Using GETS for medical technology management: A drill down case study

This paper presents the application of software for medical technology management in a particular case study. It is outlined the structure of the software and how it can provide proper information on a given technology (Intensive Care Unit Ventilators) and help the Clinical Engineering Team to detect problems and find solutions to minimize the downtime of such life support equipment. We present the analysis of the occurrence of maintenance calls of 125 ventilators with different ages (0-5, 5-10, 10-15, >;15 years). We have found that, although expecting that older equipment should need more servicing, brand new ventilators presented an increasing number of calls even though when in the warranty period requiring manufacturers staff visiting and/or taking the equipment to their facilities in order to solve the problems. This have impacted on the execution time and overall CE staff performance that, with GETS data information in hand, was able to look for the best solution through negotiation with manufacturers´ technical staff. Although data presented is related to ventilators, it became clear that GETS is an unquestionable tool for proper technology management in Brazilian hospitals. It is expected that it be freely distributed for public hospitals and allow regulatory agencies and government organs to perform public policies based on real data coming from hospitals and clinical units.