Modeling Clinical Engineering Activities to Support HealthCare Technology Management

Biomedical technology is a valuable asset of healthcare facilities. It is now universally accepted that, to assure patient safety, medical devices must be correctly managed and used, and that the quality of healthcare delivery is related to the suitability of the available technology. The activities that guarantee a proper management are carried on by the people working on a Clinical Engineering (CE) Department. In the chapter we describe a model to estimate the number of clinical engineers and biomedical equipment technicians (BMET) that will constitute the Clinical engineering department staff. The model is based on the activities to be simulated, the characteristics of the healthcare facility, and the experience of human resources. Our model is an important tool to be used to start a Clinical engineering department or to evaluate the performances of an existing one. It was used by managers of Regione Piemonte to start a regional network of Clinical engineering departments.