Research
Preventive Maintain of Ventilators and its Cost Consideration
Background: Maintenance is the core function of biomedical engineering and is essential for the optimum functioning of equipment. This study was undertaken to understand the current maintenance practices of ventilator and its cost implications from administrative point of view. Methodology: 179 Ventilators supplied and installed by one vendor in different wards of the hospital were studied. It was a retrospective, descriptive study. Equipment related data was taken from various service reports. This data was used to calculate spares failure and their costs implication. Results: A total of 692 maintenance visits were undertaken for 179 ventilators of 5 different modals over 27 months by 6 Bio- Medical Engineers (BME). The mean number of spare changed throughout the study was 2.73. The uptime was within satisfactory limits. The yearly repair to cost ratio was 3.50 %. The cost of spare changed was a factor of modal under consideration and the status of equipment concerning its coverage under maintenance contact. Conclusion: The findings of the study should enable researchers in the future to formulate an effective equipment maintenance policy for the hospital.
