PLYMOUTH MEETING, PA - ECRI Institute, a nonprofit that researches the best approaches to improving patient care, announces a new membership service to help administrators, materials managers, and clinical engineering departments evaluate key medical equipment management activities.

The new online system, BiomedicalBenchmark™, provides a set of tools to assess, manage, and improve the efficiency of biomedical services. Comparative benchmarking data from ECRI Institute and healthcare facilities, along with guidance articles and inspection and preventive maintenance (IPM) procedures, are among the main components of the Web-based system.

Benchmarking, the practice of comparing activities and performance levels in order to identify areas needing improvement, can ultimately help clinical engineering groups weed out ineffective processes and focus efforts on the activities that most effectively support patient care and safety goals.
"An effective benchmarking program is all about continuous quality improvement. Getting it right can have a significant impact on cost, efficiency of operations, and overall patient safety," says James P. Keller, Jr., vice president, health technology evaluation and safety, ECRI Institute. "Our new Web tool will provide hospitals with the data they need to identify areas for improvement and measure performance over time. We've also included an extensive set of clinical engineering best practices and procedures that can be used to help hospitals efficiently improve their operations without having to reinvent the wheel."

Users of BiomedicalBenchmark can access and share data about equipment acquisition cost, service contract cost, expected life, failure rates, and clinical engineering department composition.

In addition to comparative data, BiomedicalBenchmark includes a library of inspection and preventive maintenance procedures for 82 medical devices. The system's procedures can be used "as is" or be modified to fit specific facility needs. Members of the system also benefit by having access to "user-generated," model-specific procedures. Sample procedures are being offered at www.ecri.org/biomedicalbenchmark.

For more information, please visit www.ecri.org/biomedicalbenchmark, or contact ECRI Institute by e-mail at clientservices(at)ecri.org; by telephone at +1 (610) 825-6000, ext. 5891; or by mail at 5200 Butler Pike, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462.

About ECRI Institute
ECRI Institute, a nonprofit organization, dedicates itself to bringing the discipline of applied scientific research to healthcare to uncover the best approaches to improving patient care. As pioneers in this science for 40 years, ECRI Institute marries experience and independence with the objectivity of evidence-based research. ECRI Institute is designated a Collaborating Center of the World Health Organization and an Evidence-based Practice Center by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

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