Pre-purchase Evaluation Research Articles

Vendor Profile Analysis

This article describes a modified weighted point model for aiding decision makers with the prepurchase evaluation of vendors. Referred to as vendor profile analysis (VPA), the model is designed for use on microcomputers employing spread sheet software, such as Lotus 1‐2‐3 and Symphony. The power of VPA stems from its use of the Monte Carlo simulation technique for modeling the uncertainty associated with predicting vendor performance on evaluative criteria. The use of Monte Carlo simulation simplifies decision makers' input to the evaluation model and provides output that contains considerably more information upon which to base purchase decisions than do standard weighted point decision models.

Focus on: SUNY Health Center at Brooklyn Scientific & Medical Instrumentation Center.

The Scientific and Medical Instrumentation Center (SMIC) is the clinical engineering program serving the State University of New York's Health Science Center at Brooklyn. SMIC is a separate department within the center's 354-bed University Hospital, and provides many instrumentation support services for the hospital and the center's Basic Sciences Division. Now in its 24th year, SMIC developed the nation's first mandatory initial checkout program for patient care equipment, and in 1973 published the results of a funded pilot preventive maintenance program; this served as a model for the start-up of other PM programs in hospitals across the country and overseas. Today, this 35-person department is primarily responsible for some 7,000 units used in over 60 University Hospital departments and clinics. With its interdisciplinary expertise, SMIC also provides the hospital with many other instrumentation services, including prepurchase evaluation and review, and on-site emergency instrumentation service. SMIC also develops unique devices and instruments for the center's researchers, from the prototype stage through to final construction, and may modify instruments for increased safety and efficacy.

The practical value of computer literacy: 2. Troubleshooting computerized imaging equipment.

Computers are a central component of all the newer imaging methods available to the medical imager. It is obvious that the radiologist with an understanding of computer science will have an advantage in dealing with this equipment. In part 1 of this series [1 ], the value of computer literacy in the prepurchase evaluation of imaging equipment was discussed. This article will deal with the daily troubleshooting of computerized machines. Nothing is more exasperating than having a million-dollar machine idle for half a day while waiting for the service engineer to arrive from some distant site, or having to abort an examination because of computer failure, especially when the patient has already been injected with contrast material. This article illustrates how computer literacy allows the radiologist to troubleshoot equipment, and fix many hardware and software “glitches.” While the radiologist cannot be expected to make complex repairs, our experience has shown that a significant number of breakdowns are due to relatively simple problems. When these occur, the radiologist with an understanding of computers can often rapidly bring equipment back to function without calling a repairman. This may result in decreased cost, as well as more rapid patient throughput. This paper gives examples of how a knowledge of cornputers is valuable to the radiologist in his everyday practice. Most simple hardware repairs are best learned from the field service engineers who are called when the machine is “down.” Minor hardware problems are often recurrent, and the radiologist who takes an active interest in these problems can gain enough knowledge to fix them rapidly. Several examples are detailed below. The acquisition of software literacy is somewhat more difficult. Courses and books on the fundamentals of computer programming are ubiquitous. Those interested in developing computer literacy should begin with a home computer and a good basic course in programming. In particular, attention should be paid to the methods by which computers handle files, as file-handling errors are the most common software problems encountered in imaging systems.

Biomedical maintenance--what's it worth to you?

Abstract How much money did your hospital spend on biomedical maintenance and repairs last year? With whom did you spend it? For what? How much was spent on labor and for how many hours? How about parts and travel costs? Did you get your money's worth? Is your maintenance program complete? Is every department complying with the requirements of the Joint Commission and/or other regulatory bodies? Is your approach to electrical safety too much? Too little? Are major clinical equipment purchases made with prepurchase evaluation and foresight, or do you find yourself doing some second-guessing far too often?

Equipment Maintenance

Basic to the success of the perinatal intensive care unit is a cooperative liasion between the medical and nursing staff and the clinical engineering staff. To this end the functions of the clinical engineering staff are preventive maintenance, inventory documentation, pre-purchase evaluation, emergency repair, personnel education, and management integration.