Managing medical equipment in public hospitals

Nineteen of the State’s 91 public hospitals were covered in the audit and around 4 300 items of medical equipment were examined. The total replacement cost of the equipment items examined in August 2002 was $252 million ($144 million for 3 common hospital presentations; $108 million for major equipment).

The examinations of medical equipment focused on two groups: five of the most costly items of equipment (e.g. magnetic resonance imaging systems and computed tomography scanners) which perform complex diagnostic and treatment functions and are expensive to acquire, and the less costly but essential items used in nearly all hospitals for the treatment of three common conditions—heart attack, chest pain and hip replacement (e.g. infusion pumps, physiologic monitoring systems and ventilators). While the majority of items used by the 19 hospitals visited in the treatment of heart attack, chest pain and hip replacement were examined, a small number were not as they were in use at the time of our visit.

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