Hospital laboratories depend on a wide range of complex equipment to deliver accurate, timely diagnostic results. From high-throughput analyzers to cold storage units, each asset represents a major investment and a potential point of risk if it fails.
Consistent daily and annual preventive maintenance is the most reliable way to protect that investment, control downtime, and guard patient safety.
This article explores:
Preventive maintenance focuses on routine inspection, cleaning, calibration, and part replacement based on manufacturer guidance and real-world usage. In laboratory environments, this approach helps:
Unlike reactive repairs, scheduled maintenance gives in-house biomedical and technical service teams the opportunity to plan resources, manage parts inventory, and address wear before it turns into system failure.
Hospital laboratories require a wide range of equipment, from large, automated analyzers to smaller, specialized equipment. While there is no standardized public count for every piece of equipment, a mid-sized hospital lab generally uses between 50 and more than 100 different types of equipment.
This article will focus on the top ten pieces of essential laboratory equipment.
Chemical analyzers used in hospital laboratories should receive daily regular daily checks to help identify minor issues such as calibration drift, reagent contamination, or mechanical wear before they lead to errors or downtime.
Annual preventive maintenance further ensures long-term performance, regulatory compliance, and patient safety by addressing deeper mechanical, electrical, and software components that require comprehensive inspection and servicing.
Best practices:
Daily maintenance checks of hematology analyzers used in hospital laboratories help prevent clogs, calibration errors, and sample carryover that could compromise test accuracy or delay reporting.
Annual inspection and service of internal components helps ensure the laboratory remains in regulatory compliance and helps ensure the analyzer continues to operate safely and efficiently over time.
Best practices:
Daily cleaning and system checks prevent contamination, reagent carryover, and instrument drift common in immunoassay analyzers.
Scheduled annual inspection, calibration, and replacement of critical components can extend the service life and long-term performance of immunoassay analyzers, assure regulatory compliance, and help ensure patient safety.
Best practices:
Blood gas analyzers used in hospital laboratories should receive daily maintenance to ensure accurate measurement of critical parameters such as pH, oxygen, and carbon dioxide. Routine daily checks and cleaning also help prevent sample contamination, electrode fouling, and calibration drift that could compromise patient results.
Annual maintenance is essential to identify and replace worn components, recalibrate sensors, and verify overall system performance. In addition to ensuring long-term reliability and regulatory compliance, annual preventive maintenance can help extend the service life of blood gas analyzers.
Best practices:
Because centrifuges typically run all but continuously through the day, they require daily maintenance. This maintenance includes checking for rotor damage, cleaning spills, and verifying proper balance to prevent mechanical stress or accidents. Routine daily inspection also helps reduce the risk of sample contamination, equipment malfunction, and inaccurate test results caused by improper separation.
Planned annual preventive maintenance is also recommended for a deeper inspection of critical components such as rotors, motors, and safety systems.
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For microscopes used in hospital laboratories to return clear and accurate visualization of specimens, they should receive daily care. This care includes cleaning lenses, checking illumination, and verifying proper alignment. Routine care prevents dust buildup, optical distortion, and addresses the mechanical wear that can compromise diagnostic accuracy.
Annual maintenance is a must to thoroughly inspect, calibrate, and service optical and mechanical components.
Best practices:
Incubators used in hospital laboratories require daily maintenance to ensure stable temperature, humidity, and environmental conditions necessary for accurate culture growth and testing. Additionally, routine daily checks help detect contamination, sensor drift, or airflow issues that could compromise specimen integrity and patient results.
Annual preventive maintenance is essential to calibrate controls, inspect heating and monitoring systems, and replace worn components. Consistent preventive maintenance assures regulatory compliance and can help extend the service life of the equipment.
Best practices:
Routine, daily checks of laboratory refrigerators and freezers can identify temperature fluctuations, alarm malfunctions, or seal issues that could compromise the safe storage of specimens, reagents, vaccines, and blood products.
Annual inspection of compressors, calibration of temperature sensors, cleaning of condenser coils, and verification of alarm systems help ensure long-term reliability, regulatory compliance, and proper preservation conditions.
Best practices:
Autoclaves and steam sterilizers used in hospital laboratories should be checked daily for leaks, gasket wear, drainage issues, or sensor malfunctions that could compromise sterilization efficacy.
Annual inspection of pressure vessels, calibration of controls, testing of safety valves, and service of mechanical components is essential for reliable performance and regulatory compliance.
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Proper airflow, surface cleanliness, and effective containment of infectious agents are a must for biosafety cabinets used in hospital laboratories. Daily cleaning helps prevent contamination, maintains sterile working conditions, and protects laboratory personnel and specimens.
Annual preventive maintenance is often required to certify airflow performance, inspect HEPA filters, and verify safety systems for regulatory compliance.
Best practices:
Preventive maintenance programs are only as strong as their documentation processes. Maintenance logs, calibration records, and service reports support audits and help biomedical service teams spot performance trends. Maintenance management systems (CMMS) are commonly used to schedule tasks, track parts, and align work with manufacturer recommendations.
CME is not only a premier distributor of laboratory equipment used in hospital labs but also a reliable source for biomedical and technical services.
CME Biomedical Equipment Technicians are available to compliment in-house resources for asset tagging projects or in periods of biomedical staffing deficits.
Here’s how.
During a recent project in Colorado the CME Biomedical Services team:
Biomedical services have been at the heart of CME for over 40 years. With this expert experience we are ready to support your biomed and technical team to ensure your facility laboratory returns consistently accurate testing results and remains in regulatory compliance.
And, for times when laboratory equipment is simply at end of life, CME account managers can expertly help source and acquire equipment that best suits your needs and budget.
Click CHAT to begin the conversation about your laboratory equipment maintenance needs or find your account manager for new equipment needs.
Preventive maintenance refers to scheduled inspection, cleaning, calibration, and part replacement designed to reduce equipment failures and maintain performance.
Frequencies vary by equipment type, manufacturer guidance, and usage volume, ranging from daily operator checks to annual technical inspections.
High-throughput analyzers, centrifuges, sterilizers, and cold storage units typically demand the most frequent attention due to mechanical stress and continuous operation.
BMETs perform inspections, repairs, calibrations, and documentation while working with laboratory staff to align maintenance activities with operational needs.
Distributor-employed BMETs bring multi-vendor expertise, and scalable support that complements in-house biomedical teams.
About CME: CME Corp is the nation’s premier specialty distributor of healthcare and laboratory equipment. We partner with over 2,000 manufacturers to offer more than 2 million products across healthcare, laboratory, pharmacy, and research sectors. In addition to an extensive product portfolio, we also offer project management, CAD design, warehousing, logistics, consolidated direct-to-site delivery, and biomedical and technical services, all staffed by CME employees. Our mission, to help healthcare facilities nationwide reduce the cost of the equipment they purchase, make their equipment acquisition, delivery, installation, and maintenance processes more efficient, and help them seamlessly launch, renovate, or expand on schedule, is supported by 25 service locations strategically located across the country.