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Life in the Fast Lane • LITFL • Medical Blog

Emergency medicine and critical care medical education blog

Critical Care Compendium | New Equipment Purchasing

New Equipment Purchasing

by Chris Nickson, Last updated June 9, 2014

OVERVIEW

Important issues:

  • Assess need
  • Determine specific model
  • Funding
  • Purchase and implementation
  • Education
  • Assess benefits

ASSESS NEED

  • What purpose will equipment serve
  • How many required
  • Inadequacies or lack of current equipment
  • Who made the request for replacement and what are their specific concerns

DETERMINE SPECIFIC MODEL

Features

  • Functions
  • Size
  • Availability of upgrades
  • Compatibility with other equipment in department/institution
  • Compliance with National standards, Health policy and Hospital policy
  • User friendly

Support

  • Training
  • Warranty (replacement or fix on site)
  • Service commitments
  • Access to parts

Cost

  • Establish best value model for department’s requirements

FUNDING

  • Include in departmental annual budget (for replacement of items only)
  • Apply for special funding
    — Formal application for tied grant
  • Institution
  • Local government
    — Provide cost-benefit analysis

PURCHASE AND IMPLEMENTATION

  • Delivery
  • Physical implementation
    — Brackets, power supply, safety issues
    — Location in department

EDUCATION

  • Education of nursing and medical staff
    — By manufacturer
    — Ongoing education by senior nursing and medical staff
  • Regular updates and revision
    — Implementation into quality assurance loop
  • Continuous data retrieval
  • Review and revise

ASSESS BENEFITS

Audit

  • Number of times used
  • Adverse outcomes
  • Equipment malfunction

Satisfaction surveys

  • Staff
  • Patient

Cost-benefit analysis

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About Chris Nickson

FCICM FACEM BSc(Hons) BHB MBChB MClinEpid(ClinTox) DipPaeds DTM&H GCertClinSim

Chris is an Intensivist at the Alfred ICU in Melbourne and is an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor at Monash University. He is also the Innovation Lead for the Australian Centre for Health Innovation and the Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) Education Committee. He has a passion for helping clinicians learn and for improving the clinical performance of individuals and collectives. After finishing his medical degree at the University of Auckland, he continued post-graduate training in New Zealand as well as Australia's Northern Territory, Perth and Melbourne. He has since completed further training in emergency medicine, clinical toxicology, clinical epidemiology and health professional education. He coordinates the Alfred ICU's education and simulation programmes and runs the unit’s education website, INTENSIVE. He created the 'Critically Ill Airway' course and teaches on numerous courses around the world. He is one of the founders of the FOAM movement (Free Open-Access Medical education) and is co-creator of Lifeinthefastlane.com, the RAGE podcast, the Resuscitology course, and the SMACC conference. His one great achievement is being the father of two amazing children. On Twitter, he is @precordialthump.

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