The cost of biomedical equipment repair and maintenance: results of a survey

Abstract

The survey presented in this paper shows that for 19 large hospitals the average ratio of equipment repair costs to acquisition cost was 7.4%. In addition, this survey shows that costs such as rent for building space, utilities, and test equipment are not included in many clinical engineering department budgets. This is one reason for the divergent cost data reported by the various hospitals. These costs should be considered particularly for comparisons between in-house service costs and other sources of service. It seems that, of the indicators observed in this survey, equipment acquisition cost provides the best indicator for equipment maintenance costs. All hospital finance officers should have acquisition value information, because this information is used in calculating capital equipment depreciation. This information should also be available to clinical engineers. In addition, procedures need to be set up so that the total annual repair and maintenance costs can be easily obtained from hospital finance departments. Providing the clinical engineer with this type of data will allow further analysis of repair cost and will aid in long-term planning for the hospital. The ratio of equipment repair cost to acquisition value may be useful as a tool to predict future costs of a given hospital's medical equipment maintenance. This tool may also be useful as a measurement of the effectiveness of a change in a hospital's approach to biomedical equipment maintenance. Further work must be done to standardize equipment maintenance cost reporting so that more detailed comparisons can be made.