An Assessment of Diagnostic Equipment Utilization in a Tertiary Healthcare Setup: A Key to Economical Patient Management

Abstract

ABSTRACT Equipment utilization management is the evaluation of the medical equipment necessity, appropriateness, and efficiency of the use in the healthcare services or procedures. The investment on an equipment is said to be a good one if it shows a utilization coefficient of 50% or above. The study was descriptive observational in nature and was conducted in the Histopathology Department, PGIMER, Chandigarh. The data for the entire year of 2012 was collected by studying various records of the department including purchase files, inventory registers, log books and service records of medical equipments. The results indicated that the Utilization Coefficients of various diagnostic equipments in the department of Histopathology, PGIMER, Chandigarh for the year 2012 were in the order of 58.1, 62.1 and 60.4% for high cost, medium cost and low cost equipments respectively. On an average, the utilization coefficient of medical equipments under study (Year 2012) of the Histopathology Department, PGIMER, Chandigarh, was found to be 60.2% (above 50%). This figure reflects that the budget spent on average medical diagnostic equipment in this department is very much justifiable. The study also showed that the cost incurred on various cost categories of diagnostic equipments, i.e. the low, medium and high cost equipments was also equally important. How to cite this article Chaudhary P, Kaul P. An Assessment of Diagnostic Equipment Utilization in a Tertiary Healthcare Setup: A Key to Economical Patient Management. Int J Res Foundation Hosp Healthc Adm 2014;2(2):111-116.