Implementation of standard criteria for effective medical equipment preventive maintenance practice in District General Hospital – Nawalapitiya, Sri Lanka. ABSTRACT Somaratne, C.J.K.1, Dharmaratne, G.S.K2 1. Director, DGH Nawalapitiya, Sri Lanka 2. Deputy Director General (Laboratory Services), Ministry of Health, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Contact email: [email protected] Background: Scarcity of financial resources has resulted in limited Inspection and preventive maintenance activities for the items of medical equipment in the hospitals of Sri Lanka. There is no standard criteria method applied for selecting items of medical equipment for maintenance strategies such as annual service agreements in public sector hospital of Sri Lanka. Objective: To implement effective medical equipment preventive maintenance practice in relation to service agreements of DGH Nawalapitiya. Methods: The study was carried out in year 2016 and a comprehensive data base for the medical equipment was developed initially. The new method was applied to prioritize the items of medical equipment of District General Hospital Nawalapitiya to select the items of medical equipment for annual service agreements. Results: Total of 642 items of medical equipment were identified in the hospital and 430 (66.9%) items and 212 (33.1%) items were found to be functional and non-functional respectively. According to the Wang - Levenson criteria, AEMR values were calculated, and the functional items of medical equipment were prioritized in a descending order. AEMR values were varying from maximum value of 30 to minimum value of 2. The priority list was utilized for the annual service agreements of the hospital for year 2017 / 2018 and 80 % of the items were selected according to the list. Conclusions: The Provincial Health Department has already taken initiatives to implement the new method at DGH Nawalapitiya and planning to implement it in the other health care institutions of the province. Key Words: DGH Nawalapitiya, Medical equipment, Wang & Levenson criteria, prioritization, Annual service agreements.