About[]
Corrective Maintenance is any unscheduled maintenance [i.e. repairs] activity that is required to correct a component failure or system malfunction that has occurred or has intermittently occurred. This repair activity may consist of repairing, restoration or replacement of components or systems used to restore the physical integrity, safety, and/or performance of a medical device after a known or unknown failure via unscheduled work orders. Corrective Maintenance has to be distinguished from preventive maintenance or condition based maintenance because there is no routine scheduled work being performed on a routine basis. [1]
Repairs within the clinical engineering community, the terms “corrective maintenance” or “unscheduled maintenance” are sometimes used to refer to what we call “repair.” Repairs are based on different factors such as, response time, repair time, time and materials, and service contracts. [2]
Benefits[]
There are benefits to performing corrective maintenance on medical devices when there is a historical record of low or no significant levels of patient risk. The benefits to the corrective maintenance can be seen in many areas such as...
- Time
- Cost
The conservative benefit is the amount of time spent for these maintenance tasks can be reduced and technician time can be redirected to moderate and high risk level Medical Device Types (e.g. Ventilators, Defibrillators, Anesthesia). For example, a technician that spends 1 hour travel time, next trying to locate and then finally performing routine maintenance on a "otoscope" can best utilize their time on life saving devices that require immediate routine maintenance attention. Additionally, utilizing the same example the cost per hour is redirected and well spent on higher risk level devices...it's all about priorities and "no significant and some low risk level device types are not as urgent to spend time and money on as it would for devices like Anesthesia, Defibrillators, Electrosurges, etc.
References[]
- ↑ Kwalitegs Web Site. Corrective Maintenance definition. http://www.kwaliteg.co.za/maintenance/corrective%20maintenance.htm
- ↑ UMTSN ECRI Institute, Universal Technology Services Nomenclature Terms and Definitions, 2007, www.ecri.org