Setting up a clinical engineering department.
The problems of cost, personnel qualifications, task assignment, and productivity involved in establishing a clinical engineering department are addressed in this paper. A basic department consisting of a Clinical Engineer, a Biomedical Equipment Technician, a Testing Technician and a Clerical Assistant can provide a full range of clinical engineering services to a hospital with 225 instruments. The annual cost of such a department, including materials, would be approximately $90,000. The average capital investment in a selection of 225 instruments would be on the order of $860,000. This paper discusses levels of skills within a clinical engineering department, and the services that a hospital could expect from a four-man department.
D001698:Biomedical Engineering / Q000592:standards*; D003237:Connecticut; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D006744:Hospital Bed Capacity, 100 to 299; D008284:Maintenance and Engineering, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012456:Salaries and Fringe Benefits