The indispensable component in a flourished hospital (or even a healthcare facility that has just commenced its operations) is the quality of its clinical care. This can be bolstered only by quality and availability of medical equipment used. For the same reason, the hospital planners and medical equipment consultants are on their toes to ensure the prime quality standards.
Hospital equipment planning needs well-crafted planning and orderly execution stages so as to ensure the smooth functioning and efficiency of the hospital. The biggest predicament is the fact that the choice of equipment has to be on the dot. But despite proper planning, the problem permeates to two teething challenges. One, all types of medical equipment are expensive. Two, they become quickly outdated with newer versions arriving in the market. No wonder, the hospital needs to be well-equipped with the latest equipment and also have trained technicians to operate these newest machines. The absence of either of them can trigger a huge collapse which cannot be afforded by the hospital.
Errors in hospital equipment planning cannot be entertained as these can prove costly to the hospital and endanger the lives of patients. This is why hospitals accord special attention to the planning, purchase and installation of their equipment in order to provide precise and perfect quality clinical care to their patients. This is why most hospitals seek the services of expert and professional healthcare consulting firms to guide them in this task of hospital equipment planning.
Given below is a list of probable errors that must be avoided in hospital equipment planning.
Selection of the right equipment
Every professional hospital needs sophisticated medical equipment to provide quality clinical care. But in the enthusiasm to project themselves as a “high-tech” healthcare unit, most hospitals may end up buying equipment they do not really need. What this results is unnecessary overheads and revenue loss. In other scenarios, the hospital compromise on the quality of equipment and opt for second best choice in equipment. This is primarily done to balance their budget. This may cause diagnostic errors or therapeutic errors due to factors like poor resolution, equipment insufficiency etc. Both of these cases must be avoided in a hospital to ensure its service quality.
Hospitals must first perform a need analysis of what equipment they need, make a research of the type of equipment they need, make cost comparisons and finally arrive at the right decision. This taxing job can best be done only by a credible hospital consultancy services in India.
Failure to understand what the equipment’s requirements are
There is a very little margin between buying and handling sophisticated medical equipment. The reason being that the certain imaging, surgical and diagnostic equipment have certain system requirement like lighting, air-conditioning, humidity and temperature control, backup power supply etc. Failure to provide any such requirements can lead to a malfunction or yield erroneous results. The only way to avoid such lapses and mishaps is revising the installation plans.
Lack of training and incorrect usage of the equipment
The use of high-tech medical equipment requires its installation and operation in a prescribed manner. Hospitals have to install and calibrate the equipment as per instruction and also train the technicians and staff of the standard operating procedure. If this training is not provided, equipment may be misused leading to erroneous results and heavy losses.
To avoid such lapses, hospitals entrust the training of technical staff to expert healthcare consulting firms who can handle this task efficiently.
Figure out the ease of availability of equipment
Hospitals must plan the location and accessibility of the equipment in their premises during the hospital planning and execution phase itself. For example, the scanning room is best located close to the operating theatre or the emergency room. This makes it easy to scan the patient’s condition and execute operations without delay. Keeping the equipment accessible to the medical staff makes the process of diagnosis swift and also does not jeopardizes patient’s health.
Lack of planning for supporting structures
By supporting structures, it is meant that the certain medical equipment can be bulky can weigh many frigging tones. Hence, they need a strong structural support in the form of floors and ceilings which have to be doubly-reinforced with steel to withstand the vibration.
Procuring medical equipment for the hospital is an easy task but making optimum use of it without encountering the above errors is only possible with the assistance of a certified healthcare consulting firm.