ORIGINAL PAPER An Intelligent Healthcare Management System: A New Approach in Work-order Prioritization for Medical Equipment Maintenance Requests Naser Hamdi & Rami Oweis & Hamzeh Abu Zraiq & Denis Abu Sammour Abstract The effective maintenance management of medical technology influences the quality of care delivered and the profitability of healthcare facilities. Medical equipment maintenance in Jordan lacks an objective prioritization system; consequently, the system is not sensitive to the impact of equipment downtime on patient morbidity and mortality. The current work presents a novel software system (EQUI- MEDCOMP) that is designed to achieve valuable improve- ments in the maintenance management of medical technology. This work-order prioritization model sorts medical mainte- nance requests by calculating a priority index for each request. Model performance was assessed by utilizing maintenance requests from several Jordanian hospitals. The system proved highly efficient in minimizing equipment downtime based on healthcare delivery capacity, and, consequently, patient outcome. Additionally, a preventive maintenance optimiza- tion module and an equipment quality control system are incorporated. The system is, therefore, expected to improve the reliability of medical equipment and significantly improve safety and cost-efficiency. Keywords Biomedical technology management . Work-order prioritization . Preventive maintenance . Quality control Introduction Safe, effective, and economic use of medical devices within a hospital requires tracking each individual device. The number of medical devices requiring tracking and manage- ment in a hospital may range from 1,000 devices for smaller community hospitals to over 10,000 for large, academic, medical centers [1]. Wang et al. have indicated that the most common cause of medical equipment downtime is poor maintenance, planning, and management. Consequently, they have extensively discussed and reviewed medical equipment inclusion criteria, as well as the application of statistical techniques, in medical equip- ment management plans [2, 3]. Medical equipment man- agement is of particular importance in developing countries, where resources and alternatives are scarce, as such, the creation of a carefully-designed equipment control and management system can be of vital importance. This can be achieved by employing computerized maintenance management systems (CMMSs) as a fundamental informa- tion resource, providing the technology management staff with a wealth of support-related information as well as assisting management in decision making [1]. Additionally, as medical equipment becomes increasing- ly more sophisticated and plays a more crucial role in modern healthcare, maintenance and management issues demand ever-increasing attention. Development of CMMSs is essential for managers and engineers, not only to provide quick management solutions, but also to predict future outcomes based on historical equipment performance data. The most commonly employed methods of work-order prioritization for repair requests in Jordan are variants of the first-come, first-served (FCFS) method. While the FCFS approach might be acceptable for many applications, it is not always appropriate when applied to the healthcare sector, as is the case when a vital, life-support machine undergoes failure and, consequently, is out of service until the service work-order reaches the head of the queue. One approach to address these shortcomings requires that N. Hamdi (*) : R. Oweis : H. Abu Zraiq : D. Abu Sammour Biomedical Engineering Department, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan e-mail: nhamdi@just.edu.jo J Med Syst (2012) 36:557–567 DOI 10.1007/s10916-010-9501-4 Received: 16 February 2010 / Accepted: 20 April 2010 / Published online: 4 May 2010 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010