Analysis of the maintenance process and useful life of echocardiography equipment: An experience in a teaching hospital

Abstract

Introduction

Echocardiography is a diagnostic tool that is increasingly used in clinical practice in different medical scenarios; however, the preventive (PM) or corrective maintenance (CM) care and processes for this equipment are still poorly standardized. To describe the maintenance process currently implemented for echocardiographic equipment (ECHO) in a medium-sized laboratory in a tertiary-level public teaching hospital. The description of the process includes damage characterization and MP and MC implementation.

Methods

This was a descriptive and exploratory single-center observational study. Data on the maintenance process of echocardiographic equipment were obtained from electronic files from the hospital’s equipment management system between 2003 and 2018.

Results

Together with the description of the equipment maintenance process, the ten most common types of malfunctions were identified, including software (23.8%), parts (23.1%), and power outage and accessory damage (13.8%). The implementation of the PM process significantly decreased the maintenance costs (USD 44,472.10 vs USD 25,807.59, p = 0.029). Even after the MP, the CM costs related to transesophageal echocardiography equipment (TEE) (USD 7,789.17) were higher than those with other equipment modalities (USD 3,184.37 for transthoracic echocardiography equipment (TTE) and USD 1,813.00 for stress testing).

Conclusion

The maintenance process for ECHO equipment was described. ECHO equipment damage has high costs, especially in special modalities such as TEE. PM significantly reduced maintenance costs.