do not manage them. "Errors" often occur due to drops or strong impacts. The system records operation history, and a history investigation is conducted every time a "repair or inspection request" is made due to an abnormality. The investigation takes time, which is a burden on the work. In addition, it is known from experience that repair costs are high and frequent. We believe that it is not enough to just buy the device and then be done with it, but that the next renewal timing should also be considered. The problem is the balance between risk and expense. In order to obtain a budget, rational evidence must be presented. In this study, the estimated annual repair costs were predicted based on the repair history. This paper reports on repair cost prediction using field data and its use.
