Medical Equipment Management  – Developing our Biomedical Team to Improve Care in Haiti

We are thrilled to share that the U.S. government, through USAID’s American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (ASHA) program, has partnered with The Dalton Foundation and the Haiti Health Network in Northern Haiti to strengthen the healthcare system by increasing access to quality healthcare. Our team will be implementing technological management practices as we work together with 12 carefully selected local healthcare facilities to increase access to quality medical equipment.  

To begin this process our biomedical team in Haiti were recently trained on American Best Practices related to medical equipment inventory management. This training included not only learning how to use the tools created to complete an inventory but also on the job training as they completed their first medical equipment inventory in the pediatrics department of the Hopital Universitaire Justinien in Cap Haitien.

Taking a medical equipment inventory is a crucial first step in developing a technology management system in any healthcare environment. This is a vital and highly recommended practice used widely by healthcare systems around the world. 

Having a complete and updated medical equipment inventory creates awareness of where a healthcare system may be lacking, and can help biomedical technicians drastically improve maintenance and repair planning which minimizes downtime of life saving medical equipment. 

An updated medical equipment inventory can also help identify high-risk areas where equipment is old, unreliable, or in need of urgent attention, allowing hospitals to mitigate these risks proactively. 

We are thrilled to be actively working with our biomedical team on medical equipment inventory management and look forward to implementing this management tool in more healthcare facilities in Haiti. 

When medical equipment works, patients’ lives are saved!