New Equipment Purchasing
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
Critical Care
Compendium
Chris is an Intensivist and ECMO specialist at the Alfred ICU in Melbourne. He is also a Clinical Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University. He is a co-founder of the Australia and New Zealand Clinician Educator Network (ANZCEN) and is the Lead for the ANZCEN Clinician Educator Incubator programme. He is on the Board of Directors for the Intensive Care Foundation and is a First Part Examiner for the College of Intensive Care Medicine. He is an internationally recognised Clinician Educator with 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 completed fellowship training in both intensive care medicine and emergency medicine, as well as post-graduate training in biochemistry, clinical toxicology, clinical epidemiology, and health professional education.
He is actively involved in in using translational simulation to improve patient care and the design of processes and systems at Alfred Health. 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 litfl.com, the RAGE podcast, the Resuscitology course, and the SMACC conference.
His one great achievement is being the father of three amazing children.
On Twitter, he is @precordialthump.
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