An Automated Medical Equipment Management System Proposed for Small-Scale Hospitals

Abstract

A hospital is a high-technology center that must be superbly organized. Therefore, the existence of medical equipment management program is considered as an essential tool for managing and monitoring medical equipment. In application, many automated systems have been developed with different domains. The purpose of this article is to develop a customized software package using C language for medical equipment management appropriate for small-scale hospitals under the umbrella of computerized maintenance management system. Indeed, the developed program covers different phases of medical equipment management including inventory, preventive maintenance, calibration, and repair. The automated system introduces 8 separate windows for management; every window presents its own data that support overall management system. The validation of the developed program was carried out based on a data set of 235 pieces of medical equipment belonging to 7 departments in a general Egyptian hospital. The results point out the convenience and consistency of the developed program.