ACCE-CEASA Collaboration Webinar

TOPIC:  Evidence-Based Maintenance

SPEAKER:  Binseng Wang (ScD, CCE, fAIMBE, fACCE)

Vice President, Sodexo Clinical Technology Management LLC Chair, ACCE’s International Committee

Binseng Wang’s personal website (click to open)

Binseng Wang’s Amazon author page (click to open)

After dispelling the initial false claims of medical equipment harming patients through electric shocks, the Clinical Engineering (CE) community spent decades attempting to develop rational methods to develop cost-effective equipment maintenance programs.  Analyses of data collected in the USA and UK have proven that the amount of patient incidents caused by improper maintenance is much lower than the Six Sigma quality level sought by world-class manufacturing companies.  Nevertheless, some government agencies and manufacturers are still skeptical that it is possible to maintain equipment safely and effectively without following strictly manufacturers’ recommendations.  Several methods of planning and evaluating maintenance strategies have been proposed and tested with limited success, such as Risk-Based Criteria and Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM).  A new method, called Evidence-Based Maintenance (EBM), has been developed in the last several years.  It is defined as “[a] continual improvement process that analyzes the effectiveness of maintenance resources deployed in comparison to outcomes achieved previously or elsewhere, and makes necessary adjustments to maintenance planning and implementation.”  EBM treats each piece of medical equipment as a “black box” and uses the classical scientific method of detecting different outcomes caused by varying inputs to establish the most appropriate maintenance strategy.  By comparing the failures causes found during repairs and scheduled maintenance (outcomes) after the adoption of different maintenance strategies (inputs), CE professionals can find the least resource intensive maintenance strategy without sacrificing equipment safety and reliability.  This process is analogous to the “cohort studies” used in Evidence-Based Medicine, thus the similar name.  Results of EBM studies in the USA and Europe have confirmed that most manufacturers’ recommendations are excessive and unnecessary and, thus it is possible to obtain appreciable reductions in labor and parts costs.

RSVP admin@ceasa.org.za as soon as possible

Zoom details

https://zoom.us/j/92332219724?pwd=TEJ2ZkN6Z3M0S0dxMm1kclBJRUJBdz09

Meeting ID: 923 3221 9724

Passcode: 383988