A Framework for Improving the Maintenance Management Process in Health Sites: - Case Study: of Selected Hospitals of Mazandaran Province

Abstract

<strong>Background and Objectives:</strong> The Department of Medical Services has a long-standing goal to improve the quality and operation of clinical management by efficient use of materials. The present undertaking structures and aspects of the continuing critical evaluation of current support operations in the medical service department (MSD) constraint semi-governmental emergency centers, including the re-appropriation and eventual management of temporary workers and services. The key test is to see how maintenance activities can be managed even more easily and conducted more wisely. In this paper, a mechanism was developed to answer these questions: only with correcting the processes and at the lowest cost possible, how can we improve the maintenance operations? <strong>Methods:</strong> For this purpose, current procedures and circumstances in 2 general hospitals in Mazandaran province in Iran were studied and data gathered via questionnaire, interviews, and observation from 66 people including managers, supervisors, and employees. 56 questions were posed about 5 factors affecting maintenance management and their reliability was confirmed through the Cronbach's alpha method. To analyze these questions, a wide range of statistical techniques such as Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, Chi-squared test, Cramer's V and Factor Analysis were used by SPSS software. Then for a more accurate survey, tools like Critical Success Factors, Key Performance Indicator, the theory of constraints & the Current Reality Tree are utilized. <strong>Findings</strong>: Results have shown that effective factors in the improvement of maintenance management can be divided into 4 important principles called continuous learning, clarity in policies and procedures, encouraging innovation and balancing the number of maintenance employees with the work volume. <strong>Conclusions</strong>: These four principles can form a useful framework with the lowest cost to improve the current maintenance management procedure in the hospitals which are under review in this paper's case study.