Cargando…
Effect of deploying biomedical equipment technician on the functionality of medical equipment in the government hospitals of rural Nepal
BACKGROUND: Medical equipment plays a crucial role in the provision of quality healthcare services, despite this more than 50% of equipment in developing countries are non-functioning due to a lack of appropriate human resources to maintain. To address this problem some government hospitals of Nepal...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2022
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8895523/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35246155 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12960-022-00719-y |
_version_ | 1784662944127123456 |
---|---|
author | Thapa, Rita Yih, Alison Chauhan, Ashish Poudel, Salomi Singh, Sagar Shrestha, Suresh Tamang, Suresh Shrestha, Rishav Rajbhandari, Ruma |
author_facet | Thapa, Rita Yih, Alison Chauhan, Ashish Poudel, Salomi Singh, Sagar Shrestha, Suresh Tamang, Suresh Shrestha, Rishav Rajbhandari, Ruma |
author_sort | Thapa, Rita |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Medical equipment plays a crucial role in the provision of quality healthcare services, despite this more than 50% of equipment in developing countries are non-functioning due to a lack of appropriate human resources to maintain. To address this problem some government hospitals of Nepal have deployed a mid-level technical cadre called 'Biomedical Equipment Technician' (BMET). This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of deploying a BMET on the functionality of medical equipment in government hospitals of rural Nepal. METHODS: We used a mixed-methods approach with a comparative research design. A comprehensive range of 2189 pieces of medical equipment at 22 hospitals with and without BMET were observed to assess their functional status. Medical equipment were stratified into 6 categories based on department and T tests were conducted. We collected qualitative data from 9 BMETs, 22 medical superintendents, and 22 health staff using semi-structured interviews and focus-group discussions. Thematic content analysis was conducted to explore how the BMET's work was perceived. FINDINGS: The quantity of non-functional devices in hospitals without BMETs was double that of hospitals with BMETs (14% and 7% respectively, p < 0.005). Results were similar across all departments including General (16% versus 3%, p = 0.056), Lab (15% versus 7%, p < 0.005) and Operation Theater (14% versus 5%, p < 0.005). Hospitals with BMETs had fewer overall non-functional devices requiring simple or advanced repair compared to hospitals without BMETs [3% versus 7% (p < 0.005) simple; 4% versus 6% (p < 0.005) advanced]. In our qualitative analysis, we found that BMETs were highly appreciated by hospital staff. Hospital workers perceived that having a BMET on staff, rather than twice-yearly visits from central-level maintenance technicians, is an effective way to keep medical equipment functional. However, without a favorable working environment, the BMET alone cannot perform optimally. CONCLUSIONS: Having a BMET at a rural government hospital has a substantial positive effect on the functional status of medical devices at the hospital. BMETs should be deployed at all rural hospitals to increase the functionality of medical devices, thereby improving the working environment and quality of health services provided. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12960-022-00719-y. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8895523 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-88955232022-03-10 Effect of deploying biomedical equipment technician on the functionality of medical equipment in the government hospitals of rural Nepal Thapa, Rita Yih, Alison Chauhan, Ashish Poudel, Salomi Singh, Sagar Shrestha, Suresh Tamang, Suresh Shrestha, Rishav Rajbhandari, Ruma Hum Resour Health Research BACKGROUND: Medical equipment plays a crucial role in the provision of quality healthcare services, despite this more than 50% of equipment in developing countries are non-functioning due to a lack of appropriate human resources to maintain. To address this problem some government hospitals of Nepal have deployed a mid-level technical cadre called 'Biomedical Equipment Technician' (BMET). This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of deploying a BMET on the functionality of medical equipment in government hospitals of rural Nepal. METHODS: We used a mixed-methods approach with a comparative research design. A comprehensive range of 2189 pieces of medical equipment at 22 hospitals with and without BMET were observed to assess their functional status. Medical equipment were stratified into 6 categories based on department and T tests were conducted. We collected qualitative data from 9 BMETs, 22 medical superintendents, and 22 health staff using semi-structured interviews and focus-group discussions. Thematic content analysis was conducted to explore how the BMET's work was perceived. FINDINGS: The quantity of non-functional devices in hospitals without BMETs was double that of hospitals with BMETs (14% and 7% respectively, p < 0.005). Results were similar across all departments including General (16% versus 3%, p = 0.056), Lab (15% versus 7%, p < 0.005) and Operation Theater (14% versus 5%, p < 0.005). Hospitals with BMETs had fewer overall non-functional devices requiring simple or advanced repair compared to hospitals without BMETs [3% versus 7% (p < 0.005) simple; 4% versus 6% (p < 0.005) advanced]. In our qualitative analysis, we found that BMETs were highly appreciated by hospital staff. Hospital workers perceived that having a BMET on staff, rather than twice-yearly visits from central-level maintenance technicians, is an effective way to keep medical equipment functional. However, without a favorable working environment, the BMET alone cannot perform optimally. CONCLUSIONS: Having a BMET at a rural government hospital has a substantial positive effect on the functional status of medical devices at the hospital. BMETs should be deployed at all rural hospitals to increase the functionality of medical devices, thereby improving the working environment and quality of health services provided. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12960-022-00719-y. BioMed Central 2022-03-04 /pmc/articles/PMC8895523/ /pubmed/35246155 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12960-022-00719-y Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
spellingShingle | Research Thapa, Rita Yih, Alison Chauhan, Ashish Poudel, Salomi Singh, Sagar Shrestha, Suresh Tamang, Suresh Shrestha, Rishav Rajbhandari, Ruma Effect of deploying biomedical equipment technician on the functionality of medical equipment in the government hospitals of rural Nepal |
title | Effect of deploying biomedical equipment technician on the functionality of medical equipment in the government hospitals of rural Nepal |
title_full | Effect of deploying biomedical equipment technician on the functionality of medical equipment in the government hospitals of rural Nepal |
title_fullStr | Effect of deploying biomedical equipment technician on the functionality of medical equipment in the government hospitals of rural Nepal |
title_full_unstemmed | Effect of deploying biomedical equipment technician on the functionality of medical equipment in the government hospitals of rural Nepal |
title_short | Effect of deploying biomedical equipment technician on the functionality of medical equipment in the government hospitals of rural Nepal |
title_sort | effect of deploying biomedical equipment technician on the functionality of medical equipment in the government hospitals of rural nepal |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8895523/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35246155 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12960-022-00719-y |
work_keys_str_mv | AT thaparita effectofdeployingbiomedicalequipmenttechnicianonthefunctionalityofmedicalequipmentinthegovernmenthospitalsofruralnepal AT yihalison effectofdeployingbiomedicalequipmenttechnicianonthefunctionalityofmedicalequipmentinthegovernmenthospitalsofruralnepal AT chauhanashish effectofdeployingbiomedicalequipmenttechnicianonthefunctionalityofmedicalequipmentinthegovernmenthospitalsofruralnepal AT poudelsalomi effectofdeployingbiomedicalequipmenttechnicianonthefunctionalityofmedicalequipmentinthegovernmenthospitalsofruralnepal AT singhsagar effectofdeployingbiomedicalequipmenttechnicianonthefunctionalityofmedicalequipmentinthegovernmenthospitalsofruralnepal AT shresthasuresh effectofdeployingbiomedicalequipmenttechnicianonthefunctionalityofmedicalequipmentinthegovernmenthospitalsofruralnepal AT tamangsuresh effectofdeployingbiomedicalequipmenttechnicianonthefunctionalityofmedicalequipmentinthegovernmenthospitalsofruralnepal AT shrestharishav effectofdeployingbiomedicalequipmenttechnicianonthefunctionalityofmedicalequipmentinthegovernmenthospitalsofruralnepal AT rajbhandariruma effectofdeployingbiomedicalequipmenttechnicianonthefunctionalityofmedicalequipmentinthegovernmenthospitalsofruralnepal |