Answering questions of patient safety

NHS hospitals, like many other hospitals worldwide, face fundamental questions of patient safety, budgetary limits, and the ever-increasing availability of medical technology. Healthcare technology procurement, use, maintenance, and management policy is a serious issue recognised by research undertaken worldwide. Some of the critical literature discussing ‘healthcare technology issues’ come from the National Audit Office, the National Patient Safety Agency, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and the World Health Organization.

Healthcare technology management is an extremely complex area within NHS hospitals covering the procurement, training, maintenance and governance of medical devices ranging from magnetic resonance imagers (MRI) to simple thermometers.

Many different professionals from within the hospital must interact to ensure they select and use devices to deliver quality health services – whether they are from the procurement department buying devices, clinical departments using devices, maintenance departments repairing and maintaining the devices, or the governance department ensuring compliance with internal policies and external regulations.