HCB News: What is the relationship between AEM and the hospital's computerized maintenance management system (CMMS)?
SK: A CMMS provides the objective data, both about the asset and the maintenance activity, needed to support any decision related to an AEM program. This includes the initial decision to move something to an AEM, as well as the constant monitoring and validation needed to support keeping the devices on an AEM or to alter or remove it. The data leveraged out of the CMMS can be different based on the organization's policy and procedures; PM failure rates, mean time between failures, age of new medical equipment, and risk scoring within the AEM program are just some of the aspects of supporting information that I have seen biomedical engineering and HTM departments indicate as their AEM criteria.
HCB News: Last time we spoke, you mentioned alternative equipment maintenance was going to a big topic at the annual NCBA conference. What did attendees have to say?
SK: The AEM topic crept into a lot of discussions across the conference, both in classes and networking conversations. One big focus on it was a panel discussion from four leaders at different healthcare organizations. While goals for the organizations were similar, especially around patient safety, risk mitigation, and effective resource planning, approaches proved to be unique in their workflows, hospital committee engagement, and scoring criteria/thresholds. However, a common theme among them was a desire to the leverage the knowledge from each other and the rest of the NCBA organization. While they have all thought through how to best implement these policies and procedures in their own environments they welcomed challenges to their methods in order to correct mistakes and increase the dependability of their programs.
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