The benefit of in-hospital clinical engineer services for medical devices maintenance

Abstract

Medical devices play a very important role in the medical services of hospital system. With the advance of medical device technology, physicians could make more effective diagnosis according to physiological information from kinds of modern medical equipment. Therefore, to ensure the quality of medical service procedure, patient safety, and medical equipment maintenance, including tests, repair etc., have been major tasks and missions in clinical engineering departments in hospitals or medical centers. This research investigated different benefit in medical device repair service and maintenance provided by internal clinical engineering specialists and service outsourcing. Cost-benefit analysis was applied for actual clinical engineering operation system in hospitals to present a great influence on system cost control from the clinical engineer.