2. Implementing depends a lot on the organization and its culture. Does the CMMS system allow for risk scoring to be integrated into the appropriate module (PM, asset, device category, model, etc.)? Does the hospital's Environment of Care committee require that they sign off before any proposed AEM is enabled? Are you only applying this to one shop of five technicians, to thirty technicians across six hospitals, or hundreds that cross state lines in multiple care settings? Communication is critical, and not just within the department but between senior leadership in the organization and subject matter experts. If you have done thorough research in developing the AEM program, the communication about your direction and approach to implementing should be less demanding.

3. Maintaining the AEM program can be one of the easiest or hardest steps, depending on the diligence for standardizing the workflow in the previous two steps. If you have already objectively established the risk scoring, review cycle, and key indicators for the evaluation then maintaining can be just short of autonomous. If there is a lot of subjective input to the program it will be much more difficult to maintain, and likely more stressful when it is evaluated by an internal or external audit, or during a survey. From my conversations with biomed leadership, this is where the biggest opportunity currently lies, with the workflow and procedure for evaluating, but even more so with technology. To have a CMMS flag devices that are crossing certain established thresholds would make maintaining an AEM simple and effective, and avoid the risk of gaps in reviewing.

It is almost mentioned in passing in the CMS requirement, but one of the biggest challenges is to keep all of this work thoroughly documented along the way. Making some of these decisions can come easily, especially to seasoned biomedical engineering and HTM leaders, but keeping it documented, standardized, and organized for presentation and regular review should be at the center of developing and AEM program.

HCB News: What types of equipment are best suited for AEM? Is there anything that is prohibited from AEM?
SK: A couple classifications of equipment first come to mind for items that are best suited for evaluation. An AEM on devices that are found in large quantities in the hospital could have a significant impact if they are found to have minimal risk to patients and others if placed on a lower preventive maintenance frequency or simpler procedure.

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