Medical Equipment Acquisition - Essay Example

Dissertation Proposal _______________________ Program of Study: _____________ Topic: Medical Equipments Acquisition Introduction The process of acquiring medical equipments is very technical in nature. As we know, that health and life care is associated with these equipments. For this reason, professionals are required to carry out the whole process with great care and efficiency. In the most developing countries, great number of professionals takes part in purchasing plan of acquiring equipments. But some times, artificial neural networks are applied for the acquisition of medical equipments due to the absence of professionals. This network helps in decision-making process as it measures the functional and pattern approximation of equipments. Through this model, the physical risk, cost, and importance of particular equipment are calculated. Later, the results are re-calculated by the clinical engineers. The engineers consider five main factors in the acquisition of useful and required equipments that include: clinical, technical, safety, financial and quality. The neural network model is 85% reliable in acquisition of equipments (Magjarevic, 3786) The method of practical and administration requirement gathering is a traditional structure of acquisition procedure. The majority of medical institutes around the globe are still using this structure. If experienced management team is not engaged with the equipment operation process then the suppliers do not fill all the requirements that are specifically associated with the procurement contract of equipments. To reduce the risk, computational tools are developed to provide support for the acquisition of medical equipments. Also guidelines are provided to the professionals to evaluate the outcomes. (Magjarevic, 3786) 2. Literature Review Medical Equipment Management Medical equipment management is not only concerned with the maintenance of equipments like repair of equipments or maintenance cost. It is also concerned with the entire life-cycle services of the patient. SMIC is one of those management programs, which deals with the acquisition, and procurement of medical equipments. SMIC services make plans for the purchasing of equipments and fulfill the formalities according to the law of Safe Medical Devices Act. SMIC takes decisions of acquisition of equipments on the basis of several steps. It also includes equipment evaluation like pre-purchase evaluation and after that this management system makes some particular specifications for the equipments when the purchase review has taken place. The management also goes for vendor selection and bid analysis. It involves fixing planning, equipment testing for approval, defect resolution, user in service learning, selection of equipment service provider, equipment replacement and maintenance analysis and removal. Another purpose of this management is to reduce the cost in acquisition of equipments. Reducing down time of the equipment and consequential lost patient returns can save money. Replacement process is also involved in acquiring of equipments because if the equipment is failed and do not meet the requirements then the equipment should be replaced by the service provider. Standardization of equipments also matters in acquisition. Changes in equipment devices are made on daily basis like new equipments are purchased and old equipments are discarded by the hospitals and medical centers. So it has been noticed that management should be effective enough to play major roles in acquisition of medical equipments. (Dyro, 20) Procurement of Equipments Procurement involves replacement of defected equipments, and to acquire new technology and specialized equipments for various clinical and medical awareness programs. It helps to improve the medical facilities. Standards of equipments should be fixed otherwise quality of procured instruments would be affected. There are several issues, which are associated with the medical institutes for the procurement of equipments. Academic medical centers should upgrade their traditional and complex decision making processes. It is the responsibility of the management in those institutes to make their students aware of medical equipments and medical practices. (Iglehart, 409) Students are being made eligible for primary practices in medical universities and colleges. For this reason, some institutes reform their management structures and systems according to the requirements of new medical demands. As we know that technology changes very rapidly, so in this way traditional management system is not able-bodied to take decisions for the acquisitions of medical equipments and procurement in institutes. The medical centers are spending major portion of their revenues in acquisition of medical equipments for the practice of their students as well as to facilitate their patients by providing them best services. Replacement policies are much focused in the process of acquisition of equipments to minimize the cost and to prevent the medical centers from severe loss. (Iglehart, 410) As we have studied that the doctors are always busy with the patients and cannot manage time to make proper specifications about the required equipments. So, time is wasted in the purchase of medical equipments. The cycle of procurement of equipments takes time to be completed as it starts from specification and then end at purchasing and replacement strategies. If the specifications have some deficiency then the results would be worst because the whole process is directly concerned with the health care activities and patients would be suffered due to negligence. It is necessary to always review the specifications, fulfill the required documentation and consider the environmental and health issues with the required equipment. Team of bio-engineers and doctors should be developed by the management to fix the standards of equipments. IT consultants should be linked with the procurement management system. It will help to take decisions without wasting time. In the end, alternatives should be focused very seriously in case of failure of any equipment. (Dssel & Schlegel, 51) Problem Statement By observing the above details, we are now able to develop the problem statement of the proposal. The proposal is dealing with the acquisition of medical equipments. There are so many factors, which should be considered when acquiring any equipment. In the paper, we are trying to find out the risks associated with the acquisition process. The complications and specifications of equipments measured properly by the team of professionals. The procurement process in medical institutions is also discussed in this paper. The problem statement for this study is formulated as: 'What are the basic materials and equipments required in the hospitals and medical centers around the globe' Research Methodology The research on the topic has started by a complete review about the relevant literature. In the beginning, the basic information is focused in the acquisition of equipments. The paper will discuss the procedures adapted by the professional while acquiring equipments. The report will also discuss about the management involve in the procurement of medical institutes. Analytical methods and factors involves in decision making process will also be highlighted in this proposal. Finally, this paper will discuss the methods through which the cost of these equipments can be minimized and specifications which are associated with the procurement of medical equipments. Works Cited Dyro, Joseph. Clinical Engineering Handbook. New York: Academic Press, 2004. Iglehart, John. "Rapid changes for academic medical centers." The New England journal of medicine 332 (6): 407-412. Magjarevic, Ratko. World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering 2006. New York: Springer, 2008. Dossel, Olaf & Schlegal, Wolfgang. World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering 7-12 September 2009 Munich, Germany. Chennai: Springer, 2009 Read More