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With more than 1,500 types of equipment in your inventory and almost 20 technicians on staff to maintain them, how do you make sure that each technician is doing the right things every time he or she touches a piece of equipment? Biomeds at The Reading Hospital and Medical Center in Reading, PA, focus on working smarter by developing model-specific inspection procedures for every type of equipment as it enters their facility, and then using and updating those procedures at every opportunity.
What started as a group effort nearly 30 years ago has evolved into a mainstay of their operation. The procedures help to ensure the safety of their devices and efficiency of their operations even as equipment inventories balloon, inspection intervals change, and budgets tighten.
Challenge
Mike Kauffrnan, assistant director of facilities at Reading Hospital, joined the staff as a biomed in 1980. "We quickly realized that we needed to define the process of inspecting equipment," he says. Early on, his group launched an effort to write model-specific preventive maintenance (PM)/performance assurance procedures for all equipment. For nearly 30 years, these inspection procedures have evolved along with the equipment.
More equipment has meant more procedures. "In the early days, there were only about 250 types of equipment in the inventory," he says. "As equipment inventories grew, so did the number of procedures maintained by the department."
The procedures remain valuable today, even though inspection philosophies have changed dramatically through the years. "Thirty years ago, we inspected every device four times a year," says Kauffrnan. "Then we went to twice a year, then once, then graduated to inspections on an 'as needed' basis. Now, 30% of equipment doesn't get inspected at all once in service and runs to failure."
Yet, even with changing PM schedules, inspections are still performed on every piece of incoming equipment and again after repairs. Test parameters are recorded for future use in case of equipment problems.
Solution
Today, a department-wide effort is used to develop and maintain effective inspection procedures. Chuck Donmoyer is the lead biomedical technician and front-line supervisor for biomed at Reading Hospital. He manages the writing of model-specific PM/performance assurance inspection procedures as part of the new equipment inspection process. This step is completed for all equipment...