Influential factors on medical equipment maintenance management In search of a framework

Purpose - Effective maintenance management of medical equipment is one of the major issues for quality of care and cost-effectiveness especially in modern hospitals. An effective medical equipment maintenance management (MEMM) consists of adequate planning, management and implementation. This is essential for providing good health services and saving scarce resources. Considering the importance of the subject, the purpose of this paper is to extract the influential factors on MEMM using a qualitative approach. Design/methodology/approach - Documents review and interviews were main methods for data collection. Semi structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 14 clinical engineers with different degree of education and job levels. Interviews were voice recorded and transcribed verbatim. Qualitative data were analyzed using a content analysis approach (inductive and deductive) to identify the underlying themes and sub-themes. Findings - Factors influencing an effective and efficient MEMM system categorized in seven themes and 19 sub-themes emerged. The themes included: "resources," "quality control," "information bank," "education," "service," inspection and preventive maintenance" and "design and implementation." Originality/value - The proposed framework provides a basis for a comprehensive and accurate assessment of medical equipment maintenance. The findings of this study could be used to improve the profitability of healthcare facilities and the reliability of medical equipment.