Posted by Ken Carlisle, 6/2/2010 9:21:27 AM

We go strictly by UOS

Posted by vsarmiento, 6/7/2010 5:54:30 AM

Having some management, background, and coupled with a strong technological knowledge related to the biomed / clinical world is a must. Together with an actual hands-on or application experience and good inter-personal abilities will make your life easier when tackling this objective. This was derived from my own personal experience.
a. I used the equipment inventory as the main trigger, and for the justification.
b. Define all tasks associated for the proper functionality and device operation
c. Determine the required # or frequency of preventive maintenance for each device type. This can be as manufacturer recommended or usage or experience based.
d. With the exception of User / application problems, Add all recorded /experience-based frequency of equipment breakdowns for each group of devices.
e. Divide or group the inventory according to device types or criticality of use.
f. Conduct time and motion studies on complex devices, utilizing an average performing technicians.  Also consider the time spent when the same piece of device was serviced by 3rd party or by a manufacturer eng’r.  Take note of the average time required to finish a particular task. You can also conduct a survey on how much time other biomed groups have experienced.
g. Now consider to add the different regulatory / accreditation requirements pertaining to certain types of devices, i.e., blood warmers, mammography units, developers, injectors, dialysis, etc.
h. At this point you should already have arrived to a #’s of minimum man-hours required for the year.
i. Take into consideration the present culture prevailing in your dept. as well as the institution in general.  Administration support and funding are going to be next in your agenda.  It is doable!

Conduct / initiate a customer satisfaction survey for the department, targeting all clinical staff of the hospital. Make an assessment on your present available manpower in the dept. Consider all the weaknesses as well as the strengths.  Based on this assessment, make plans to adjust your areas of responsibilities, either to take more areas or hire more technically competent individuals. Develop and plan on improving your hiring and screening criteria practices to enable you to satisfactory meet present as well as future responsibilities.  

Posted by Jonathan Lee, HEM, 6/9/2010 8:24:32 AM

Here is a way to determine an individual's work load.  It is based on available hours and percentage of efficency.  

      Annual Hrs  Efficiency  
Available  2080  100%  
Holidays    80    
Vacations    80    
Sick            48    
Personal    48    
Breaks           130    
Net Available  1694  81.4%  

Efficiency   Annual Hrs  Hrs Per Week  Hrs Per Day
90% of Net    1524.6     29.3              5.9
80% of Net    1355.2     26.1              5.2
70% of Net    1185.8     22.8              4.6

We are given the same amount of available hours based on a 52 weeks x 8 hrs days = 2080 hours.  Take away vacations, holidays, sick, personal and breaks (15 mins x 2 x 5) x 52.  The net available hours is now down to 1694 (81.4% efficiency).  One can then apply their level of expected efficiency for their working staff (see example above).  In my experience, I have not seen anyone with 100% efficiency.  

Once you have calculated your expected efficiency, then apply the inventory and the anticipated task hours for each piece of equipment.  You should come out with a fairly close number of task hours required for the inventory.  Based on that, you can figure out the staffing requirement.  Keep in mind, that this is calculated and not actual.  Figure in repairs, emergencies, etc.

Do not forget clerical and management hours.  They are not calculated into the formulas.  

Posted by Justine, 6/9/2010 12:58:08 PM

I share the ideas of Jonathan but just want to add something. His computation of the efficiency is correct when applied with the anticipated task but want to note with the repairs and emergencies. These events are considered as contingencies and may be included as a percentage of error with a plus or minus.

Posted by Sallu, 6/22/2010 10:03:05 AM

Hi, Colleagues,
I think by using GE AssetPlus, we can swimply distrubute workload between staff in a timely basis.
Thanks & regards,
Sallu