TechNation Magazine - September 2018

1technation.com

Vol. 9

ADVANCING THE BIOMEDICAL / HTM PROFESSIONAL

SEPTEMBER 2018

Quieting the noise through knowledge

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CONTENTS

FEATURED

WHO WILL MAINTAIN THEM?

46

ANESTHESIA

52

ALARM MANAGEMENT REVISITED: QUIETING THE NOISE THROUGH KNOWLEDGE

I n this issue of TechNation we asked experts to provide an update on anesthesia devices and technology.

We look at the most important features to seek out when purchasing new devices as well as ways to save money.

Next month’s Roundtable article: AEDs/Defibrillators

Alarm fatigue has garnered a lot more attention in recent years and that attention has led to a meeting of the minds to find ways to remediate the problem, educate clinicians and find technology solutions. Medical device alarm management has become the focus of a number of special groups working to uncover solutions to this vexing and dangerous problem.

Next month’s Feature article: Cybersecurity Update: Flexible plans provide best protection

TechNation (Vol. 9, Issue #9) September 2018 is published monthly by MD Publishing, 18 Eastbrook Bend, Peachtree City, GA 30269-1530. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to TechNation at 18 Eastbrook Bend, Peachtree City, GA 30269-1530.

TechNation magazine is dedicated to providing medical equipment service professionals with comprehensive, reliable, information concerning medical equipment, parts, service and supplies. It is published monthly by MD Publishing, Inc. Subscriptions are available free of charge to qualified individuals within the United States. Publisher reserves the right to determine qualification for a free subscriptions. Every precaution is taken to ensure accuracy of content; however, the information, opinions, and statements expressed in the articles and advertisements herein are those of the writer and/or advertiser, and not necessarily those of the publisher.

ADVANCING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

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SEPTEMBER 2018

TECHNATION

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CONTENTS

INSIDE

PUBLISHER

John M. Krieg

VICE PRESIDENT

Kristin Leavoy

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Jayme McKelvey Megan Cabot

ART DEPARTMENT

Jonathan Riley Karlee Gower Kathryn Keur

EDITOR

John Wallace

EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS

Jenifer Brown K. Richard Douglas Jim Fedele Inhel Rekik Manny Roman Cindy Stephens Steven J. Yelton

DIGITAL SERVICES

Cindy Galindo Kennedy Krieg Travis Saylor

CIRCULATION

Lisa Cover Melissa Brand

WEBINARS

Linda Hasluem

EDITORIAL BOARD

Eddie Acosta, Business Development Manager, Colin Construction Company Manny Roman, Business Operation Manager, AMSP Salim Kai, MSPSL, CBET, Clinical Safety Engineer University of Michigan Health System Jim Fedele, Sr. Program Director, Clinical Engineering, BioTronics, UPMC Susquehanna Izabella Gieras, MS, MBA, CCE, Director of Clinical Technology, Huntington Memorial Hospital Inhel Rekik, Clinical Engineering Manager, Medstar Georgetown University Hospital

Departments P.12 SPOTLIGHT p.12 Professional of the Month: Kamlesh Patel, DJ and Cost-Cutter p.14 Company Showcase: oneSOURCE

Document Site p.18 Department of the Month: The Orlando VA Medical Center Biomedical Engineering Department p.20 Biomed Adventures: Living Reverence and

Compassion P.24 INDUSTRY UPDATES p.24 News & Notes p.31 Ribbon Cutting: Medical Equipment Doctor p.32 AAMI Update p.34 Welcome to TechNation p.36 ECRI Update P.40 p.40 p.42 p.44

THE BENCH Biomed 101 Tools of the Trade Webinar Wednesday

P.59 p.59 p.60 p.62 p.65 p.67

EXPERT ADVICE Career Center Ultrasound Expert The Future The Other Side Roman Review

P.68 BREAKROOM p.68 Did You Know? p.70 The Vault p.72 MedWrench Bulletin Board p.76 Service Index p.81 Alphabetical Index p.82 Parting Shot Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/TechNationMag

MD Publishing / TechNation Magazine 18 Eastbrook Bend, Peachtree City, GA 30269 800.906.3373 • Fax: 770.632.9090 Email: info@mdpublishing.com www.mdpublishing.com

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SEPTEMBER 2018

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SPOTLIGHT

PROFESSIONAL OF THE MONTH Kamlesh Patel DJ and Cost-Cutter

BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS

B

rowns Mills, New Jersey is located in the north central portion of the state within an easy drive to Trenton or Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Located in Browns Mills is the Deborah Heart and Lung Center. The center, which was founded 96 years ago, is New Jersey’s only cardiac and pulmonary specialty hospital.

Working in the center’s biomedical engineering department is a BMET III known to his friends and co-workers as “DJ”. Kamlesh Patel picked up the moniker because of his sideline DJ business.

For Patel, an early interest in fixing things and helping people, pointed him in the direction of biomed.

“Before I got involved with electronics or anything, I would always take apart TVs, or other electronics and put it together at home,” Patel says.

“My family would always call me to fix computers or any electronic device. I wanted a career in computers first, and medical field, and helping patients. So when I heard about this profession, it was the perfect profession for me to use my talents to help the patients and customers, when it comes to technology in the hospital,” he adds.

To prepare to enter the profession, Patel got a mix of school and experience.

“I went to college to get my degree in

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biomed engineering, then I did volunteer work for about a year at Somerset Medical Center; that training and education helped me get my job today,” he says.

“When I first got my job, I went to manufacturer schools to get more detailed training on the equipment that I work on. I would first get to know the equipment and read the user manual, then go to school so I knew what I am getting into. My boss is big on education, so to this day, I still go to training schools and learn more and more every day,” Patel says.

Today, he specializes in respiratory equipment, ultrasound equipment, anesthesia machines and critical care areas.

THE SQUEAKY WHEEL Patel has provided feedback to equipment makers to point out defects and get results.

“I have dealt with a few recalls for manufacturers such as the Baxter infusion pump, where they didn’t believe me about an issue and it was a recall issue,” he says.

“Error 322 kept coming up on the pump, however it wouldn’t come up on the screen at times. Baxter did not believe me, and I even talked to a few managers, but still no answer from them. Then, next thing you know, I got a letter saying there was a recall for system error 322,” Patel says.

In addition to infusion pumps, he has tackled a network problem with a manufacturer as well.

“Recently, I worked with Mindray

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SPOTLIGHT

FAVORITE MOVIE: Don’t have one, but any movie that is entertaining.

FAVORITE FOOD: Too many to name HIDDEN TALENT: DJ FAVORITE PART OF BEING A BIOMED: “To be able to help the hospital staff fix an issue with equipment and making them happy and making sure the patient is safe and the staff is safe.”

WHAT’S ON MY BENCH? • Lord Ganesh and Lord Mahadev (Hindu gods statue) • My tool box • My computer • Chocolate • Water bottles

Kamlesh Patel is a BMET III and a DJ.

Ultrasound, with their new software; there was an issue with [the] network connection after the upgrade. If you unplug it from the wall, and plug it back in, it says its connected, however it’s not connected,” Patel says.

“Mindray could not duplicate the issue at their company. So after months of talking to them and sending them pictures and videos, they came out to our hospital and discovered the issue and were able to fix it,” he adds.

Besides helping out manufacturers, he is very cost conscious and uses his negotiation skills for part pricing and device purchases.

His cost-conscious approach and hard work have been noticed by his employer.

“I have been star of the month at my hospital and got nominated two to three times in the past two to three years.”

The most recent star award, this past spring, was for cost savings exceeding $200,000. In his nomination letter, he was credited with saving the non-invasive department $15,000 because of his research for replacement part and equipment repair

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options.

The nomination said that he negotiated with service vendors to get better pricing, arrange for free loaner equipment while vendor defects were corrected and identified national recalls affecting patient safety.

SPINNING TUNES Music is in Patel’s blood and it has grown into a side business. He exercises his creative side and uses skills from his side business to aid his work also.

“I love music, so I DJ on the side. Music changes people’s moods and with music I can make memories for people at their events and make sure they have a great time. I DJ events like weddings and other parties as well. I have DJ’ed for a few Bollywood stars and some famous artists as well. I also make my own remixes so I can give my clients and audience a different type of flavor of music at different events,” Patel says.

“I also apply it to my professional work, such as customer service, and being more professional, negotiating skills, going above

and beyond for your customers, rather than just doing your job and calling it a day,” he adds.

At home, his life includes a new wife and he is the son that parents hope for.

“I recently just got married and have my parents with me; I love to take care of them,” he says.

Patel explains how he would characterize himself for readers.

“Give 110 percent from my heart when it comes to work. Always go above and beyond for everything. Hard working, caring, hopefully one day go to a management role. I love to help others,” he says.

In the recent star of the month nomination, the writer noted that the reason for nominating Patel was his “motivation to make sure Deborah and the clinical staff have what they need to make sure our patients are well taken care of.”

That’s what makes a great HTM professional.

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SPOTLIGHT

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

company

SHOWCASE

The oneSOURCE HTM Biomedical Database

The Most Complete Online Collection of Biomedical Equipment Maintenance Documents A TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION FOR MANAGING CRITICAL BIOMED EQUIPMENT INFORMATION With the oneSOURCE HTM Biomedical Database, healthcare technology management (HTM) managers will spend far less time and energy obtaining, verifying and managing biomedical equipment preventive maintenance and related documents.

Instead, they’ll be able to focus on their true mission – efficiently maintaining this equipment to promote optimal patient care and safety.

THE ONESOURCE HTM BIOMEDICAL DATABASE HTM managers will have 24/7 access to service and maintenance manuals from thousands of manufacturers. And the database is growing constantly as our team obtains new and updated material on behalf of our customers.

With this kind of critical information at their fingertips, technicians in every key department of the facility will save time and increase efficiency. They’ll be referring to the most recent information about the complex biomedical equipment 14

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in their care … information related to: • Maintenance • Testing • Parts breakdowns • Troubleshooting • End of life equipment documentation • Repair Facilities also can use the oneSOURCE HTM Biomedical Database to securely store their own alternative equipment maintenance (AEM) program guidelines and proprietary or purchased documents, making this a secure, customized repository for all their biomedical equipment maintenance information.

No more central storage headaches. No more time spent contacting manufacturers for manuals and updates. It’s all online, ready for review or download.

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SPOTLIGHT available as an Android and Apple app) is carefully designed with intuitive user features and functionality.

• Search by catalog number, manufacturer or equipment description • Maintain a list of frequently/recently used documents for even quicker access • Establish Favorites lists, sorting by technician, equipment type, maintenance schedule or other fields • Enter notes and customized instructions that will be shared throughout the facility • Click on the Table of Contents links in the manuals to go directly to that section • Access summaries of the pertinent cleaning, decontamination, assembly and sterilization information contained in the original documents • Download material from the database in Adobe files for emailing and printing • Interface with CMMS companies such as AIMS, EQ2 and MediMizer We work with each customer to customize their Biomedical Database’s content and features. One subscription provides access to technicians and other users throughout the facility – from Central Sterilization to Infection Control to Risk Management.

PROMOTING COMPLIANCE Adhering to these manufacturer preventive maintenance guidelines and also documenting your technicians’ ready access to this information can be a key element in meeting the compliance and certification standards established by organizations such as: • Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) • The Joint Commission (JC) • The Joint Commission International (JCI) • Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Healthcare (AAAHC) PARTNERSHIP WITH MANUFACTURERS More and more manufacturers are seeing the value of working with oneSOURCE to efficiently send new and updated biomedical equipment preventive maintenance information for their customers.

We upload these manufacturer documents exactly as we receive them. Manufacturers have complete control of their information, working through their own secure portal to verify and review their material.

Some manufacturers choose to charge for these documents or require a facility to prove training before they release them. In these cases, the facility can provide the documents to us once they receive them and we upload them to the facility’s secure portion of the database, accessible only to them.

If you would like to manage your critical responsibilities more efficiently with 24/7 access to the oneSOURCE HTM Biomedical Database service, contact us at 800-7013560 or if you are interested in a free webinar, email us at contact@onesourcedocs.com.

WHAT CLIENTS ARE SAYING ABOUT ONESOURCE

“The oneSOURCE Biomed Database is very helpful to our clinical team. The oneSOURCE interface with AIMS is a huge time saver for our technicians. We don’t have to search at our site or request manuals from the manufacturer. All the data we need for compliance is there at a click of the mouse.”

– Data Integrity Team Manager

ABOUT US Formed in 2009, Best Practice Professionals Inc. (dba oneSOURCE Document Management Services) also offers database services featuring the most complete collections of: • Instructions for Use documents from medical device manufacturers • SDS/MSDS and Instructions for Use documents from dental equipment, instrument and consumables manufacturers At oneSOURCE, we work with outstanding healthcare technicians every day – from our own employees who manage this document service to the facility-based HTM professionals who need this information at their fingertips.

www.onesourcedocs.com

800-701-3560 | contact@onesourcedocs.com ADVANCING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

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SPOTLIGHT

DEPARTMENT OF THE MONTH The Orlando VA Medical Center Biomedical Engineering Department

BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS

O

rlando is probably best known for Disney World, Sea World and Universal Orlando. It is one of the great tourist destinations in America. The central Florida city also offers a sunny climate, zoos, golf and nightlife.

Beyond the family tourist destinations, there is another destination in Orlando that has a very important purpose and mission. It is the Orlando VA Medical Center. According to the organization’s website, the Orlando VA Medical Center serves more than 110,000 veterans in Central Florida and is one of seven medical centers that make up the VA Sunshine Healthcare Network (VISN 8).

It was established as a medical center in October 2006 and is recognized by at least one organization as a top 100 company in Central Florida for working families.

The Orlando VA Medical Center includes a 120-bed community living center in Lake Nona, a 60-bed residential rehabilitation program (domiciliary) in Lake Nona and a 56-bed residential rehabilitation program (domiciliary) located at Lake Baldwin, large outpatient clinics in Lake Baldwin, Viera and Daytona Beach and four smaller community-based outpatient clinics located in Clermont, Kissimmee, Tavares and Deltona.

The center’s website also says that the medical center is part of a 650-acre health and life sciences park known as the Lake Nona Medical City. The 65-acre medical campus has 134-inpatient beds and

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provides acute care, complex specialty care, advanced diagnostic services, a large multispecialty outpatient clinic as well as administrative and support services.

Manning the healthcare technology management duties for the facility is the 24-member biomedical engineering department.

The department includes Chief of Biomedical Engineering Jay Patterson, CCE; Supervisory Biomedical Equipment Support Specialist (BESS) David Six, CBET; and three lead BESS in Frank Barnets, Xavier Betts and Adam Reveile. The group also includes Administrative Support Assistant Christian Gomez, one staff biomedical engineer, one network BESS, 15 BESS and a biomedical engineer intern.

“There are staff located full-time at four different campuses; 20 of the 24 staff are based at the main hospital in Lake Nona, two are at the Viera Outpatient Clinic, one at the Daytona Outpatient Clinic and one at the Lake Baldwin Outpatient Clinic. We also support three other smaller clinics in Clermont, Tavares and Deltona,” Patterson says.

He says that the biomedical engineering department has the budget for medical equipment maintenance including service contracts.

“We work with clinical services’ input to determine what should be on contract based on equipment history and reliability, availability of backup equipment, availability of trained in-house staff, cost-effectiveness and clinical workload,” Patterson says.

“We also assess what levels of contract

coverage are available and which ones fit our situation the best. We also participate in a SMART Pool with the other six VA facilities in VISN 8, to pool resources and avoid expensive contracts on critical healthcare technology systems,” he adds.

The team has been utilizing the same method for data collection for about two years now.

“We have been using Maximo for our CMMS since November 2016. It includes reporting tools to track inventory data, equipment service histories, and biomedical engineering labor and expenditures,” Patterson says.

“There are also VA data analytics tools and reports available on a national level, which are used to monitor key performance indicators and benchmark performance data against other peer sites,” he says.

The group is a one-stop shop for technology selection, site preparation/ construction, installation, inspection, network integration and security, preventive maintenance/repair, training, management of alerts/recalls and documentation.

“We work with Facilities Management Service (FMS), OIT (Office of Information & Technology) and our Innovations Department to support those items in the gray area, that may not be direct patient care systems. Biomedical Engineering sits on several medical center committees, including Equipment, Environment of Care, CPR, Critical Care, Dialysis Program, Reusable Medical Equipment (RME) and Radiation Safety,” Patterson says.

The department also coordinates with

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SPOTLIGHT

The Orlando VA Medical Center Biomedical Engineering Department maintains important equipment. its IT counterparts to ascertain the safe use of networked devices.

“Biomedical Engineering works closely with VA Office of Information & Technology staff at the local facility as well as at the regional level. Our network BESS chairs the New Technology Technical Review Board (NTTRB), which meets weekly to review new networked medical equipment requests to ensure security and compatibility,” Patterson says.

TAKING ON PROJECTS Getting a new hospital up and running is always a challenge for a HTM department. The Orlando VA Medical Center Biomedical Engineering Department was recently involved in all phases of opening a new facility.

“For the better part of two years, between 2014 and 2016, the staff was heavily involved in activating the new hospital in Lake Nona. The first outpatients were seen in the new facility in February 2015, and various clinical departments opened gradually over the following year; first outpatient and then inpatient,” Patterson says.

He says that prior to that time, the ADVANCING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

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Orlando VA Medical Center was primarily an outpatient facility, except for a community living center and domiciliary.

“Biomedical Engineering’s responsibilities with activating the new hospital included: assembly, installation, inspection, and networking of new equipment; maintaining readiness documents to communicate equipment status by department; and attending regular activation meetings with individual clinical services as well as the overall steering committee,” Patterson adds.

In addition to bringing a new hospital online, the team has tackled several projects.

“We have led and participated in several Lean Six Sigma green belt projects, most recently to streamline the process for

acquiring and installing networked medical equipment while meeting all national VA information and network security requirements, and improving the process for temperature and humidity monitoring of medical refrigerators and critical storage areas,” Patterson says.

“We have also been a key player in the clinical alarms workgroup to establish policy and ensure compliance with standards and regulations as the medical center added inpatient services in the last couple of years,” he says.

Away from work, the biomed group is represented at the annual Florida Biomedical Society Symposium and other industry conferences.

Veterans in central Florida can rest assured that the medical equipment they depend on is in good hands.

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SPOTLIGHT

BIOMED ADVENTURES Living Reverence and Compassion

BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS

M

any HTM professionals have found it to be a rewarding experience by giving of their time and expertise in helping those in developing countries. Other HTM professionals have volunteered at home to help with the repair of equipment being shipped to developing countries.

D. Courtney Nanney, BSBME, CCE, CLSGB, national quality manager of Clinical Engineering, Physical Asset Services for Catholic Health Initiatives is involved in both.

Nanney has been traveling to Nicaragua with the Greater Louisville Medical Society for the past 10 years. He has volunteered at Supplies Over Seas (SOS) on Saturday mornings twice a month over the past decade.

“The Greater Louisville Medical Society (GLMS) Foundation started a medical mission trip to Nicaragua 11 years ago,” he says.

“When they returned, they realized there was a great need for medical equipment repair. They asked the local Louisville hospitals for help. Jewish Hospital asked me if I would be willing to go. I jumped at the opportunity,” Nanney says.

He says that in his first year, he repaired equipment at the Nicaragua Dermatology Hospital.

“I got to see leprosy for the first time. I also worked at the Las Mascota Children’s Hospital,” he says.

During the second year, he found that much of the equipment he repaired the year before was out of service.

“I realized that a once-a-year visit was 20

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not going to be very helpful.

I started training the local hospital engineers. They are very bright and quick learners,” Nanney says.

“They showed me some creative ways to repair equipment. Parts were hard to find. So we fixed a ventilator with a car horn from a local automotive parts store. I think a ‘honking’ ventilator gets the clinician’s attention better anyway,” he jokes.

“I also worked at two additional hospitals — Berta Calderon Women’s Hospital and Lenin Fonseca Neuro/Ortho Hospital,” Nanney adds.

He says that after several years, he realized he was spending all his time traveling from one hospital to the other.

“I also realized that A biomed shows how to check an ESU with a some hospitals were really banana peel and a light bulb. good at maintaining their unique devices, but were not as that “meets critical health care needs in knowledgeable on other devices. I asked if medically impoverished communities they talked to their counterpart across around the world by collecting and town that was good with that unit. They distributing surplus medical supplies and answer was ‘no.’ I suggested that we start equipment,” according to its website. having annual education seminars, Quoting from the organization’s gathering all the local hospital engineers,” website, Nanney explains that the Nanney says. organization was “founded in 1993 by Dr. Norton Waterman and the Greater GIVING BACK Louisville Medical Society (GLMS).

Supplies Over Seas is a not-for-profit According to Dr. Waterman, ‘perfectly organization based in Louisville, Kentucky good bandages, cloth operating gowns, WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

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SPOTLIGHT

University of Louisville biomedical engineering students are seen at Supplies Over Seas (SOS).

towels and sutures were being thrown out.

Good instruments were discarded because of recent improvements, regulations or changes in popularity.’ ” Nanney says that the local hospitals got involved and donated used medical equipment too.

“SOS asked me to come on Saturdays twice a month to check the medical equipment to make sure it was functional and had all the accessories needed before they shipped it to the mission field,” he says.

“I had worked two years at the Gaza Baptist Hospital and Nursing School in the Gaza Strip just after college. I have been on the receiving end of medical equipment that did not work. It is very frustrating since parts availability is very limited,” Nanney says.

“At the same time, the University of Louisville (U of L) had approached me about opportunities for their biomedical engineering students to get some practical experience. I started mentoring students at SOS. They get lots of hands on ADVANCING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

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experience and have been very faithful over the years. The U of L Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) and the Kentucky Association for Medical Instrumentation (KAMI) have been very supportive of SOS and GLMS. We are hoping to send a U of L student with me to Nicaragua next year with some of the SOS medical equipment we checked out,” Nanney adds.

He says that there are lots of opportunities for other HTM professionals to help by donating working medical devices to medical missions along with accessories, spare parts and manuals.

“There are also opportunities to go with medical teams too. You will find that you will probably be one of the most valuable members of the team,” Nanney says.

ON THE JOB When not doing volunteer work, Nanney’s full-time job is national quality manager for clinical engineering at Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI).

“As a certified clinical engineer (CCE) and Lean Six Sigma green belt, I am responsible for process improvement including the alternate equipment management (AEM) program, recalls, cybersecurity alerts, incident investigations and ‘other duties as assigned,’” he says.

“I am also known as the ‘database janitor,’ since I have to standardize the data in order to perform good analysis.

I work closely with IT, risk management, infection prevention and other clinicians to look for ‘best practices’ and ‘close-calls’ to help improve efficiency, effectiveness and patient safety,” Nanney adds.

Nanney highly recommends participating in medical missions which he describes as a “great opportunity to learn from doctors, nurses and fellow professionals in other countries as you work and live with them.”

The beneficiaries of those working medical devices are glad Nanney got involved.

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

STAFF REPORTS

NEWS & NOTES

Updates from the HTM Industry

GE HEALTHCARE TO BECOME STANDALONE COMPANY GE has announced the results of its strategic review. GE will focus on aviation, power and renewable energy, creating a simpler, stronger, leading high-tech industrial company. in addition to the pending combination of its transportation business with Wabtec, GE plans to separate GE Healthcare into a standalone company, pursue an orderly separation from BHGE over the next two to three years, make its corporate structure leaner and substantially reduce debt. GE’s Board of Directors unanimously approved the plans.

John Flannery, chairman and CEO of GE, said, “Today marks an important milestone in GE’s history. We are aggressively driving forward as an aviation, power and renewable energy company – three highly complementary businesses poised for future growth. We will continue to improve our operations and balance sheet as we make GE simpler and stronger.”

Flannery continued, “GE Healthcare and BHGE are excellent examples of GE at its best – anticipating customer needs, breaking barriers through innovation and delivering

life-changing products and services. Today’s actions unlock both a pure-play health care company and a tier-one oil and gas servicing and equipment player. We are confident that positioning GE Healthcare and BHGE outside of GE’s current structure is best not only for GE and its owners, but also for these businesses, which will strengthen their market-leading positions and enhance their ability to invest for the future, while carrying the spirit of GE forward.”

Kieran Murphy, president and CEO of GE Healthcare, will continue to lead GE Healthcare as a standalone company, maintaining the GE brand.

“GE Healthcare’s vision is to drive more individualized, precise and effective patient outcomes. As an independent global health care business, we will have greater flexibility to pursue future growth opportunities, react quickly to changes in the industry and invest in innovation. We will build on strong customer demand for integrated precision health solutions and great technology with digital and analytics capabilities as we enter our next chapter,” said Murphy. •

FOBI MEDICAL RECEIVES ISO CERTIFICATION FOBI Medical recently received its ISO 13485:2016 certification emphasizing the company’s commitment to the highest level of quality and safety.

FiberOptic Bulbs (FOBI) was incorporated in Texas in 1996 specializing in sales of medical lamps and fiber optic cables. The company’s original biomedical focus quickly expanded to include clinical departments of the hospital, such as respiratory, imaging, surgery and ER. As the responsibility of biomed departments increased, FOBI introduced services that provide customers a way to maximize technicians’ value and time. The company’s

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territorial growth and the diversity of its offerings transformed FiberOptic Bulbs. It re-invented itself and emerged as FOBI Medical. Its new moniker more accurately defines its mission in the health care industry.

“We don’t view ourselves as a ‘vendor’ because we don’t just want to sell you something – we want to be a part of your organization … a partner,” FOBI President Keith Przybyla said. • For more information, visit www.fobi.us.

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BC GROUP ANNOUNCES AA-8000 ANESTHETIC AGENT ANALYZER The AA-8000 is the latest in portable anesthetic agent analyzers. It was designed to meet the demand for a small, easy to use unit with high reliability and accuracy.

Utilizing digital non-dispersive infrared technology, the AA-8000 provides a microprocessor-based analyzer that is simple to operate while maintaining high performance and accuracy.

The unit’s flexible design and portable size makes it a service tool for anesthesia service applications in hospitals and surgical centers. It has a slanted display and adjustable handle/stand to allow for ease of viewing. The internal rechargeable Lithium battery provides for hours of continuous operation.

One-button selection of the agent to be analyzed coupled with one-button control over the built-in sampling pump make the unit simple and quick to use. No complex menus and key combinations are required. The internal data logger combined with the internal clock allows for the storage of up to 250 time and date stamped readings that can be downloaded to a computer using the USB interface.

Flash Memory and the USB interface allow for field upgrades with downloads from the BC Group website.

The AA-8000 is expected to be shipped by third quarter 2018. •

That’s where AUE comes into play.

For more information about the AA-8000, visit BCGroupStore.com.

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TECHNICAL

STAFF REPORTS

PROSPECTS

Experts in Siemens Medical Imaging

TECHNICAL PROSPECTS ANNOUNCES FALL AND WINTER 2018 TRAINING SCHEDULE Technical Prospects, a company specializing in Siemens equipment, has announced its fall and winter 2018 training class schedule. Courses delve into topics including computed tomography, fluoroscopy, radiography and more. The courses are offered online and in person at Technical Prospect’s state-of-theart facility.

Students will further their Siemens Medical Imaging equipment knowledge and skills through structured lessons and hands-on labs taught by experienced instructors. Classes offered from September through December of 2018 include: • Online: Intro to CT – September 4-28, 2018; December 3-29, 2018 This online course will provide students with a working

knowledge of the terminology and principles of CT components and circuitry.

• Fluoroscopy: Servicing Siemens Fluoroscopy Systems – September 11-20, 2018 Students in this course will learn to service the major system components included in the Image Intensifier-based Luminos TF, Sireskop SD and Uroskop Access system platforms.

• Radiography: Siemens Aristos FX/MX – September 18-27, 2018 This course will cover the major system components that make up the Aristos FX/MX system platforms. • For more information, visit TechnicalProspects.com.

ACCRUENT LAUNCHES ACCRUENT ACADEMY Accruent has launched the Accruent Academy Learning Center, a continuous training resource for customers. The Academy includes courses ranging from small classroom settings and train-the-trainer sessions to large training solutions with role-based, eLearning training in multiple languages that can be utilized by a customer’s learning management system.

When implementing a new solution within an organization, change management and user adoption are key components to ensuring a successful implementation and a better return on investment. By offering a variety of training options from in-classroom to digital continuous learning platforms, Accruent is accelerating product usage throughout global organizations.

The curriculum includes best practices from Accruent’s user community. As a result, users do not have to figure out everything for themselves, but are guided on how to configure the system in the right way for their company. The training courses – initially for Accruent’s lease accounting and

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engineering information management solutions – are developed by Accruent instructors with years of experience and are modeled on how customers are using the software.

Accruent Academy will continue to expand to other product families including its Internet of Things platform and capital planning software.

Some training courses include certification to ensure users have absorbed an appropriate level of working knowledge of the software. There are four curriculum versions available to customers: • Fundamentals: a quick training to ensure users are comfortable within the product • Blended: a combination of eLearning and virtual training • eLearning: allows self-learning at the user’s convenience and at the user’s own pace • Instructor-led: offered in a classroom environment Accruent Academy Learning Center is available immediately worldwide. •

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INNOVATUS IMAGING UNVEILS CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE Innovatus Imaging CEO Dennis Wulf has announced the creation of three centers of excellence that will drive the company’s ongoing development of new technology, products and synergistic services around its core competencies of ultrasound probe repair, specialty probe design and manufacturing, MRI coil, and digital/computed radiography.

The centers of excellence will operate under the direction of Innovatus Imaging President and Chief Operating Officer Bill Kollitz.

The ultrasound transducer repair center of excellence will be headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The MRI and CR/DR centers of excellence will be headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The engineering, testing, regulatory compliance and manufacturing center of excellence will be headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

This move is a continuation of the Innovatus long-term strategy to combine knowledge and resources through the combination of Bayer Multi Vendor Service, Wetsco and MD Medtech to accelerate advancements in design, manufacturing and service standards within the imaging industry.

“By organizing our talent around business lines, we can streamline operations and pass the efficiencies and savings on to providers, ultimately allowing them to better serve the diverse needs of patients,” Wulf said. “It’s all part of a bigger picture to improve health care processes and access for all parties involved.”

In addition to locations in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Denver, Colorado, Innovatus has an operations and service center in Maastricht, the Netherlands. •

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$100M GEORGIA CYBER CENTER OPENS IN GEORGIA With the opening of the $100-million Georgia Cyber Center on July 10, Augusta, Gerogia became home to a one-of-akind facility designed to improve the nation’s cybersecurity through research, workforce development and entrepreneurship. At the center of this cyber development, Augusta University will become a leading destination for cybersecurity education and research.

“As one of four research universities in the University System of Georgia, Augusta University is already an innovation center for education and health care,” said Brooks A. Keel, president of Augusta University. “Now, with the opening of the Georgia Cyber Center, we are a critical partner in Georgia’s commitment to increasing cybersecurity in the state, nation and world.”

The Georgia Cyber Center will become the new home of Augusta University’s School of Computer and Cyber Sciences, increasing educational, training, research and internship opportunities for its students and faculty.

This multimillion-dollar investment comes as the Augusta area gets ready to welcome the U.S. Army Cyber Command, set to complete its move from the Washington D.C. area to Fort Gordon in the next few years. •

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

BY ERIN REGISTER

RIBBON CUTTING

Introducing Medical Equipment Doctor

BY ERIN REGISTER

A

lbert Negron, founder and CEO of Medical Equipment Doctor, said the company purchases medical equipment from hospitals, surgery centers and third-party providers, offering comprehensive documentation and full-disclosure of how the equipment is to be disbursed and utilized. Negron’s company is based in Anaheim, California (home of Disneyland) and is able to support customers globally with their equipment needs.

“I chose to start Medical Equipment Doctor because I saw an opportunity in the market to support customers in divesting retired medical equipment, and help others purchase refurbished equipment at a lower cost than buying new,” Negron said.

Q: CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE START-UP PROCESS FOR MEDICAL EQUIPMENT DOCTOR? A: Our start-up process started with market research, branding and setting definitive goals. I’ve been

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fortunate to have met some of the most incredible people throughout my tenure in the industry that have helped pave the way to where we are today. We just hit our one-year mark and met our first-year goals. We’re in the process of moving into a new space where we can support more business and create additional jobs.

Q: WHAT IS THE MAIN FOCUS OF YOUR COMPANY? A: We like to say “Big. Small. We buy it all.” Acquiring equipment has aided us to sell refurbished equipment to facilities that cannot afford to purchase new or sell to other third-party companies that have a bigger footprint to resell in the market. It has also created an inventory of equipment for our rental fleet. Recently, we’ve rented out bladder scanners, AEDs, pumps and OR tables.

Q. CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT THE SERVICES YOUR COMPANY OFFERS? A: Our services offered are regional and onsite for imaging and

Albert Negron MEDICAL EQUIPMENT DOCTOR Website: www.medicalequipdoc.com Contact: Albert Negron Phone: 800-285-9918 Email: albert.negron@medicalequipdoc.com

respiratory equipment. We have plans to expand our services this year.

Q: DO YOU HAVE ANY SPECIFIC GOALS THAT YOU WANT YOUR COMPANY TO ACHIEVE IN THE NEAR FUTURE? A: Our primary goal is to scale the business accordingly and to not grow too fast to where our customers’ needs are not met. Meeting customer expectations is the most essential part of any business, and that’s where we feel we excel.

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AAMI UPDATE BIG CHANGES COMING TO AAMI’S ANNUAL CONFERENCE IN 2019 It’s only been a few months since the doors of the Long Beach Convention Center closed on the AAMI 2018 Conference & Expo, but event organizers already have big plans for next year’s conference in Cleveland, Ohio, including the launch of what will now be known as the AAMI Exchange.

“AAMI is launching a new brand for our annual conference – the AAMI Exchange. That’s what the conference will be called starting in 2019 in Cleveland because it’s all about relationship exchanges and the exchange of knowledge,” AAMI COO Steve Campbell announced to attendees on the last day of AAMI 2018.

But this change is “so much more than just a name,” Campbell added. “We’ll be introducing new programs to attract other key stakeholders in healthcare technology – stakeholders who are key to how you do your jobs.”

The Exchange promises to have a program that will engage not only the healthcare technology management community but also all of the other professionals who fall under the health technology umbrella. This will include additional programming for industry professionals starting in 2019.

“We’ve reimagined the annual conference to provide expanded offerings to guide thought leadership, business engagement, and industry growth, as well as new ways to engage with colleagues,” said Sherrie Schulte, AAMI’s senior director of certification and the annual conference. “This is about the hustle and bustle of a diverse group of people coming together for a common purpose.

The range of information, insights, and ideas that will happen – both formally and informally – at the AAMI Exchange will make this a ‘can’t miss’ event. People will leave feeling it was a rewarding time.”

The first AAMI Exchange will kick off in Cleveland on June 7, 2019.

For more information, visit www.aami.org/aamiexchange.

DON’T LET YOUR ACI CERTIFICATION EXPIRE! Is your AAMI Credentials Institute (ACI) certification expiring soon? To maintain your certification, you will need to accumulate at least 30 continuing education units (CEUs) over a three-year period and submit a continuing practice journal, which records your certification activities.

There are several ways to earn the CEUs you need for your journal: • Participating in online webinars • Attending in-service training sessions • Joining a biomedical society and actively participating in its meetings

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• Assuming leadership roles in committees, workgroups, or appointments that are HTM or healthcare technology related • Taking college or university courses For more ways to accrue your 30 CEUs, visit www.aami.org/recertification.

AAMI RESOURCE TAKES MYSTERY OUT OF DEVELOPING AN AEM PROGRAM In the healthcare technology management (HTM) field, a lot of confusion surrounds three little letters – AEM – starting with what the acronym even stands for, according to Matt Baretich, president of Baretich Engineering based in Fort Collins, Colorado.

“The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS] (the originator of the AEM concept) says that AEM is an abbreviation for ‘alternate equipment management,’” Baretich wrote in the introduction to his new AEM Program Guide. On the other hand, “The Joint Commission [TJC] says it stands for ‘alternative equipment maintenance.’ … And that’s just the beginning.”

In the AEM Program Guide, Baretich, who has been consulting on HTM-related issues for two decades, seeks to address AEM-related terminology, offer ideas for practical implementation, and explain how to remain compliant with applicable standards and regulations.

“Unfortunately, there is not yet a consensus on exactly how to create an AEM program,” Baretich wrote. “Some of the proposed AEM policies I have seen are, in my opinion, simply not compliant with CMS and TJC requirements. That’s why the AEM Program Guide goes into such detail about those requirements.”

Eventually, the field may get a formal AEM standard – one is currently in development – but many HTM departments need guidance now.

“This valuable document is designed to bridge from where we are today (limited resources) to a project that is just beginning and sponsored by AAMI: development of a formal standard focused on AEM,” George Mills, TJC’s former director of engineering, wrote in the foreword to the guide. “This document should begin to assure those curious enough to read it that implementing an AEM program is not only possible, but will result in improved HTM program management.”

Those improvements? Saving time or money, or both, according to Baretich.

“When we can reduce our costs while achieving the same level of safety, we should do it,” Baretich wrote. “Adopting an AEM procedure is not an academic exercise; it’s good business.”

The AEM Program Guide can be purchased from the AAMI Store at www.aami.org/store.

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8/20/18 10:42 AM

New location. Same quality.

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With our new location MME and ReNew Biomedical are even better equipped to service and sell medical equipment domestically and internationally. Let us know how we can help meet your medical equipment procurement, planning and service needs.

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NEW ADVERTISERS:

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TELL US ABOUT YOUR COMPANY: Total Scope is a medical device services company that specializes in the repair and maintenance of endoscopes found in GI labs, operating rooms and ambulatory care facilities. In addition to the repair of endoscopes and instrumentation we sell certified pre-owned endoscopes and GI ANN GLAVIN, FOUNDER & CEO procedure carts. Repairs are performed in two state-of-the art ISO 13485 certified facilities in Pennsylvania and Tennessee. Total Scope was established in 1992 and is a nationally recognized business. We also work with a variety of government facilities including the Veterans Affairs hospitals and Department of Defense facilities throughout the world.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR COMPANY: 626, as a brand, was born on June 26, 2012 when two soon-to-be friends and partners from Long Island met at a hospital while each’s first son was born. The company was officially launched 2-years later. 626 had an PHILIP REVIEN, CEO original focus on performing time and material service work for medical imaging parts suppliers, which led into contractual service agreements with imaging centers, OEMs and ISOs throughout the U.S. 626 is currently the fastest growing service provider in our space.

WHAT IS THE ONE QUALITY THAT DIFFERENTIATES YOUR COMPANY? The one quality that differentiates Total Scope is that it recently celebrated its 19th year as a medical device ISO 13485 certified company. We’re proud to say we were the first independent scope repair and services organization to attain this certification in the United States. It helps our customers understand our commitment to consistent and documented quality in our repair processes. A win-win for everyone.

WHAT IS THE ONE QUALITY THAT DIFFERENTIATES YOUR COMPANY? We are a virtual one-stop shop for Imaging service. We can be such a comprehensive solution provider because of our talented people and our technology. While many in the space offer a point solution (e.g. best GE CT service in the state), we offer a turn-key product regardless of manufacturer, modality or region.

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MULTIMEDICAL SYSTEMS

SEE OUR AD ON PAGE 29!

TELL US ABOUT YOUR COMPANY: MultiMedical Systems is a “one-stop shop” for all of your medical equipment needs. We provide repair service, maintenance and sales on general and specialty biomedical equipment, endoscopy and surgical equipment, as well as an onsite repair depot with pickup and delivery routes throughout DAREN KNEELAND, PRESIDENT California. We can also supplement your biomed team by placing technicians onsite for any length of time to help your facility get caught up on repairs or periodic maintenance projects.

WHAT IS THE ONE QUALITY THAT DIFFERENTIATES YOUR COMPANY? Our technicians, customer service representatives, sales team and executives are all focused on providing the highest quality equipment, repairs and service while always keeping in mind that ultimately our work is for the benefit of the patients on which this medical equipment is used. We understand the importance of what we do, and every member of our MMS family truly cares about our customers and the patients whom they provide care for.

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TELL US ABOUT YOUR COMPANY: Technical Life Care Medical Company (TLC) is a medical equipment service, repair and installation company headquartered in the Twin Cities metro area of Minnesota. For 20 years, we have been committed to providing timely, reliable and competitively priced services to our customers. We offer asset management, TIM KOES, PRESIDENT/ CEO biomedical support, leasing/rental and consulting services. TLC strives to deliver the most innovative and personal biomedical services.

WHAT IS THE ONE QUALITY THAT DIFFERENTIATES YOUR COMPANY? Our vision is to be at the forefront of the evolution of health care. Our products (including Merlin360, TLC Calibrations, Fluke Biomedical and TechMASTER Biomedical Cart) provide solutions to improve the quality of care and safety in the health care field. TLC will continue to ensure our services are the best and that strong relationships with our customers remain a top priority.

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BY ECRI

ECRI UPDATE

Empowering Postsurgical Patients? Boston Medical Center Has an App for That.

S

martphones and tablets have become a vital tool for so many of us. They help us learn new information, communicate with others and sometimes just pass the time.

the Boston Medical Center team ECRI Institute’s 2018 Health Devices Achievement Award. The Award was presented to the project leaders in June during a meeting of top hospital management.

Now, it seems, they can help us recover from surgery too. That’s what researchers from Boston Medical Center (Boston, Massachusetts) learned when testing an app they designed for postsurgical patients.

Frustrated by low compliance with the organization’s “ICOUGH” care protocol for preventing postoperative pulmonary complications, a small team at Boston Medical Center had a big idea: create an app that could show patients what they needed to do and also motivate them to do it. That’s just what the team did.

Results from the organization’s initial pilot study of the app are quite promising. Patients found the app to be empowering, remarking that it allowed them to take greater control of their recovery. Staff also liked the app, finding it to be a helpful adjunct to the care they provide. Early results show that use of the app led to improved adherence to the care protocol without increasing the burden on medical staff.

This innovative initiative earned

THE CHALLENGE: PROMOTING PATIENT COMPLIANCE Postoperative pulmonary complications are a common and costly issue. Instances of pneumonia, unplanned intubations or failure to wean the patient from mechanical ventilation can hinder a patient’s recovery and prolong the patient’s hospital stay. Such complications can have a profound effect on the patient’s health. Additionally, the costs to the health care facility can be significant.

Boston Medical Center had instituted an effective protocol to reduce the incidence of adverse pulmonary outcomes among surgical patients. The ICOUGH protocol, as it is called, stresses the importance of incentive spirometry, coughing and deep breathing, oral hygiene, and activities such as getting out of bed and walking around the care area. The organization found that the protocol decreased postoperative pneumonia by 38 percent, unplanned intubations by 40 percent and all adverse outcomes by 40 percent.

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However, Boston Medical Center found the success of the protocol to be difficult to sustain in its acute care, safety-net hospital setting – in part because of the demands placed on staff to guide patients through the protocol. Clinicians, who were already burdened with heavy workloads, could not easily incorporate the protocol into their everyday workflow. The challenge was exacerbated by the hospital’s patient mix, which includes many older, higher-risk patients and patients who do not speak English – groups that often require more time and attention per nurse.

The hospital needed a way to promote patient compliance with its pulmonary care protocol without overburdening staff. The solution proposed by two Boston University School of Medicine students, Andrew Chu and Samir Haroon, was to develop a smartphone application to support the ICOUGH protocol. Led by

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Pamela Rosenkranz, director of clinical quality and patient safety, a small team was formed to bring the idea to fruition.

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS The team developed an app that incorporated a variety of features to help improve adherence to the ICOUGH protocol: •T he app includes visual and auditory reminders to guide patients through each step of the protocol. An in-depth educational video that demonstrates each action is provided, allowing patients to learn at their own convenience and to refresh their memory as needed.

•P ush notifications are sent to the patients’ phones, reminding them, for example, to brush their teeth, to use the incentive spirometer, to perform deep coughs, and to walk around the hospital at set time intervals.

•G amification and benchmarking features help motivate the patient.

For instance: Patients can earn gold stars for getting out of bed to walk around the care area, they can keep track of how often they’ve been performing breathing exercises using their incentive spirometer, and they can compare their performance with that of other patients.

•A “Care Coach” feature adds an additional level of accountability.

Updates on the patient’s adherence status can be sent automatically via text message to a designated protocolaccountability partner, or Care Coach. The coach would typically be a family member or friend who

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can help keep the patient motivated.

• Multilingual language support allows more patients to engage with the app in their own language. Languages supported to date include English, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole and Vietnamese. The team found this to be a highly effective feature that helped contribute to the project’s success.

Eligible patients were recruited to use the app during a pilot project.

Participating patients downloaded the app, completed an onboarding process with the research staff, and then used the app while on the inpatient floor following their surgery. Upon discharge, the patients completed a brief qualitative survey and an audio-recorded interview regarding their experiences with the app.

As noted above, results from the organization’s initial pilot study were very promising. One key to success is that the app transferred more responsibility and accountability for recovery to the patient, while providing the patient with the knowledge and tools needed to succeed. This combination has helped increase adherence to the protocol, and it has done so in a way that has not overburdened medical staff.

Although the sample size was small (the study included only 17 patients), experience to date suggests that apps like this one could yield significant benefits for health outcomes and for a hospital’s bottom line. Dr. David McAneny, vice chair of the Boston Medical Center department of surgery and the principal investigator of the original ICOUGH study, sums up the app-development effort this way:

“This clever tool is an example of how innovative young minds can re-shape approaches to old challenges.”

ALSO DESERVING RECOGNITION ...

In addition to honoring the team from Boston Medical Center, ECRI Institute recognized five organizations as finalists for the 2018 award. We’ll highlight those organizations in next month’s issue.

Next year, it could be you. If your organization has engaged in a health technology management project that deserves recognition, ECRI Institute wants to hear about it. The nonprofit research institute presents its annual Health Devices Achievement Award to the member health care facility that has carried out the most exceptional initiative to improve patient safety, reduce costs or otherwise facilitate better strategic management of health technology.

ECRI Institute will begin accepting submissions for next year’s award in October 2018.

This article is adapted from ECRI Institute’s membership website. The full article features additional details about the Boston Medical Center project and about other honorees.

For more information, visit www.ecri.org/ HDAwardwinner; call (610) 825-6000; or e-mail communications@ecri.org.

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BY STEVE HUGHES

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n January 2018, the NHS invited companies to tender for a contract to provide millions of dollars worth of surgical robots to surgeries across the UK. With it now only a matter of time before robots become commonplace in hospitals around the world, medical power component manufacturer REO UK explores the power demands they will bring with them.

After hours spent in a crowded waiting room, you’re relieved to be beckoned through to surgery by a nurse. Dishevelled, anxious and mildly frustrated at the wait, you shuffle through as the nurse assures you that Dr. Vinci will make the surgery quick and painless.

Upon entering the room and lying upon the operating table, the nurse fiddles with a touch screen medical record and the surgeon sits with their back to you as anaesthesia is applied.

While slipping out of consciousness, you spot a mechanical web of surgical instruments creep into position above you like a spider. Meet Dr. Vinci, a da Vinci surgical robot specially designed to precisely deliver minimally invasive surgery.

It might still sound far-fetched but, besides the odd choice of robot name, we’re not too far from this becoming a reality. It’s been almost two decades since the first da Vinci surgical robot was used in a London hospital. While the number of NHS prostate cancer centers offering robotic surgery more than tripled between 2010 and 2017, the uptake of surgical robots in the UK has been relatively slow.

That looks set to change with the

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NHS’ recent multi-million dollar contract for surgical robots. In REO UK’s recent whitepaper exploring the state of the medical technology sector, we explored why these systems have grown in popularity as a way of improving surgical accuracy and reducing healing times in certain operations.

However, the rise of surgical robots makes good power quality a necessity. The last thing you’d want during a surgery is for the da Vinci robot to lose power due to excessive electrical harmonics in a hospital’s power network. As healthcare technology develops, this will unfortunately become increasingly common.

The rise of electronic devices in hospital environments – like the touch screen tablets used by nurses to access medical records – and switchmode power supplies (SMPS) used in the associated chargers create power quality problems. In particular, they can lead to harmonic distortion and electromagnetic interference (EMI) that can wreak havoc on electrical networks.

Fortunately, there is a solution to this. As touched upon in the whitepaper, design and electrical engineers can isolate critical medical systems from the mains networks using isolating transformers, such as the REOMED range of isolating medical transformers.

The transformers allow safe galvanic separation between the primary and secondary electrical circuits, which limits the electrical leakage and the interference to other devices. Likewise, it keeps the equipment safe from poor power

Steve Hughes

quality introduced to a network by mains-connected consumer devices – ensuring optimum performance.

Design engineers should integrate these transformers into the design of a surgical robot, or electrical engineers can integrate them into the setup in the surgery. This means it’s never too late to improve the power quality of surgical robot systems.

By keeping surgical robots safely isolated from mains networks, there’s little risk that a patient will awake from surgery to find doctors and nurses frantically trying to restore power to a limp Dr. Vinci. Instead, patients will awaken peacefully in a hospital bed with minimal trauma and a shorter road to recovery.

– Steve Hughes is the managing director of REO UK. REO manufactures resistive and inductive wound components for use with static frequency converter drives in lift and HVAC applications. REO has manufacturing operations in the U.S., Germany, China and India.

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he AA-8000 is the latest in portable anesthetic agent analyzers. It was designed to meet the demand for a small, easy-to-use unit with high reliability and accuracy. Utilizing proprietary state-of-the-art digital Non-Dispersive Infrared (NDIR) Technology, the AA-8000 provides a low-cost, high-function, microprocessor-based analyzer that is simple to operate while maintaining high performance and accuracy. It has a slanted display and adjustable handle/ stand to allow for ease of viewing. The internal rechargeable Lithium battery provides hours of continuous operation.

One button selection of the agent to be analyzed coupled with one button control over the built-in sampling pump make the unit simple and quick to use. Flash Memory and the USB interface allow for field upgrades. The AA-8000 is expected to be shipped by third quarter 2018.

For more information, visit BCGroupStore.com.

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THE BENCH

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HIGHLY RATED AND FREE CE CREDITS STAFF REPORT

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he TechNation Webinar Wednesday series continues to provide some of the best free education available to HTM professionals as proven via reviews from actual webinar participants.

The recent UMRi-sponsored webinar “Nuc Med 101 – A Technical Perspective” was eligible for 1 CE credit from the ACI for those who tuned in to the live presentation. A recorded presentation is available online. The webinar, which was attended by 264 individuals, received a 4.2 rating with 5 being the best possible rating.

The 60-minute webinar featured Universal Medical Training Support Manager and IT Manager Mike Hill. He started with the basics by answering the simple question “What is nuclear medicine?” He followed up with a look at radioactive material concepts, fundamentals of diagnostic and therapeutic nuclear medicine. He also compared nuclear medicine with other imaging modalities (CT/MRI/X-ray) and discussed gamma cameras.

Universal Medical has nurtured a business philosophy founded on offering comprehensive nuclear medicine equipment services at a reduced price.

Universal Medical’s products and services include new and reconditioned nuclear imaging systems, quality parts, equipment service, training courses for health care technology managers, camera system moves, technical and clinical support, flexible financing options, and more.

Attendees shared testimonials in a post-webinar survey in which they applauded the session and the overall webinar series.

“This was my first Webinar. I learned

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a lot from this session. This was very informative and supportive for the people that are working in this field. Mr. Michael included a lot of the information and data in very short duration. He is an expert in his field. Thank You,” said S.Shah, a field service engineer in Pakistan.

“This presentation was great for providing basic fundamental knowledge for HTM professionals who don’t have any experience with nuclear medicine technology,” Staff Biomedical Engineer B. Tellis said.

“I truly appreciate Webinar Wednesdays. The various topics discussed are well presented, informative and helpful,” said J. Wisniewski, BMET. “This webinar was a real good overview of the basics, looking forward to part two,” Senior Biomed M. McLain said.

“It’s always a pleasure listening to the Wednesday Webinars, bravo,” Senior Biomed M. Wujek said.

“Enjoyed the seminar. It was helpful and informative. I will pass the info on to the other technicians in our shop,” said G. Allen, BMET. “Great information, concise and instructor made it easy to follow,” Director of Biomedical Engineering R. Coombs said.

“Good scientific background on the terminology one will be exposed to in a functional imaging department,” said R. Larkin, principal, Larkin Consulting.

“I felt the seminar was a excellent introduction to nuclear medicine,” said G. Myers, manager of biomedical imaging services.

“Excellent presentation leading to basics of nuclear medicine gamma camera imaging. Evokes a lot of interest amongst budding imaging support FSE entrants,”

Director of CTM M. Janakiraman said.

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These are a must for the older technician,” Senior Biomed Technician W. Hallman said.

“As the newest member of the clinical engineering department, the Webinar Wednesday series has provided much needed information and insight into starting my new professional path into nuclear medicine,” Field Service Specialist P. Garcia said.

“Webinar Wednesdays is a great way to supplement the struggles of continuing education. It is a major factor in helping technicians grow in the field and learn of topics that they may not get daily exposure to,” BMET Supervisor E. Clark said.

“This was the best webinar I ever attended. The presenter was very knowledgeable and prepared,” Clinical Engineer M. Mappes said.

“Although I don’t work with nuc med yet, this Webinar Wednesday was informative and helped eliminate some reservations I had about working with nuc med equipment,” Biomed R. Marek said.

“I think Webinar Wednesday is a great initiative in continuing education. Our field is ever-changing and the need to keep knowledge current is extreme,” CE Account Manager H. Herbert said.

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ROUNDTABLE

STAFF REPORT

ROUNDTABLE Anesthesia

In this issue of TechNation we asked experts to provide an update on anesthesia devices and technology. Participating in the roundtable are BayCare Health System Field Service Specialist-Anesthesia Glenn Cain, Mindray North America Strategic Marketing Manager Scot Carriker, SOMA Technology Director of Corporate Sales Ashish “Ash” Dhammam, Paragon Service President Thomas G. Green and Dräger Senior Director of Marketing North America Dave Karchner.

Q: ARE THERE NEW ANESTHESIA TECHNOLOGIES OR FEATURES THAT CALL FOR THE PURCHASE OF NEW EQUIPMENT? Cain: Yes, there are new modes of ventilation on machines that make the anesthesia machine ventilator like the ventilators used in the ICU. The new technology machines have electronic gas mixers, electronic vaporizers, digital flow meters and software available that will allow users to save gas and agent by using lower gas flows and lowering vaporizer settings.

Carriker: Anesthesia delivery is steadily evolving. Low-flow anesthesia and advanced ventilation modes are becoming more commonplace in most anesthesia systems. Any and all new purchases of anesthesia delivery devices should meet the clinical and administrative needs of today while ensuring scalability to meet potential future needs.

Dhammam: It really depends on the current equipment fleet in use at the facility. Anesthesia machines need not be upgraded every time there is a new model available but if the existing machines are obsolete and absolutely no parts or support is available and/or they are missing specific ventilation modes it calls for the purchase of newer models.

Dave Karchner, Dräger Karchner: Companies like Dräger continue to look for ways to enable our customers to maximize their operational efficiencies. Three areas that we are currently focusing on is the continued improvement of “minimal flow” anesthesia delivery, the development of lung recruitment strategies typically only found in ICU and the introduction of data analytics into our offerings.

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ROUNDTABLE

Q: WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN AN ANESTHESIA EQUIPMENT PROVIDER? Cain: Where is the machine manufactured? Where are repair and PM parts are stored in relation to your facility?

What is the parts availability for critical service parts?

Can parts ship overnight if needed? Most facilities do not have spare machines, so having to wait for parts to clear customs delays repairs and closes operating rooms. Does the machine come with a service manual? Having the service manual (book or CD) on hand when needed and not having to pay every year for an online service is very important. We need to look up part numbers and service procedures on a regular basis. Also, having software on a flash drive is much easier to load in machines. Does the company have a sales rep that visits the facility on a regular basis or does the rep only come around when a sale can be made? Does the company provide complete in service of the new technology on the equipment? Is there biomedical service training available? Is there a local service technician?

Carriker: Several basic principles should be unquestioned when looking for a partner for anesthesia delivery equipment. The company and the equipment provided should be able to meet the specific needs of the individual and specific customer and the devices should generally be technology proof, allowing for updates to ensure the product is always clinically relevant. In addition, a stable and capable service organization should stand behind any and all products sold. This applies to direct service organizations and trained authorized third-party service providers as well as fully trained biomedical engineering departments.

Ashish “Ash” Dhammam, SOMA Technology Dhammam: Systemwide compatibility, easy access to local support including (whenever possible) third-party support and immediate capital, as well as long-term costs are important factors to consider. Inputs and preference from the anesthesia group and anesthesia technicians should also be considered in the decision making process.

Green: Check the refurbisher/service provider’s resume.

Are they factory service trained on the device to be purchased/serviced? Do they perform field service to hospitals and surgery centers? Where do they obtain parts? Do they have adequate liability insurance? Will they provide local references?

Karchner: Two items that that are always high on my list are the stability of the company as well as the provider’s research and development focus. New U.S. anesthesia providers have come and gone over the last 10 years and an anesthesia machine’s useful life is a long one. Spinoffs and consolidations are important areas to monitor for stability of your anesthesia vendor. Is anesthesia a core part of your provider’s DNA? If not, R&D may be focused in the provider’s other larger health care units (like radiology). A look into your provider’s last 10 years of anesthesia innovation can provide you a pretty good indication of what their next 10 years will look like.

Q: IS IT POSSIBLE TO KEEP UP WITH THE LATEST ANESTHESIA EQUIPMENT ADVANCES AND IMPROVEMENTS WITHOUT BUYING BRAND NEW? Glenn Cain, BayCare Health System Cain: Depending on the age of the anesthesia machine, software updates and if upgrades are possible. Additionally, most systems today are capable of integrating into the facility’s electronic medical record. However, researching the cost of upgrading versus purchasing a newer anesthesia system is highly recommended. You could spend top dollar to purchase new technology and capabilities for your anesthesia system and the expense could be close to the purchase price of the new, or newer, anesthesia machine.

Carriker: It really depends on what pre-owned device is purchased. Many older devices are not upgradable. In those cases, it would be impossible for customers to upgrade devices to stay up to date with new technology advancements. If purchasing pre-owned equipment, the customer should do their due diligence and understand what their future clinical requirements may be and understand if their purchase will allow for upgrades in the future. In addition, equipment suppliers should always act in a consultative manner to ensure that their customers purchase the product that is the best fit for each individual customer.

As an example, the Mindray A-Series Advantage platform offers scalable functionality that allows the customer to upgrade device capabilities as clinical needs evolve.

Dhammam: Yes. Demo/refurbished equipment is a great alternative to buying new. You can save a lot of money and still avail the latest machines and features. Please ensure the equipment being purchased is from a reputable company with good warranty and supporting paperwork/ documentation.

Green: Yes. Most anesthesia equipment refurbishers have

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ROUNDTABLE

modern anesthesia equipment models in stock for a great alternative to purchasing new at a savings of 25-35 percent.

Karchner: Absolutely! Today’s anesthesia devices are more software based then in the past. This enables providers to introduce new technologies and ventilation modes that previously would have required health care organizations to purchase a new machine.

Q: HOW CAN HTM DEPARTMENTS HELP PROMOTE THE MOST EFFICIENT USE OF ANESTHESIA EQUIPMENT? Cain: By learning as much as possible about the machine, what it does and how it works. Learn and understand the different ventilator modes. Stay proficient with new software and technology that might be available for the machines.

Scot Carriker, Mindray North America Carriker: Healthcare technology management departments can support efficient use of anesthesia equipment by researching products prior to purchase and then ensuring its proper maintenance post implementation. Not all devices are created equally. It is important the HTM departments have a thorough understanding of important items like maintenance schedules, required consumable replacement cycles and set-up/start-up times. With knowledge of a potential supplier’s offering, HTM departments can make a thoroughly informed decision that may significantly and positively impact anesthesia workflow. These benefits may be seen in reduced start up and room turnover times and, depending on the ventilator capability, may reduce induction and emergence times, ultimately improving workflow and throughput.

Dhammam: If the equipment being purchased is new to the facility, please have the clinical staff properly trained, including basic troubleshooting of equipment for common failures. Most companies now provide online training/ simulation, incorporating this as part of scheduled training is a relatively easy way to keep staff up to date.

Karchner: HTM is doing it now! Roundtables like these where vendors can more openly communicate with your readers is a good way to get the conversations going. And it’s with this collaboration that we can work together to achieve our common goals.

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STAFF REPORT

Q: WHAT ELSE DO YOU THINK IS IMPORTANT FOR BIOMEDS TO KNOW ABOUT ANESTHESIA EQUIPMENT? Cain: Understand the importance of these machines to life support during surgery and spend as much time as possible learning about the operational verification tests of these machines when they are not in use. Learn and understand what the different vent modes look like on the display. Know what the machine looks like when it is working properly. Be able to set up and test the machine.

Know how to change settings, vent modes, parameters and alarms. Learn how to do calibrations of oxygen and flow sensors.

Carriker: Biomeds play an integral role is ensuring equipment functions as intended, and this is even more relevant when considering how important anesthesia delivery equipment is to patient safety and clinical outcomes. It is critical for biomeds to fully understand the components and time frames for replacement parts and to understand the product life cycle, so they can understand the useful life of the installed devices and influence the evaluation and purchasing cycle of new anesthesia equipment. Biomeds are an invaluable asset and their understanding of the product life cycle can have a positive impact on the financial position of the institution.

Dhammam: Preventative maintenance and upkeep is necessary for all medical equipment, especially life-saving equipment like anesthesia machines. Parts and accessories are available through multiple third-party sources apart from OEM and this can help keep maintenance costs down in the long run.

Thomas G. Green, Paragon Service Green: Always check the reputation and background of each company, especially in these days of the Internet buying. How long have they been in the medical business? Does the company specialize in anesthesia equipment or just sell everything? What are the owner’s qualifications?

Karchner: That we’re here to help! Dräger understands that your daily workload can vary from day-to-day, and week-to-week. We offer customizable service solutions to meet your needs.

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A

larm fatigue has garnered a lot more attention in recent years and that attention has led to a meeting of the minds to find ways to remediate the problem, educate clinicians and find technology solutions. Medical device alarm management has become the focus of a number of special groups working to uncover solutions to this dangerous problem.

The term alarm fatigue refers to the potential for a clinician’s response to be guided by a repetition of false alarms that creates a numbness to responding. Like the boy who cried wolf, the repeated false alarms instill a sense of nonreaction.

The sheer number of false alarms presents a risk to the presence of legitimate alarms if a clinician is overwhelmed and ignores a given occurrence.

ECRI Institute had named alarm safety as the number one technology safety hazard for six years running. The problem with alarm management has been on the ECRI list, within the top portion of concerns, since the list’s inception in 2007.

In 2014, The Joint Commission selected alarm management as a national patient safety goal.

The resulting anxiety and stress resulting from repeated false alarms can have a deleterious mental impact on nurses, as well as the patient and their family. The alarms can be both annoying and frightening. There is also a problem with who is assigned to respond to each alarm. This is sometimes not always clearly delineated.

While much of the cacophony of alarms emanate from

LIKE THE

physiologic monitoring systems, there are others that add to the problem, that also cannot be ignored. ECRI has singled out ventilator alarms as an example of an important alarm that falls outside vitals monitoring.

Topic number three on the 2017 ECRI Institute Top 10 Health Technology Hazards describes the risks associated with ventilator alarms. And, on ECRI’s list for 2018, in the fourth position is; “Missed Alarms May Result from Inappropriately Configured Secondary Notification Devices and Systems.” This is another form of the alarm management problem.

No hospitals are immune.

AAMI launched the National Coalition for Alarm Management Safety, a group of experts who had their initial meeting in April of 2014 to address the issue.

Alarms can be a part of ventilators, infusion pumps, feeding pumps, nurse call systems, notifying of bed exits and more. The alarms can alert clinicians to a deteriorating state of a patient or simply signal that a medical device is not functioning properly.

A thorough alarm assessment should be routine at any institution that employs them.

Escalation patterns need to be followed and done so quickly. The algorithms developed for middleware need to be at the level of the alarm. The middleware can be the means of control and there must be redundancies built into every alert because Wi-Fi may become disconnected and signals to phones may fail.

In 2014, the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists (NACNS) Alarm Fatigue Task Force published “Alarm Fatigue Strategies to Safely Manage Clinical Alarms and Prevent Alarm Fatigue,” a guide to manage alarms and reduce alarm fatigue. The task force believes nurses must have strategies and guidance for effective alarm management.

That task force was chaired by JoAnne Phillips, MSN, RN, CCRN, CCNS, CPPS. That same year, The Joint Commission announced a national patient safety goal (NPSG.06.01.01) on clinical alarm safety for hospitals.

The problem is that the alarm management, and solutions for reducing false alarms, is a complex and multifaceted challenge that includes user input, staff obligations, recognition of all alarms when some may be muted.

BOY WHO CRIED WOLF,

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ALARM MANAGEMENT REVISITED T HE RESULTING ANXIET Y AND STRESS RESULTING FROM REPEATED FALSE ALARMS CAN HAVE A DELETERIOUS MENTAL IMPACT ON NURSES , AS WELL AS THE PATIENT AND THEIR FAMILY. The problem has also been addressed by members of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, held in collaboration with the Surgery Patient and Safety Committee.

Work done by Maria M. Cvach, DNP, RN, FAAN, director of policy management and integration at the Johns Hopkins Health System and Bradford D. Winters, MD, PhD, FCCM, associate professor, anesthesiology and critical care medicine and surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, has been particularly enlightening in understanding the problem and remediation approaches.

Beyond the work done by The Joint Commission, Johns Hopkins, NACNS and ECRI, to address alarm fatigue and management, is the attention it has received from AAMI. “AAMI pulled together a cross disciplinary team to develop an alarm compendium for hospitals and health systems as a best practices guide to help navigate the complexities of alarm management,” says Samantha Jacques, PhD, FACHE, director of clinical engineering for the Penn State Health System.

“The compendium gives real world examples used by other hospitals that can be implemented to reduce alarms such as alarm reports, education and competencies, and applications of tools such as failure modes effect analysis.

The compendium also provides default parameter settings for multiple facilities of varying sizes and complexities,” Jacques adds.

Some best practices include the adoption of some basic procedures.

“Successful alarm management 54

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would continue to require a dedicated multi-stakeholder/interdisciplinary alarm management committee that routinely meets to (1) review reports of adverse events and near misses, (2) audit alarm data, and (3) assess and revise (if necessary) the facility’s alarm management policies. Staff would also need education and retraining on using these tools,” says Priyanka D. Shah, MS, project engineer in the health devices group at ECRI Institute.

“Continuous staff education and receiving feedback from frontline staff about their concerns would also factor into alarm management,” she says.

NURSING’S PERSPECTIVE What have been the newest approaches to alarm management that can help nurses? Much of it centers around education; both from vendors and from research.

“The key issues that we are working on to help nurses; 1.

Standardizing onboarding and ongoing education. I have asked several key vendors if they have any data that says that their educational strategies are effective – can the nurses demonstrate safe use of the technology – they have all said no.

This is more of what could help nurses, we are still working on how this should be structured,” says JoAnne Phillips, coordinator, nursing quality and patient safety for the University of Pennsylvania Health Systems.

Phillips is a member of the AAMI Foundation’s National Coalition for Alarm Management Safety and is working on education for nurses on

alarm management.

She says that the regulatory influence of the national patient safety goal has brought this issue to the forefront for leadership.

“Because adverse outcomes – that we are aware of – are rare, it has been difficult to justify the organizational commitment to the resources needed to adopt a standardized approach to alarm safety (which includes education). There are really no tools to measure alarm fatigue or the negative influence of nuisance alarms on staff and patients,” Phillips says.

Her third point is that there has been a tremendous uptick in literature on alarm safety.

“It has been mostly PI projects, but that may be the best evidence that we will be able to get. There are several new publications that have addressed alarm safety competencies for nurses.

Our task force is putting together a framework for organizations to use for alarm education,” she says.

She adds a fourth point.

“There are several published resources available for nurses – one of the key resources is from NACNS (National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists). It is a toolkit that provides nurses with a series of alarm-related resources,” Phillips says.

WHAT INTERVENTION CAN HTM TAKE? Although the many physiologic alarms impact nurses the most, the HTM department has the medical device knowledge to help in monitoring the technical alarms as well as helping with the patient-specific alarms. This provides an opportunity for HTM to

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show empathy for nurses and align themselves with their clinical colleagues to help mitigate alarm fatigue in any way they are capable of assisting.

“With the onset of The Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goal on Clinical Alarm Management, hospitals were tasked with creating protocols to reduce alarm fatigue by decreasing the total number of false and nuisance alarms,” says Seth Blanchard, biomedical site coordinator, clinical engineering at WakeMed Health and Hospitals in Raleigh, North Carolina.

“HTM departments were in turn tasked to educate clinical leaders/staff with the capabilities of alarm management within the technology used for the monitoring, diagnoses and treatment of patients,” he says.

“This process not only saw HTM and clinical staff collaborate on ideas for nuisance alarm reduction, but also established momentum to bring the number of nuisance alarms down by introducing scheduled reporting of mined clinical and technical alarm data,” Blanchard adds.

Shah says that some of the steps that HTM can consider to help their clinical counterparts include active participation and involvement in the alarm management committee that may already be in place at the hospital.

“This will help ensure that HTM is up to date of the alarm management policies and potential issues reported by the clinicians,” she says.

She recommends that HTM professionals routinely check the configuration settings during inspections and other times they come in contact with devices that generate clinical alarms (e.g., patient monitors, ventilators, infusion pumps, etc.).

“If an ancillary notification system (middleware solution) and end-user communication devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, etc.) are used, ensure that these systems are properly networked and configured,” Shah adds.

How frequently do clinicians review device defaults? Can clinicians discern between technical and ADVANCING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

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physiological alarms? Those are some areas where HTM professionals can ascertain the understanding that their clinical colleagues have.

“Clinical engineering departments can educate and collaborate with their clinical partners to help address alarm management. There is still so much misinformation and misunderstanding as to how systems work that education is always appropriate,” Jacques says.

“Clinical users may not completely understand how the local alarm relates to one that occurs on the central station, or how that feeds into a multi-parameter alarm (like a sepsis alert) or how those relate to secondary device notification,” she adds.

She says that understanding the ecosystem can help clinicians make smarter decisions about what alarms should go where and who should be responding to them.

“Once those decisions are made, clinical engineering departments can then collaborate with the clinical teams to update and implement those decisions. Ongoing monitoring is key to assure that decisions made are reducing alarm burden while not affecting quality of patient care,” Jacques adds.

RECENT PROGRESS There have been innovations in recent years that have helped reduce the number of false alarms.

“Some innovations/advancements in the recent past that have helped facilities mitigate instances of false alarms include alarm analysis/ auditing tools, either offered by medical device vendors (e.g., patient monitors, secondary notification systems, etc.) or developed by the hospital. These tools facilitate alarm data collection and analysis,” Shah says.

“For example, obtaining a measure of the number and types of alarms that activate per bed per day within a care area. The more data you can collect (and make sense of), the better you can target strategies to improve alarm management and reduce false alarms,” she says.

ECRI Institute had named alarm safety as the number one technology safety hazard for six years running.

SAMANTHA JACQUES, PHD, FACHE,

Director of Clinical Engineering for the Penn State Health System

SETH BLANCHARD,

Biomedical Site Coordinator, Clinical Engineering at WakeMed Health and Hospitals in Raleigh, North Carolina

PRIYANKA D. SHAH, MS,

Project Engineer in the Health Devices Group at ECRI Institute

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ALARM MANAGEMENT REVISITED Shah says that certain alarm customization features offered by patient monitoring vendors, for instance, potentially also help in reducing [the] number of false alarms.

These features include setting configurable delays for certain parameters (in case the condition auto-corrects), ability to set alarm limits specific to the patients’ recent vital signs, patient profiles based on a patient’s age and disease conditions.

She says that improving staff education for effectively configuring and addressing alarms can help.

Jacques says that since the compendium was released in 2015, several papers have been released in BI&T that expand on this work, including: • “Customizing Alarm Limits Based on Specific Needs of Patients” BI&T May/June 2017 • “Improving Clinical Alarm Management: Guidance and Strategies” BI&T March/April 2017 • “Use of Monitor Watchers in Hospitals: Characteristics, Training, and Practices” BI&T November/ December 2016 • “Framework for Alarm Management Process Maturity” BI&T May/June 2016 “Hospitals and health systems now have a myriad of tools to use to work toward reduction of alarm fatigue.

These tools are making it possible for systems to rapidly implement changes to enhance the environment, reduce alarm fatigue and improve patient safety,” she says.

LOOKING AHEAD A more individualized approach and making more use of middleware are two factors.

Shah says that alarm management is a constant work in progress with multiple areas to focus on. ECRI Institute has observed and heard some member hospitals focus on key trends when it comes to alarm 56

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management.“Patient specific alarm customization: There is literature that suggests that [a] minority of patients are typically responsible for [the] majority of alarms within a care area.

Customizing alarms and ensuring that there are specific alarm management policies in place to cater to tailoring of alarms specific to each individual patient will facilitate alarm management,” Shah says.

She says that the goal with alarm management is to get the right information to the right clinician in a timely manner.

“Tools and features that [help] facilitate clinicians to achieve this would be one of the areas of focus moving forward,” Shah says.

“Secondary notification system/ middleware system is one solution that offers the ability to apply facility-defined algorithms to filter incoming alarm messages such that only actionable alarms are sent to the clinician and other end users. We have seen increased hospital interest for implementing such systems since they integrate alarms from multiple medical devices and hospital information systems and send it directly to end-user communication devices,” Shah adds.

There is more to be done to bring the volume down in hospitals and ease the nerves of those who have to respond to large numbers of alarms daily. With the help of HTM, manufacturers and the results of studies that seek to address the problem, a sense of peace may be on the horizon for those feeling the fatigue.

AAMI Alarm Compendium: The document can be accessed at: http:// s3.amazonaws.com/rdcms-aami/files/ production/public/FileDownloads/ Foundation/Reports/Alarm_ Compendium_2015.pdf ECRI Institute Alarm Safety Resource Center: https://www.ecri.org/resource-center/Pages/ Alarms.aspx

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EXPERT ADVICE

BY JENIFER BROWN

CAREER CENTER

The Do’s and Don’ts of Job Hunting at Any Age

BY JENIFER BROWN

J

ob hunting is serious business for people of all ages. Whether looking for your first entry into the HTM field or just looking to see what other opportunities exist, here are some tips and advice on how to find and land the perfect job.

REMAIN ACTIVE IN THE INDUSTRY If laid off due to a downsizing or restructure, don’t look at this time as a way to kick back or take a break.

Employers look for motivated selfstarters so remain active by doing consulting, writing articles or blogging about your field.

UPDATE EMAIL AND SOCIAL NETWORK PROFILES Don’t use the same email address and profiles just because you’ve had them for years! AOL and Yahoo email addresses mark you as outdated so consider using Google or Outlook. Create a professional email address where you could even add something that identifies your profession. For your social network profiles (especially on LinkedIn which is highly used in our industry) make sure your profile lists your current or most recent position, your current location and contact information. Also, a photo is a must with a professional business headshot being best. Employers and recruiters like to be able to connect a face to the name and profile.

POWER OF NETWORKING What’s the most important tool of job-hunting, especially in times of uncertainty? Networking. It is the most effective tool because if you use your network properly, you will hear

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of multiple job opportunities, often before they are even listed. Some job seekers shy away from networking because they equate networking with taking advantage of people or bothering them. But, if done correctly, networking can be a rewarding experience for all parties involved.

Networking is not asking everyone you know for a job. Networking means developing a broad list of contacts – family, friends and people you’ve met through various social and business functions – and using them to your advantage when you look for a job. People in your network may be able to give you job leads, offer advice and information about a particular company or organization, and introduce you to others so that you can expand your network.

edit your résumé regularly, adding new accomplishments and skills and removing outdated material.

THE FOCUS OF YOUR RÉSUMÉ Many job seekers think that the longer their résumé is, the more impressed an employer will be. Limit your résumé to two pages using direct action verb bullet points instead of paragraphs.

Your résumé should document your skills and accomplishments, not just your duties and responsibilities. List two or three accomplishments from each of your recent jobs on your résumé. Try to quantify accomplishments as much as possible. Consider developing a “qualifications summary” or “key accomplishments” section. Think of this section as the executive summary of your résumé. If the employer reads only this one part of your résumé, will it be enough to entice the employer to read the rest of your résumé? Finally, remember that a résumé is a living document. You are never “done” with your résumé. You should update and

JOB SEARCH FOLLOW-UP Job seekers must follow-up on every job lead, every job application and every job interview. Some may see the follow up as being very aggressive. However, as long as you don’t contact the employer too often, following up with emails or phone calls is a way to stay at the forefront with employers as well as know the status of the search. Each time you follow-up, your strategy should be to reinforce the perception that you are the ideal candidate for the job with the skills and experiences required for the job. Follow up each résumé you send with a phone call or email requesting an interview. Follow up each interview you have with a thank you note to each person who interviewed you. And follow up your thank you note with a phone call or email to express your interest and fit for the job as well as to check on the status.

JENIFER BROWN CEO and Founder of Health Tech Talent Management

SEPTEMBER 2018

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EXPERT ADVICE

BY MICHAEL DAVIS

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hen choosing to purchase a part for your system, you have a choice of vendors. You can choose to purchase from the OEM or from a third-party vendor. While purchasing from the OEM is a wise choice, it normally comes with a premium price. A third-party vendor can generally save you some money.

Ultrasound replacement parts are available from a wide variety of sources and can vary in cost by as much as 15-20 percent, but is price the only differentiator? There are different types or levels of thirdparty ultrasound parts vendors and they can be categorized by the processes a part goes through prior to shipping.

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MICHAEL DAVIS Technical Support Specialist

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EXPERT ADVICE

BY JOHN NOBLITT

THE FUTURE Good News/Bad News

BY JOHN NOBLITT

I

have written several articles about biomedical equipment technology programs and the state of community colleges. I have mentioned that enrollment in community colleges has an inverse relationship with the economy. When the economy is poor people either go to school or return to school to further their education and hopefully expand their employment opportunities. When the economy is good and jobs are readily available fewer people go to school and even fewer return to school to strengthen their skills, they just go to work. I thought I would share some more information and once again ask for help.

Educational institutions are not that different than any other organization (i.e. a health care system). There are certain ways the institution raises money, from carrying out daily operations in a fiscally responsible manner to adding services or adding more funding streams, such as more procedures or increased occupancy rates. In education, this would equate to adding a new program of study for more students to come into or adding students to an existing program of study. Just as the health care institution has certain reimbursement rates for different services, community colleges generate monies from generating FTEs or full time equivalent. These FTEs are reimbursed at a certain rate from the state. There is a formula for calculating FTE where you take the number of students in a class and multiply that by how many contact hours are in the class and multiply that by how many weeks

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in the semester (which is 16) and then divide by 512. The formula is how most colleges determine FTE. Once FTE is calculated the bill, per se, is sent to the state government for funding.

So, let’s look at how these numbers my effect a program of study. In 2010 there were more students than we knew what to do with, colleges were scrambling to find spaces to seat the students. Here at Caldwell Community College, we had to build a new parking lot, so students could park and get to class. That year we had 64 BMET students. Using the current reimbursement rate the program would have generated approximately $350,000 to fund the program and other expenses at the college. By contrast, in 2016 we had 33 BMET students which equates to approximately $166,000. These numbers make it very clear just how the economy and lack of students can seriously impact funding of educational programs at the community-college level.

Last year, with the continued economic recovery, we only had 10 students who began the program. In over 25 years, I had never witnessed so few students enter the program. I attribute much of this to students deciding to go to work instead of pursuing education and preparing for a career. During the academic year, out of the 10 who started 2 dropped out and went to work full time. Both students dropped the program for a $15 per hour job. When these students came to me they both said they would be making the very top pay for their job classification. I quickly reminded them that their first job in the HTM career

JOHN NOBLITT M.A.ED., CBET

field would likely pay them in the $20 per hour range, but that did not seem to deter them. Maybe for their situation it was the best thing for them, but I still believe they made a poor decision. If I had to make a bet, I would say at least one of them will return to college like so many students in their 20s do.

If we look at the economic fallout for the program since 2010 it looks something like this, 2010=$350,000, 2016=$166.000, 2017=$40,242. You don’t need a degree in economics to see that this is not sustainable. I am encouraged by the numbers for fall 2018 as it appears we will have 15-20 students beginning the program. This will improve the financial situation of the program. However, this improvement still has administrators asking if the program is viable. I think it is because the current job market is extremely strong. I share this information with each of you to make you aware of the state of BMET programs at two-year colleges.

As we continue to struggle to find the next generation of HTM professionals I ask each of you to steer a bright young individual pursue a career in the HTM field. You can always direct them to www.aami.org where they can find all the HTM educational outlets and the one that is the most convenient for them to attend.

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EXPERT ADVICE

BY JIM FEDELE

THE OTHER SIDE A Public Service Announcement

BY JIM FEDELE

I

wrote last month about my medical emergency and how I used the experience to analyze my medical equipment management plan. This month, I would like to share a little more about my condition and what I learned to help warn my friends and readers what can happen if you aren’t managing your health.

To recap, on May 3 I had an angioplasty done with 4 stents inserted to unblock my right coronary artery. It caught me completely by surprise and has since turned my world on its head.

At age 52, coronary artery disease wasn’t on my mind at all. I am a pretty active person, hiking every weekend, and hunting, kayaking and biking in between. My diet wasn’t terrible. I ate a lot of salads, but I like my beer and I love beef. I have started limiting beef and beer intake since my procedure. The week before I had symptoms (a weird pain under my sternum) I completed a Hyner Trail Challenge, which is a 16-mile run/hike through the woods without issue. So, having a heart problem was the farthest from my mind.

Since my procedure, and the ensuing medical visits and tests, I have learned a lot. It motivated me to write this article.

When you are caught up in the daily activities of living life it is easy to not take care of yourself. Now, armed with my new found knowledge, I understand a little better that I could have been the largest contributor to my issue – high blood pressure.

High blood pressure is referred to as the silent killer. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 75 million Americans have high

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blood pressure and only about half have their condition under control. I always knew my blood pressure wasn’t perfect, it fluctuates between normal and stage 1 hypertension depending on my diet and exercise at the time. I didn’t want to have to take medicine for it so I made sure that before my doctor visits I exercised a little extra. However, I was not really aware of all the things high blood pressure can affect. If I had known, I would have done things differently. I did not know that high blood pressure can cause damage to your brain, kidneys, eyes and heart. High blood pressure can cause enlarging of your heart and damage to your coronary arteries which causes plaque to form causing clogs. This is likely what happened to me.

As I am on the road to recovery and learning how to manage my blood pressure, I have had to make a few changes that are hard. The first one is managing sodium intake. This, by far, has been the hardest change because much of what you buy in the store has sodium added to it already. Even as I have tried to make some low-fat choices, labels show sodium levels above what is recommended to manage blood pressure.

The second is managing stress. I always felt I did okay managing stress but I need to learn to be better at it. Our jobs as HTM managers can be very stressful. It is easy to internalize the issues of the day. The complexity and challenges we face can take a toll on your physical well-being without us even knowing. Solving these complex issues is what makes the job so enjoyable for me, so I am getting some coaching on how to manage stress more effectively. Finally, limiting alcohol intake has been another hard choice as I really enjoy a good craft

JIM FEDELE, CBET Director of Clinical Engineering for Susquehanna Health Systems

beer, and typically enjoy more than a couple at a time.

As I think about all my friends and colleagues that are my age, I worry that some of them could be at risk. Many of us don’t like to go to the doctor and thusly do not have our health well managed. I think my situation puts an exclamation point on getting annual checkups and listening to your doctor. It is easy to think things won’t happen to you, until they do. I felt like I could out exercise my issues but it turned out that I can’t.

The results of the procedure have been good. I feel a lot better. I was starting to slow down the past year or so and just attributed it to getting old, but now I feel more energized. I am learning how to improve my diet and lower my risk for the future. I feel lucky that I am still around to share this and hopefully help someone else learn from my experience. The American Heart Association website has a lot of great information if you want to learn more about how to take care of your heart.

Jim Fedele, CBET, is the director of clinical engineering for Susquehanna Health Systems in Williamsport, Pa. He can be reached for questions and/or comments via email at info@mdpublishing.com.

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WHEN IT COMES TO PATIENT CABLES

custom specialty cables

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BETA CAN PROVIDE IT ALL FOR YOU High quality, affordable options for your cable needs

Repair or Replacement ISO 13485 accredited FDA registered SpO2

Fetal ECG

800.315.7551 info@betabiomed.com www.betabiomed.com

Striving for Perfection Through Discovery and Innovation 66

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8/20/18 10:42 AM

EXPERT ADVICE

BY MANNY ROMAN

ROMAN REVIEW Never Having to Say You’re Sorry

BY MANNY ROMAN

I

received an email that sent me to a website that explains in detail how to apologize. I’m sorry I clicked the link.

Now, I have to bore you with this column by adding my interpretation.

The article from mindtools.com is about “Asking for forgiveness gracefully.” You should review it right after you get done with TechNation.

So what is an apology? According to the article, an apology is an expression of remorse for having caused offense or harm to someone. A good apology expresses remorse and admits responsibility for the action taken as well as making amends and promising that it will not happen again.

The apology must contain two magic words: “I’m sorry” or “I apologize.”

You may have heard me say that you should never apologize. You see, I believe that unless your actions intentionally cause harm, or affront, an apology should be unnecessary. After all, unintentional consequences cannot possibly be regarded as requiring an apology. An expression of regret for the unintended outcome may be in order, however a full apology where we need to be contrite should not be expected.

If there was intent to cause harm or affront, obviously there is still no need to apologize, unless you changed your mind and now regret the intentional action. So, how do you express your regret without actually saying that you are sorry? First, let’s discuss other things you should not say.

ADVANCING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

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People have been taught to make an empty apology by saying, “I am sorry you feel that way.” This indicates that you regret that they misinterpreted whatever you did and it is their fault for doing it.

This now requires you to convince the “wronged” individual that if they change how they reacted, all is good. Anyone that says that to me is quickly relegated to ignorance and insincerity and the discussion is soon terminated.

Often the aggrieved individual is a victim of his own unmet expectations.

They expected a particular outcome, often unrealistically, and feel somehow affronted. An unrealistic expectation is a puff of smoke and must be gently blown away. It should be perfectly acceptable that you had no idea of the expectations nor the possible outcome.

Assuming that the “offending” action reached an unintentional conclusion, then that is exactly what we should say. We did not intend to cause the particular outcome thus the outcome was unintentional. With sincerity say, “ When I did (whatever), I did not intend to (offend, cause you to lose money or whatever) with my actions nor did I foresee that this would be the result of my actions. I want to ensure that this will not happen again so please help me to understand how we can alleviate this unintended conclusion. ” Use whatever similar words you wish with the intent to place both of you in a solutions-driven mindset.

In the heat of an apology, the wrong-

MANNY ROMAN, CRES AMSP Business Operation Manager

doer will say, “What do you want me to do to correct the error?” This is a mistake.

When you ask someone to tell you what they want you to do, it allows the other individual to turn the discussion into a personal issue. Assuming that we are still talking about business, making it a personal affront is not likely to turn out well. Instead say, “What would you like to see happen?” This is a more solutions focused question and generates a more rational response. Try it. It works.

Consider not actually saying you are sorry for anything since it puts you on somewhat unfavorable and shaky ground.

When the outcome of your actions is unintended, it is better to attempt to place all parties in solutions-generating mode rather than placing yourself in a penitent position.

Follow my advice and you will never again hang your head in repentance. If this does not work, I’m sorry in advance for any inconvenience or punches in the nose you may receive as a result. I recently heard that, generally, a key part of communication is that both parties be conscious. Be advised that none of this will work on your significant other. Oh, in case you wondered, the email mentioned above did not come from my lovely wife, Ruth.

SEPTEMBER 2018

TECHNATION

67

8/20/18 10:42 AM

BREAKROOM

STAFF REPORT

DID YOU KNOW?

68

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TECHNATION

SEPTEMBER 2018

WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

8/20/18 10:42 AM

years

Powerful tools to strengthen your clinical engineering performance

BiomedicalBenchmark™ from ECRI Institute places evidence and experience in your hands to maximize your maintenance and inspection processes with: ─Inspection and preventive maintenance data ─Device life expectancy ─Failure rates ─Equipment costs ─New! Cybersecurity best practices

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MS503

BREAKROOM

STAFF REPORT

THE VAULT D

you consider yourself a history buff? Are you widely regarded among coworkers as an equipment aficionado? Here is your o chance to prove it! Check out “The Vault” photo. Tell us what this medical device is and earn bragging rights. Each person who submits a correct answer will be entered to win a $25 Amazon gift card. To submit your answer, visit 1TechNation.com/vault-september-2018. Good luck!

SEPTEMBER PHOTO

SUBMIT A PHOTO Send a photo of an old medical device to editor@mdpublishing. com and you could win a $25 Amazon gift card courtesy of TechNation!

70

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TECHNATION

JULY 2018 WINNER

AUGUST PHOTO

Randy Guess, Biomedical Site Leader, Doylestown Hospital

1959 Birtcher Megason VI Model 106-5 Ultrasonic Unit

SEPTEMBER 2018

WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

8/20/18 10:42 AM

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BREAKROOM

BULLETIN BOARD

A

n online resource where medical equipment professionals can find all the information needed to help them be more successful! The easy to navigate Bulletin Board gives you access to informative blogs, expos and events, continuing education opportunities, and a job board. Visit www.MedWrench.com/BulletinBoard to find out more about this resource.

CONTINUING EDUCA TION

Visit www.MedWrench.c om/BulletinBoard for m ore details and to register for these upcoming classes .

Career Opportunities Company:

Southeast Imaging Service Oct 16 – Basic Ultra Trisonics: sound Tra ining

Oct 17 – AAMI: Software Validation Workshop

Follow Ben Calibrating!

ow Want to kn C. is? where Ben on Follow us Facebook nch and @MedWre ge! like our pa

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TECHNATION

SEPTEMBER 2018

TI: Oct 29 – RS p re P m xa E S CRE

Position Title:

CT Field Service Tech

Description:

Southeast Imaging Service is looking for an experienced CT/MRI field service tech for the Wilmington, NC area. We are a small company that has outgrown its current capacity. We are looking for someone who is tired of working long hours and missing out on family activities. It’s time to slow down and enjoy life at the beach! We are very family oriented and understand that family comes first.

Our ideal candidate:

5 years’ experience with GE CT is a must. We prefer if you also have Toshiba CT experience and GE MRI experience. This position will require you to manage your time efficiently. Paperwork must be completed within 24 hours of completing the job. Strong customer service skills are a must. This job will require some travel as well. Work hours will be 40-50 hours per week. Salary is based on experience, but will range from $65k-$85K. Bonuses available as well.

More info on how to apply here: http://bit.ly/CTjobpost

WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

8/20/18 10:42 AM

BREAKROOM

THE NEW AA-8000 - A Q&A WITH BC GROUP

INTERNATIONAL

We recently spoke with Mike Clotfelter, Vice Pres ident - Business Development at BC Group International, Inc for more information on the recent launch of the AA-8000, a portable anesthetic agent analyzer.

Tell us a little about this new Anesthetic Agent

Analyzer?

The AA-8000 by BC Group International, is the lates t in portable anesthetic agent analyzers, designed to meet the demand for a small, easy to use unit with high reliability and accuracy. It utilizes a proprietary state-of- the-art digital NDIR (Nondispersive Infrared) Technology to provide a low cost, high function, microprocessor-based analyzer.

What features set apart the AA-8000?

(1) Very User Friendly – designed for intuitive oper ation with a straightforward key and menu structure. (2) It automatically corrects for barometric pressure, eliminating issues related to altitude. (3) It’s very portable, light weig ht and has an adjustable handle/stand which makes it easy to carry and easy to read. (4) It comes standard with a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery pack, which allows for testin g vaporizer output concentrations in multiple ORs without the need for AC power. (5) The Agent being measured can be easily selected by pressing a single button, no need to cycle power or wait for startup delays when changing agents.

Read more here: www.medwrench.com/bulletin-b oard/

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LOGO

PHONE NUMBER

WEBSITE

ADDRESS

SPELLING

GRAMMAR

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GET THE

iMed Biomedical

POSITION

Leading the Industry in Biomedical Solutions

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Phone: 972-416-8801 Visit: www.iMedBiomedical.com Email: Service@iMedBiomedical.com

800.323.4282 www.alcosales.com

PUBLICATION MEDICAL DEALER BUYERS GUIDE

TECHNATION

ORTODAY

OTHER

AD SIZE 1/6 Page Vertical NOTES

MONTH

R E G I S T E R J

F

M

A

DESIGNER: JR

O C T O B E R

SUPPORTED BY

WSBA

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5 – 7

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No QR code, SPV

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www.bmet.org

M D E X P O S H O W. C O M

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the medical product support network “An excellent resource.

It’s my first stop when I have a question or need information. An asset to any technician’s toolbox.”

–Mark Cooper, Legacy Medical Imaging

“MedWrench has proven to be an invaluable resource in servicing medical technology.

–Sam Morgan, Kaleida Health

“MedWrench connects a wide range of biomed engineers, helping them to share knowledge and experiences.”

–Fadi Ali, RSS

www.MedWrench.com DISCUSSION FORUMS // FREE TO JOIN // BUY & SELL EQUIPMENT

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41

P

Gopher Medical 844-246-7437 • gophermedical.com

11

P P

RepairMED 855-813-8100 • repairmed.net

61

USOC Bio-Medical Services 855-888-8762 • usocmedical.com

7

Technical Life Care Medical Co. 800-989-8949 • technicallifecare.com

33

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Total Scope, Inc (800) 471-2255 • totalscopeinc.com/

27

P P

64

P

C-Arm Technical Prospects 877-604-6583 • technicalprospects.com/

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Technical Life Care Medical Co. 800-989-8949 • technicallifecare.com

33

P

28

P

Gopher Medical 844-246-7437 • gophermedical.com

11

P P

InterMed Group 386-462-5220 • intermed1.com

39

P

Southeastern Biomedical, Inc 828-396-6010 • sebiomedical.com/

58

P P

Southwestern Biomedical Electronics, Inc. 800-880-7231 • swbiomed.com/

83

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Technical Prospects 877-604-6583 • technicalprospects.com/

64

P

64

P

Cardiac Monitoring

Asset Services 913-383-2738 • assetservices.com

81

Soaring Hearts Inc (855) 438-7744 • soaringheartsinc.com/

Technical Life Care Medical Co. 800-989-8949 • technicallifecare.com

33

Cardiology

Batteries 17

P

Biomedical 626 Holdings 800-516-0990 • weare626.com

3

ALCO Sales & Service Co. 800-323-4282 • alcosales.com

74

BC Group International, Inc 314-638-3800 • BCGroupStore.com

84

Biomedical Repair & Consulting Services, Inc. 844-656-9418 • brcsrepair.com

58

Crothall Healthcare Technology Solutions (800) 447-4476 • crothall.com

63

P P

CMMS

D.A. Surgical 800-261-9953 • da-surgical.com

41

P

Nuvolo 844-468-8656 • eam.nuvolo.com/clinical

iMed Biomedical 817-378-4613 • imedbiomedical.com

74

P

Master Medical Equipment 866-468-9558 • masterfitmedical.com

33

Medical Equipment Doctor, INC. 800-285-9918 • medicalequipdoc.com

22, 31

P P

Multimedical Systems 888-532-8056 • multimedicalsystems.com

29

P

oneSOURCE 1-800-701-3560 • oneSOURCEdocs.com oneSOURCE 1-800-701-3560 • oneSOURCEdocs.com

P

Cardiovascular

P P

14-15,

57

57

35

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ReNew Biomedical 844-425-0987 • ReNewBiomedical.com

43

P

RepairMED 855-813-8100 • repairmed.net

61

P P

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SEPTEMBER 2018

Technical Prospects 877-604-6583 • technicalprospects.com/

P

49

Computed Tomography Injector Support and Service 888-667-1062 • injectorsupport.com

64

P

RSTI 800-229-7784 • rsti-training.com

51

P P P

Technical Prospects 877-604-6583 • technicalprospects.com/

64

P P P

Tri-Imaging Solutions 855-401-4888 • triimaging.com

50

P P P

Injector Support and Service 888-667-1062 • injectorsupport.com

64

P P

Maull Biomedical Training 440-724-7511 • maullbiomedicaltraining.com

38

P

25

P P P

Contrast Media Injectors

14-15,

PRN/ Physician's Resource Network 508-679-6185 • prnwebsite.com

76

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Calibration

Asset Management

PartsSource 877-497-6412 • partssource.com/shop

TRAINING

A.M. Bickford 800-795-3062 • ambickford.com

45

SERVICE

Anesthesia

Sodexo CTM 1-888-Sodexo7 • sodexousa.com

PARTS

TRAINING

SERVICE

PARTS

AD PAGE

Company Info

Company Info

AD PAGE

SERVICE INDEX

Diagnostic Imaging Advanced Ultrasound Electronics, Inc. 1-866-620-2831 • auetulsa.com

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PRN/ Physician's Resource Network 508-679-6185 • prnwebsite.com

35

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Total Scope, Inc (800) 471-2255 • totalscopeinc.com/

27

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Ozark Biomedical 800-457-7576 • ozarkbiomedical.com

Fetal Monitoring 29

P

Gas Monitors 58

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General 74

Imaging 626 Holdings 800-516-0990 • weare626.com

3

P

63

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Ampronix, Inc. 800-400-7972 • ampronix.com

4

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RSTI 800-229-7784 • rsti-training.com

51

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79

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Ampronix, Inc. 800-400-7972 • ampronix.com

4

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BMES 888-828-2637 • bmesco.com

43

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Technical Prospects 877-604-6583 • technicalprospects.com/

64

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USOC Bio-Medical Services 855-888-8762 • usocmedical.com

7

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17

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Global Medical Imaging 800-958-9986 • gmi3.com

2

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39

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Mammography

Monitors Select BioMedical 866-559-3500 • selectpos.com

Monitors/CRTs

MRI PartsSource 877-497-6412 • partssource.com/shop

Infection Control Healthmark Industries 800-521-6224 • HMARK.COM

23

Nuclear Medicine

Infusion Pumps AIV 888-656-0755 • aiv-inc.com

61

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Elite Biomedical Solutions 855-291-6701 • elitebiomedicalsolutions.com

InterMed Group 386-462-5220 • intermed1.com

30

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Online Resource

Master Medical Equipment 866-468-9558 • masterfitmedical.com

33

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Adel Lawrence Associates 866-252-5621 • adel-lawrence.com

74

Multimedical Systems 888-532-8056 • multimedicalsystems.com

29

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MedWrench 866-989-7057 • MedWrench.com

72

oneSOURCE 1-800-701-3560 • oneSOURCEdocs.com

Infusion Therapy AIV 888-656-0755 • aiv-inc.com

61

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Elite Biomedical Solutions 855-291-6702 • elitebiomedicalsolutions.com

Webinar Wednesday 800-906-3373 • 1technation.com/webinars

30

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Oxygen Blender

FOBI 888-231-3624 • FOBI.us

6

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FOBI 888-231-3624 • FOBI.us

Master Medical Equipment 866-468-9558 • masterfitmedical.com

33

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PACS

RepairMED 855-813-8100 • repairmed.net

61

Select BioMedical 866-559-3500 • selectpos.com

79

USOC Bio-Medical Services 855-888-8762 • usocmedical.com

7

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TRAINING

Multimedical Systems 888-532-8056 • multimedicalsystems.com

ALCO Sales & Service Co. 800-323-4282 • alcosales.com

SERVICE

23

Biomedical Repair & Consulting Services, Inc. 844-656-9418 • brcsrepair.com

PARTS

Laboratory

Healthmark Industries 800-521-6224 • HMARK.COM

Multimedical Systems 888-532-8056 • multimedicalsystems.com

Company Info

AD PAGE

Endoscopy

TRAINING

SERVICE

PARTS

AD PAGE

Company Info

P P P

14-15,

57

6

RSTI 800-229-7784 • rsti-training.com

P

80

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51

Patient Monitoring AIV 888-656-0755 • aiv-inc.com

61

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Ampronix, Inc. 800-400-7972 • ampronix.com

4

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BMES 888-828-2637 • bmesco.com

43

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Gopher Medical 844-246-7437 • gophermedical.com

11

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Master Medical Equipment 866-468-9558 • masterfitmedical.com

33

Pacific Medical 800-449-5328 • pacificmedicalsupply.com

38, 71

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PartsSource 877-497-6412 • partssource.com/shop

17

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PRN/ Physician's Resource Network 508-679-6185 • prnwebsite.com

35

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ReNew Biomedical 844-425-0987 • ReNewBiomedical.com

43

P

RepairMED 855-813-8100 • repairmed.net

61

Southeastern Biomedical, Inc 828-396-6010 • sebiomedical.com/

TRAINING

58

SERVICE

Biomedical Repair & Consulting Services, Inc. 844-656-9418 • brcsrepair.com

PARTS

66

Company Info

AD PAGE

BETA Biomed Services 800-315-7551 • betabiomed.com/

TRAINING

SERVICE

PARTS

AD PAGE

Company Info

Repair

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ALCO Sales & Service Co. 800-323-4282 • alcosales.com

74

Elite Biomedical Solutions 855-291-6701 • elitebiomedicalsolutions.com

30

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Advanced Ultrasound Electronics, Inc. 1-866-620-2831 • auetulsa.com

25

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Elite Biomedical Solutions 855-291-6701 • elitebiomedicalsolutions.com

30

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Engineering Services, KCS Inc 888-364-7782x11 • eng-services.com

16

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Technical Prospects 877-604-6583 • technicalprospects.com/

64

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A.M. Bickford 800-795-3062 • ambickford.com

41

P

P P

FOBI 888-231-3624 • FOBI.us

6

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58

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Software

Southwestern Biomedical Electronics, Inc. 800-880-7231 • swbiomed.com/

83

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Nuvolo 844-468-8656 • eam.nuvolo.com/clinical

USOC Bio-Medical Services 855-888-8762 • usocmedical.com

7

P P

P P

Replacement Parts

P P

Respiratory

Surgical Healthmark Industries 800-521-6224 • HMARK.COM

Portable X-ray Technical Prospects 877-604-6583 • technicalprospects.com/

64

P

49

P

Radiology

23

Telemetry AIV 888-656-0755 • aiv-inc.com

61

P P

Ampronix, Inc. 800-400-7972 • ampronix.com

4

P P

Biomedical Repair & Consulting Services, Inc. 844-656-9418 • brcsrepair.com

58

P P

RSTI 800-229-7784 • rsti-training.com

51

P P P

BMES 888-828-2637 • bmesco.com

43

P P

Technical Prospects 877-604-6583 • technicalprospects.com/

64

P P P

Elite Biomedical Solutions 855-291-6701 • elitebiomedicalsolutions.com

30

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Gopher Medical 844-246-7437 • gophermedical.com

11

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Recruiting Adel Lawrence Associates 866-252-5621 • adel-lawrence.com

74

33

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Sodexo CTM 1-888-Sodexo7 • sodexousa.com

Master Medical Equipment 866-468-9558 • masterfitmedical.com

45

29

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Stephens International Recruiting Inc. 870-431-5485 • bmets-usa.com/

Multimedical Systems 888-532-8056 • multimedicalsystems.com

66

Pacific Medical 800-449-5328 • pacificmedicalsupply.com

38, 71

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ReNew Biomedical 844-425-0987 • ReNewBiomedical.com

43

P

RepairMED 855-813-8100 • repairmed.net

61

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Southwestern Biomedical Electronics, Inc. 800-880-7231 • swbiomed.com/

83

P P

USOC Bio-Medical Services 855-888-8762 • usocmedical.com

7

P P

Refurbish AIV 888-656-0755 • aiv-inc.com

61

Rental/Leasing Elite Biomedical Solutions 855-291-6703 • elitebiomedicalsolutions.com

30

P

Technical Life Care Medical Co. 800-989-8949 • technicallifecare.com

33

P

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TRAINING

SERVICE

PARTS

AD PAGE

Company Info

We ONLY use OEM Parts!

Test Equipment A.M. Bickford 800-795-3062 • ambickford.com

41

BC Group International, Inc 314-638-3800 • BCGroupStore.com

84

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PRN/ Physician's Resource Network 508-679-6185 • prnwebsite.com

35

P P

Pronk Technologies, Inc. 800-609-9802 • pronktech.com

5

Southeastern Biomedical, Inc 828-396-6010 • sebiomedical.com/

58

Adel Lawrence Associates 866-252-5621 • adel-lawrence.com

74

Advanced Ultrasound Electronics, Inc. 1-866-620-2831 • auetulsa.com

25

P P P

ECRI Institute 1-610-825-6000. • ecri.org

69

P

RSTI 800-229-7784 • rsti-training.com

51

P

Technical Prospects 877-604-6583 • technicalprospects.com/

64

P

Tri-Imaging Solutions 855-401-4888 • triimaging.com

50

P

Providing support services and quality rebuilt equipment for over 17 years!

P P

Tubes/Bulbs

BIOMED DEPARTMENTS… • Our technicians repair circuit boards, pump mechanisms and LCD screens at the component level.

• Look to Select for BEST IN CLASS Pricing, Quality and Turnaround Time.

PartsSource 877-497-6412 • partssource.com/shop

17

P P P

Technical Prospects 877-604-6583 • technicalprospects.com/

64

P

Tri-Imaging Solutions 855-401-4888 • triimaging.com

50

P P

EQUIPMENT PURCHASERS… • We sell and rent the highest quality refurbished infusion pumps available.

Ultrasound Advanced Ultrasound Electronics, Inc. 1-866-620-2831 • auetulsa.com

25

P P P

Ampronix, Inc. 800-400-7972 • ampronix.com

4

P P

Conquest Imaging 866-900-9404 • conquestimaging.com

8

P P P

Global Medical Imaging 800-958-9986 • gmi3.com

2

P P P

Engineering Services, KCS Inc 888-364-7782x11 • eng-services.com

16

P

InterMed Group 386-462-5220 • intermed1.com

39

P

RSTI 800-229-7784 • rsti-training.com

51

P P P

Technical Prospects 877-604-6583 • technicalprospects.com/

64

P

Tri-Imaging Solutions 855-401-4888 • triimaging.com

50

X-Ray

P

P P P

• We work with you to provide tailored solutions specific to your equipment needs.

• Our IOT experience ensures we can help with your M2M connectivity issues.

Contact us today! www.selectbiomedical.com | 866.559.3500 Information@selectpos.com Select also buys equipment. Call us if you have surplus pumps or monitors to sell. We offer top dollar!

ADVANCING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

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expand your knowledge and earn CEUs

right from your desk!

Right information, right format, right time.

Webinar Wednesdays are all-right!

Webinar Wednesday series is a great way to expand your education and earn CEUs in a convenient format.

- D. Minke, BMET

- C. Nieland, Operations Manager

View upcoming webinars at webinarwednesday.live!

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CE/BIOMEDICAL EQUIPMENT INVENTORIES Asset Services, Inc.

performs wall-to-wall inventories.

• •

Ensure CE management has a detailed list of all biomedical equipment Establish accurate data for CMMS Systems and ledgers

• Identify disparities between

the current equipment list and actual equipment on-hand

844-747-2 9 2 9 AssetServices.com

ALPHABETICAL INDEX 626 Holdings…………………………… 3

Maull Biomedical Training……………

A.M. Bickford…………………………

41

Medical Equipment Doctor, INC.… 22, 31

Adel Lawrence Associates……………

74

MedWrench…………………………

75

Advanced Ultrasound Electronics, Inc.…25

Multimedical Systems………………

29

AIV……………………………………

61

Nuvolo…………………………………

49

ALCO Sales & Service Co.……………

74

oneSOURCE…………………

Ozark Biomedical……………………

Asset Services…………………………

81

Pacific Medical …………………… 38, 71

BC Group International, Inc…………

84

PartsSource…………………………

BETA Biomed Services………………

66

PRN/ Physician’s Resource Network… 35

Services, Inc.…………………………

58

BMES…………………………………

43

Conquest Imaging……………………… 8

SEATTLE SEA TLE

Crothall Healthcare Technology Solutions………………………………

63

D.A. Surgical…………………………

41

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ECRI Institute…………………………

69

OCTOBER 5–7 2018

Elite Biomedical Solutions……………

30

Engineering Services, KCS Inc………

16

FOBI…………………………………… 6 Global Medical Imaging………………… 2

M D E X P O S H O W. C O M SUPPORTED BY

SUPPORTED BY

WSBA www.bmet.org

www.orbmet.org

ADVANCING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

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14-15, 57

Ampronix, Inc.…………………………… 4

Biomedical Repair & Consulting

October 5-7, 2018 • Seattle, WA

38

63

17

Pronk Technologies, Inc. ……………… 5 ReNew Biomedical……………………

43

RepairMED……………………………

61

RSTI……………………………………

51

Select BioMedical……………………

79

Soaring Hearts Inc……………………

28

Sodexo CTM…………………………

45

Southeastern Biomedical, Inc………

58

Southwestern Biomedical Electronics, Inc.………………………

83

Stephens International Recruiting Inc.…………………………

66

Gopher Medical………………………

11

Technical Life Care Medical Co.………

33

Healthmark Industries………………

23

Technical Prospects…………………

64

iMed Biomedical………………………

74

Total Scope, Inc………………………

27

Injector Support and Service…………

64

Tri-Imaging Solutions…………………

50

InterMed Group………………………

39

USOC Bio-Medical Services…………… 7

Master Medical Equipment…………

33

Webinar Wednesday…………………

SEPTEMBER 2018

TECHNATION

80

81

8/20/18 10:42 AM

BREAKROOM

PARTING SHOT

“I don’t care that they stole my idea ...

I care that they don’t have any of their own.”

– NIKOLA TESLA

82

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TECHNATION

SEPTEMBER 2018

WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

8/20/18 10:42 AM

SAFETY 7.75”

DON’T THE SEARCHROLL IS OVER. THE DICE

WE WILL REPAIR YOUR SPACELABS EQUIPMENT.

WHEN IT COMES TO PATIENT MONITOR REPAIR. GO WITH THE ACE.

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“We Put The ACE In Spacelabs!”

“We Put The ACE In Spacelabs!”

WWW.SWBIOMED.COM • 800.880.7231

WWW.SWBIOMED.COM • 800.880.7231 1809_TNMag.indd 83

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WHY BUY AN ESU-2400?

THERE ARE MANY GREAT REASONS TO PURCHASE AN ESU-2400:

ESU-2400H

AUTO-SEQUENCES

EASE OF USE

WAVEFORM GRAPHING

PDF REPORTS

TOUCH SCREEN

UPGRADEABLE

USB CONNECTIVITY

PROVEN RELIABILITY

CALIBRATE AND PM TO FACTORY REQUIREMENTS

The ONLY all-in-one analyzer able to detect Pulsed Waveforms Phone: 1-888-223-6763 Email: sales@bcgroupintl.com Website: www.bcgroupintl.com ISO 9001 & 13485 Certified ISO 17025 Accredited

Biomed Support Services: Simplifying the Complex Quality training is essential for the Biomedical profession, but it’s often hard to find. BC Group is proud to endorse and recommend this new and innovative option for our industry. Dale Munson, a popular training instructor in the biomedical community, has launched his own business; Biomed Support Services. Biomed Support Services strives to build technical competence in biomedical technicians and clinical engineers. Biomed Support Services include creating simple-as-possible training materials, presenting customized courses, recommending process improvements and performing a variety of technical support functions (calibrations, output verifications, PMs, etc.).

Biomed Support Services Training Curriculum Includes: • Principles of Electrosurgery • Force FX™ –C Electrosurgical Generator • ForceTriad™ Energy Platform • Valleylab™ FT10 FT Series Energy Platform & more Learn more about Biomed Support Services at www.biomedsupportservices.com. You can also reach Biomed Support Services at 303-525-3393, or by email at dale@biomedsupportservices.com.

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