Clinical engineering
activity as well as providing resilience across Integrated Care Systems (ICS).
l Cyber security: this refers to the implementation and software security management of all devices.
l Bed management: a centralised and real-time bed management platform helps reduce admission delays, cancellations due to lack of beds, and wasted nursing hours by ensuring the right fully functioning beds are in place.
l Investment in personnel: with an ageing workforce in this specialised industry, a focus on apprenticeships and training is required.
Conclusions The World Health Organization has carried out a significant amount of research on medical devices management. Some areas of interest include: l 65% of 145 countries have an authority responsible for implementing and enforcing medical device specific product regulations.
l 34% of 145 countries have a health technology national policy that is part of the national health programme
l 9% of 145 countries having an independent health technology national policy.
The current culture for clinical technology management and procurement in the UK is improving but still falls far behind many other countries. Unlike many other countries, the UK Government does not have a national Healthcare Technology Management policy. It is important to raise the profile of equipment management to ensure patients are kept safe and clinical technology is used to make the NHS better. With so many necessary clinical governance
regulations and standards, together with the increasing breadth and complexity of equipment, clinical engineering expert advice can support healthcare providers to develop confident medical devices strategies in the delivery of compliant operational services. The key objectives for better device management are: l Financing and managing your equipment replacement programme. l Current and future cost management. l Reducing overall clinical delivery costs. l Reliable equipment replacement forecasting. l Optimisation of investment.
l Improve the patient care experience. l Regular inspection and testing.
l Strategic planning to link data from devices to the electronic patient record.
Figure 8
l Error reduction. l Accurate patient data. l Real-time reporting.
All strategic innovations require investment, and all investment requires approval. Make sure there is a strategic technology plan that underpins the organisation’s clinical direction. Technology is at the very core of NHS plans to deliver transformation, but making these big breakthroughs requires investment in medical equipment, IT infrastructure, and expert advice. Having a clinical technology partner
Ruth Strickland
working with an NHS Trust or across the ICS will support initiatives, enhance productivity and deliver best value. One of the key issues for clinical technology management is the limitation of data available for benchmarking between healthcare providers. This means that an individual organisation or ICS cannot easily compare expenditure; a number of ICSs are now reviewing their approach to managing medical devices across a portfolio of hospitals and this clinical technology management approach would be a welcome and significant change.
CSJ Caroline Finlay
About the Authors
Ruth Strickland and Caroline Finlay are the chief operating officers for MTS Health – leading the equipment advisory and clinical technology management solutions for a team of clinical engineers; MCIPS and CIPS procurement specialists and Prince 2 project managers for the past 25 years. They have advised both the NHS; private hospital sector and delivered international
projects. MTS are delivering clinical engineering services to the NHS and have also equipped over 30 significant hospital build projects. MTS Health, a Sodexo company, is a leading
provider of equipment advisory and clinical technology services to the NHS and private sector. Sodexo delivers healthcare technology management solutions worldwide.
September 2023 I
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