Investigating the medical equipment maintenance practices in selected hospital in Zambia.
The role of medical equipment is crucial for efficient healthcare delivery in any hospital. Physicians rely on equipment for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Therefore, the availability of medical equipment in good working condition and the optimal utilization of the equipment is important in improving the quality of health services. In Zambian hospitals, many pieces of medical equipment are unavailable because they are out of use due to many factors, the major one being poor maintenance. Even though the unavailability of medical equipment has dire consequences to the lives of many Zambians, investigations into its causes are uncommon. Using both qualitative and quantitative approaches, this study investigated the factors that affect medical equipment maintenance and maintenance practices in selected Zambian hospitals. Questionnaires and interviews were the main methods for data collection. Target population that consisted of Nurses and Medical equipment personnel. In total, there were Nurses (35) who only deal with the critical medical equipment at a particular time and Medical equipment personnel (25). The sample size was derived by calculating the sample from the target population. Sampling was done using stratified sampling method and applying Yamane (1967) formula. The study adopted proportionate stratified sampling where the general population was stratified into various groups. The study then distributed the sample size so determined based on the distribution of the population among the strata such that stratum with more elements in had more elements picked compared to stratum with smaller number of elements. The study was based on five major urban hospitals in Zambia are the University Teaching Hospital (UTH), Cancer Diseases Hospital (CDH), Levy Mwanawasa University Teaching Hospital (LMUTH), Kitwe Teaching Hospital (KTH), Ndola Teaching Hospital (NTH) and Livingstone Teaching Hospital (LTH). In this research we consider looking at critical medical equipment in improving the maintenance activities in hospitals. Face validity and content validity were assessed by the experts in the field of medical equipment management. Pretest of all the study instruments were done at UTH. The results obtained were also compared to study that was done by Bahreini et al (2019). The methodology in the study of Bahreini (2019) consisted of the use of document review and interviews as tools for the collection of data and content analysis approach for results interpretation, therefore, the study by the researchers was used for validation of the results because of the similarities in the approach. v Data were analyzed using the content analysis approach to identify the underlying themes and subthemes. The themes identified included: resources, quality control, documentation, education, service and planning. The study established that among the factors affecting maintenance are lack of adequate space, computers, inadequate fund allocation, poor documentation of maintenance activities, and lack of training for medical equipment maintenance personnel and involvement of the medical equipment maintenance personnel in decision-making patterning to medical equipment. To address these factors, improvement in resources provision, quality control, documentation, education, service and medical equipment-related planning must be realized. In this paper, a multi-criteria decision-making analysis model (MCDMA) in solving existing maintenance practices that lead to equipment downtime was adopted. The MDCA approach was used to try and improve the maintenance practices that are wrongly done as found in the factors affecting maintenance. This approach will improve factors such as funding allocation towards spare parts and replacing medical equipment, maintenance prioritization whether PM or CM, training, quality assurance and planning. Keywords: factors affecting maintenance, medical equipment maintenance; maintenance practices; Zambian hospitals, content analysis approach
Medical equipment--Maintenance., Materials Management, Hospital., Equipment and supplies.
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