Preventive Maintenance Optimization in Healthcare Domain: Status of Research and Perspective

Abstract

Although medical equipment maintenance has been carefully managed for years, very few in-depth studies have been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of these implemented preventive maintenance strategies, especially after the debate about the credibility of manufacturer's recommendations has increased in the clinical engineering community. Facing the dilemma of merely following manufactures maintenance manual or establishing an evidence-based maintenance, medical equipment maintenance could have exploited an advanced area in operations research which is maintenance optimization research. In this paper, we review and examine carefully the status of application oriented research on preventive maintenance optimization of medical devices. This study addresses preventive healthcare maintenance with a focus on factors influencing the maintenance decision making. The analysis is structured by defining different aspects necessary to construct a maintenance optimization model. We conclusively propose directions to develop suitable tools for better healthcare maintenance management.