EQUIPMENT UTILIZATION IN CRITICAL CARE AREAS OF A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL IN PUNE

Equipment has major role in hospital and health care services as an aid to health professionals, in providing efficient diagnostic and therapeutic tools. It helps to make the identification of the disease problem and their accurate and appropriate cure. Modern hospitals utilize a wide range of equipment for diagnostic, therapeutic and research. Many times these instruments are purchased without prior assessment of availability of technical knowledge and facilities for repairs and maintenance. In most of the hospitals biomedical department is available and repairs are done by some technicians, biomedical engineers or it is done by the companies under contract. Any health care unit's efficiency is judged by its quality indicators. The availability and optimal utilization of medical equipment is important for improving the quality of health services. Investments are made for the purchase, maintenance and repair of medical equipment. Inadequate management of this equipment will result in financial losses to the institution. It is generally seen that few of the hospitals in India attempt to evolve their own parameters either taking ideas from the established parameters or from their experience in Indian hospitals. In present study, it was found that, overall process of care was good although there were some grey areas of sub-optimal utilization of resources.