A comprehensive fuzzy risk-based maintenance framework for prioritization of medical devices

• A method to select the best maintenance strategy for critical devices is proposed.
• The method proposes a risk-based framework including experts’ opinions.
• The proposed approach handles both qualitative and quantitative data.
• Existing criteria related to prioritization of medical devices have been revisited.
• New relevant criteria have been defined.

Medical equipment such as infant incubator, infusion pump, CT scanner, etc. should be maintained properly to meet adequate standards of reliability in healthcare services. This paper proposes a new comprehensive risk-based prioritization framework for selecting the best maintenance strategy. The framework encompasses three steps. In the first step, a fuzzy failure modes and effects analysis (FFMEA) method is applied by considering several risk assessment factors. In the second step, seven miscellaneous dimensions such as use-related hazards, age, and utilization are applied to consider all aspects of hazards and risks in prioritization of medical devices. Finally, a simple method is introduced in the third step in order to find the most suitable maintenance strategy for each device according to the scores produced by the previous steps. A numerical example illustrates the proposed approach and shows that, through the method introduced in this paper, managers can easily classify medical devices for maintenance activities according to their criticality scores. Implementation of this framework could increase the availability of high risk machines in healthcare industries. Moreover, this framework can be applied in other critical industries such as aviation by modifying some criteria and dimensions.

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