Hospital Equipment Management in District Base Hospitals in Kalutara District in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Introduction: Medical equipment management is important as human resource management to function a hospital in a maximum capacity. Accurate and comprehensive data are needed in order to have a good equipment management. It has several domains such as, procurement, accept, inspect, install, ensure performance within the accepted standards, safe and effective use, maintenance and service, repair, eventual retirement and disposal. Quality hospital equipment management is also important to reduce accidents caused by improper handling of unsafe equipment to the patients and staff. Objective: To assess the current practice of hospital equipment management in District Base Hospitals (DBHs) in Kalutara District in Sri Lanka. Methodology: This was a hospital based cross sectional descriptive study conducted at the DBHs in Kalutara district in Sri Lanka. All the healthcare managers at different levels engaged in hospital equipment management were included in this study. Results: All hospitals reported lack of efficient equipment management system and all hospitals were found to be without guidelines for procurement of equipment. Most of the hospital departments (85.4%) do not have proper register maintained for equipment maintenance. Only about very few wards (14.6%) had an equipment maintenance register, but all these registers were lacking necessary details. Conclusion and recommendation: The findings of this study revealed that hospitals do not have proper management of their equipment. Processes of equipment management can be re-engineered with implementation of computerized management system to have a good quality hospital equipment management system.