Preventive maintenance: why quarterly beats annual
· Site Administrator
Most equipment arrives with an annual service recommendation, and most departments follow it. For equipment running continuously, quarterly intervals tend to work out cheaper.
Where the saving comes from
Failures in imaging and laboratory equipment are rarely sudden. Drifting calibration, a fan losing speed, a filter loading up: these are visible months ahead if someone looks. Quarterly visits catch them while they are still adjustments rather than replacements.
Uptime as the real number
The cost of an unplanned breakdown is not the repair invoice. It is the referred patients, the idle staff and the reputational cost of cancelled appointments. Measured against that, the difference between annual and quarterly visits is small.
What a visit should include
- Performance verification against the manufacturer specification
- Calibration check and adjustment
- Electrical safety testing
- Filter, battery and wear-part inspection
- A written report for your equipment file