An Assessment of Measures Medical Imaging Personnel Use to Avoid the Breakdown of Diagnostic Radiologic Equipment in Some Health Facilities in Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon

Abstract

The proper and correct diagnosis of diseases is the primary necessity before the treatment and so sophisticated equipment are needed for better diagnosis. Frequent breakdown of these equipment faced by personnel during service delivery lead to movement of patients to other health facilities, failure to attend to patients for which in case of emergency will lead to death of patients. This was an investigative cross sectional study aimed at assessing measures to avoid equipment breakdown.This study was carried out in some selected health facilities in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon which lasted for 1 month (from the 22ndJanuary to 21st February 2019). Semi-structured questionnaires were designed and used to collect primary data from 20participants in the sampled hospitals. Data collected was analyzed using SPSS (statistical package for social sciences) version 23.0 by the research analyst. The results obtained showed thatout of the 20 participants, (15)75% were males while(5)25% were females. The most represented age group was the 20-30 years age group, and the least represented age group was in the 42-52. The most common cause of equipment breakdown was electrical faults (75%), 45% of participantsdid not carry out quality control programs and the measures to avoid this breakdown was the use of appropriate parameters (80%).Based on results obtained, it was concluded that the major cause of equipment breakdown was electrical faults.