TechNation - March 2019 by MD Publishing

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MARCH 2019

ADVANCING THE BIOMEDICAL / HTM PROFESSIONAL

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CONTENTS

FEATURED

ROUNDTABLE: REAL TIME LOCATING SYSTEMS

Real Time Locating Systems (RTLS) continue to be updated to provide improved accuracy and new features. One key to proper use of a RTLS is finding the one that best fits the need of a facility. We contacted some insiders and quizzed them about the latest on RTLS.

BIOMED TIPS & TRICKS he tricks learned by using a particular tool, following a certain T procedure or fully utilizing their CMMS may all come out of experience for a biomed. In many cases, an approach or idea occurs to one person that is unique or useful and is worthy of sharing. With that in mind, some of those good ideas are shared here thanks to the HTM professionals who use them.

Next month’s Feature article: Shrinking Pool: Recruit and Retain Amid Retirements

Next month’s Roundtable article: Endoscopes

TechNation (Vol. 10, Issue #3) March 2019 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. ©2019

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MARCH 2019

TECHNATION

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EDITORIAL

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

DIGITAL SERVICES

Cindy Galindo Kennedy Krieg

CIRCULATION

Lisa Cover Melissa Brand

WEBINARS

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ACCOUNTING

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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

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MARCH 2019

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P.12 SPOTLIGHT p.12 Professional of the Month: Helena Digby, CBET, LSS-LL p.14 Department of the Month: The Northern Inyo Healthcare District Clinical Engineering Department p.18 Association of the Month: The Hawai‘i HTM Association p.20 Baystate Health Biomed Helps Revive College Program P.23 p.23 p.25 p.28 p.30 p.32

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SPOTLIGHT

PROFESSIONAL OF THE MONTH Helena Digby, CBET, LSS-LL BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS

hen former president George H.W. Bush died recently, a biomed, originally from Belgium, had extra reason to reflect with sadness on the his passing.

Helena Digby, CBET, LSS-LL, is a senior biomedical equipment specialist with the U.S. Army Biomedical Regional Health Command Europe in Sembach, Germany. Digby’s road to becoming a biomed started when she was still young and was influenced by her father. “As young as I can remember, I have always been interested in dismantling and rebuilding machines. I received a small radio for my first communion. I took that radio apart and put it back together in my bedroom, over and over. I was about 10-years old,” she says. “My father was an engineer, and together we spent many hours discussing blueprints and designs around the kitchen table. To this day, I must draw schematics when explaining anything to others,” she adds. “When I joined the Army, I was offered several positions, but the most interesting and intriguing one was in the biomed field. Although I truly didn’t know the details of the field, I knew it would combine several aspects of sciences, which fit my personality,” Digby says. She attended the United States Army Medical Equipment and Optical School (USAMEOS) at Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Aurora, Colorado. “The cycle of classes I attended combined a curriculum that was previously two stages into one longer, allencompassing course of nine months of training,” Digby says. “There were challenges; I was still a green card holder (originally from Belgium), and my English skills were only at 50 percent. There were two-thirds 12

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attrition rates, and one tragedy occurred in my family, interrupting my learning for 10 days, but I persevered and graduated with 12 others from an original 39 in class 10-88 (GY1),” she adds. COAST TO COAST AND PRESIDENTIAL DUTY Digby has not only seen Europe, but has lived on both coasts of the U.S. “I was stationed at Cutler Army Hospital at Ft. Devens, Massachusetts (private first class to sergeant). While serving there, the Secret Service hand-picked me to service all equipment at the presidential compound in Kennebunkport, Maine as an additional duty for almost two years, while the 41st President (George H. W. Bush), his wife and mother would come on vacation,” Digby remembers. “I then moved to the 46th CSH (combat support hospital - field unit), also on Ft. Devens, as NCOIC (noncommissioned officer in charge) of the biomed department, until the unit disbanded and the military post closed,” Digby says. She says that she left the military, raised her two children for three years and followed her husband, who was still in the military, to Fort Detrick, Maryland. “My husband then was transferred to Washington state in 1999, so our family moved again. I worked for two years for Providence St. Peter Hospital; part of a two-man team, servicing three hospitals and 80 private practices around the state,” she says. “In 2002, I applied for and secured a biomed position at Madigan Army Medical Center – also in Washington – and rejoined the DoD/Army environment as a

Helena Digby, CBET, LSS-LL

civilian,” Digby says. “In 2015, while at the Madigan shop, now called Clinical Engineering, I was offered the opportunity to create a new cell in the biomed department, as a quality assurance, quality control specialist,” she adds. CHALLENGES AND PROJECTS For people like Digby, who has been a female biomed in a male-dominated field for many years, there have been a few challenges. “If you look at the biomed field – and I am specifically speaking of my experiences in the mid ’80s, the ’90s and the early 2000s – there weren’t very many females in the field. I see that now, there is more emphasis in the military in particular, to have women trained and working in technical fields, but at that time there weren’t any. While working as a technician, I think I only worked with three other female technicians and, of those, I only know one who is still a biomed,” she says. “So, the challenge has always been to be more versed, more educated, more self-trained and work harder than any other technician to be a step ahead. The cultural stigma of having a woman not be able to understand or interpret technical WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

SPOTLIGHT

About Helena drawings and involved technical data and literature can handicap weaker or less trained individuals. I strived to always know as much as I could to be able to teach; thus, proving that women actually do belong,” Digby adds. “I would challenge managers to apply the same interviewing criteria to men and women – which legally they should, but seldom do. I also had a language barrier for the first few years, which I overcame. I really look forward to challenges, because for me, they’re just a motivator,” she says. She says she has been involved in several special projects. One of the most recent was while she was at Madigan, a new database was implemented in May 2014, called Defense Medical Logistics Standard Support (DMLSS). “In order to transfer all capital equipment and services, I volunteered to review every record in our database and upload them manually into the new database. That project took over one year of two to three hours of work after my regular biomed shift, and all my weekends until complete. This project was tedious and challenging, and I was alone, but it empowered me to learn the new database like no other could,” Digby says. She says that following the conversion, a handful of people formed a team to create a dynamic catalog which would combine the ECRI nomenclatures and Army guidelines for supply chain acquisition numbering, and created the Nomenclature Standardization Initiative (NSI). “The numbering sequences and universal medical device nomenclature system (UMDNS) were used to standardize all medical equipment in the DMLSS database, which require clinical engineering maintenance. In standardizing nomenclatures and also manufacturers, we streamlined the work of our technicians, and lowered the risks of patient safety incidents. We also structured the maintenance plans for better adherence to the Joint Commission’s environment of care elements of performance, manufacturer’s service schedules and FDA guidelines,” Digby says. She says that she reviewed patient safety reports, and created investigational

procedures; alertly responded to all manufacturer and FDA recalls.

FAVORITE BOOK “Maia” by Richard Adams

WATCH WHAT YOU SAY When away from work, Digby likes to travel around Europe and attend flea markets. “I like to collect little houses – handmade representations – from all over the world. Not many hobbies, work encompasses every aspect of my life,” she says. She has a 25-year-old son, Alexander, who is a boilermaker in Washington State and a 24-year-old daughter, Katrina, who is attending college for nursing. Her stepson is currently deployed with the Air Force in Qatar. “My husband just retired this year (2018). He served 23 years as an active duty Army soldier (also a biomed), then served as a civilian technician at Madigan Army Medical Center for 14 years (as a biomed). We worked every day, in the same shop at Madigan. He is now in Germany with me,” Digby says. Her mom lives in Belgium. “We enjoy visiting her about once a month, since we are only about a four-hour drive away from her. And, I have a brother in Paris,” she adds. Digby would like readers to think about the esoteric language that they may use on the job around customers; it can hinder progress. “We get so wrapped up in our little worlds, that we forget that each department of any organization, is a customer of the next department. In order to function efficiently, communication and collaboration should always be the main focus. We tend to use internal jargon and acronyms, which degrade communications, especially in the Department of Defense,” she says. “I have a sign by my desk which states; ‘I speak English, French, some Croatian, some Dutch, and understand other languages. Please do not speak to me in acronyms.’” She says that she also does not believe in ranking people by their paycheck, but by their intelligence level and their drive. And, on that last point, Digby has proven to have an endless amount.

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

FAVORITE MOVIE Any original martial arts movie, preferably in Chinese.

FAVORITE FOOD Eggs benedict for breakfast; sauerkraut for dinner in winter, or a big salad in the summer. Any food really.

HIDDEN TALENT “Bring me into a disaster, and I will organize. I always have a plan in mind. I love to take areas where others failed, and bring new thoughts, and ideas, and make processes, and organize what could not be done by others. I’m a chart, process, cleaner of messes type of gal. That’s my innate gig. I love to teach others. Of course, in order to teach, I have to constantly learn. Teaching new technicians, or other departments, or whomever. I like to teach.”

FAVORITE PART OF BEING A BIOMED “Biomeds are nerds, and most of them have sarcastic personalities, but they are quick-witted and very interesting. We understand each other, and this field is populated by individuals who can be extremely serious one minute, and totally silly the next. The field is also very competitive; it’s just the nature of the beast. We are stressed, usually type-A individuals who work hard. Most biomeds are biomeds 24/7 mentally. It’s a unique family, and most of us stay in touch forever. I married one.”

WHAT’S ON MY BENCH? “Unfortunately, at the present, I don’t have a bench, although I miss it. What I do have, always, is a cup of coffee, a large one. I also have a pair of Peltor Twin Cup old noise cancelling headsets, because chatter annoys me, and I like silence. When Helena puts her headphones on, don’t disturb please.” “I also display a photograph of my parents on my desk, because without them, there wouldn’t be me, and I’m grateful they raised me the way they did. And, of course a picture of my husband who has been by my side since that faithful day we met in biomed school 30 years ago, and of my children, Alex and Katrina whom I miss dearly.” MARCH 2019

TECHNATION

SPOTLIGHT

DEPARTMENT OF THE MONTH The Northern Inyo Healthcare District Clinical Engineering Department BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS

hree hundred and sixty-six miles east of San Jose, California, at the northern end of the Owens Valley, sits the city of Bishop, California at an elevation of 4,150 feet. It is part of Inyo County and is the largest populated place in the rural county. The county is also home to the highest peak in the lower 48 states, Mount Whitney, and Death Valley, the lowest point in the U.S.

In the mid to late 1940s, the foundation was laid to provide health care services to this rural area. The first Hospital District in California was formed and established to fund a hospital and Northern Inyo Hospital opened its doors by the end of the decade. Renovations throughout the 1960s and 1980s, and a major renovation in 2012, allowed the nine-acre hospital campus to evolve into a modern facility. Today, the Northern Inyo Healthcare District continues to support the health care needs of the local community – as it has for decades. A small clinical engineering department supports the hospital and several clinic locations. “We are a two-person department under the name of clinical engineering,” says Scott Stoner who manages the CE department. Stoner has eight and a half years of biomedical experience, 19 total years working in the electronics field and has an A.A.S. degree from Vincennes University in Vincennes, Indiana. He has also completed the DITEC Level 1 radiology course. Biomedical Electronics Technician Jeffery Townsend has seen his first year of biomedical experience, and holds a 14

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Manager Scott Stoner, right, and Biomedical Electronics Technician Jeffery Townsend make up the two-man Northern Inyo Healthcare District Clinical Engineering Department. diploma from SCIT as biomed technician and certification from CSHS as an EKG technician. In addition to the 25-bed critical access hospital, clinical engineering supports 86 patient bays/rooms that are not considered beds, across seven clinics, the emergency department, pre and post-OP and several other locations. They also support three operating rooms. To hold down the clinical engineering duties as a two-man department in a rural area, the biomeds have to be up-to-speed on everything. “Generally speaking, we are well-rounded biomeds. We provide first call for all modalities. Over the years, we have received overview training from many vendors. We try to go with a field service tech whenever they come on site to learn and better understand the equipment,” Stoner says. He says that the knowledge and experience service techs carry with them

is invaluable. “Most of them are willing to share and teach us so we can better support our clinical staff and ultimately our patients. Living in a rural location, it is imperative we learn as much as we can about every device we can potentially service, with support of equipment manufacturers and FSEs, we can first call and fix many issues leading to a reduction in downtime,” Stoner adds. Stoner is formally trained with Coviedien ESUs, Philips patient monitors, DITEC level 1 and will be seeking formal ventilator training this year. Townsend is enrolled currently with Conquest Imaging for general ultrasound. The small two-man team provides general biomed services, PMs and break-fix services. They also provide advisory for clinical departments regarding clinical equipment acquisitions. “We check to make sure it is FDA approved, the device is intended for the use requested, fits into standardization, is compliant with hospital policy and procedures and if it can be supported by other departments such as EVS/infection control or ITS,” Stoner says.

“ We try to go with a field service tech whenever they come on site to learn and better understand the equipment.” - Scott Stoner He says they also provide contract oversight for service or acquisition of equipment to ensure unneeded or redundant services are not being added in. WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

SPOTLIGHT

“ Living in a rural location, it is imperative we learn as much as we can about every device we can potentially service.” - Scott Stoner The team also provides training on use of medical equipment and systems as well as root cause analysis for any break down in patient care related to equipment/ supplies. What level of integration does the team have with IT? “We combined to report to the ITS director less than two-years ago. Unique challenges, as from the outside it seems they would go together, and in some aspects, they do, but we perform separate functions in the overall area of technology. Moving forward this collaboration will continue to grow,” Stoner says. CEO Kevin S. Flanigan, MD, believes Northern Inyo Healthcare District streamlining the organization by integrating CE into ITS was simply intended to parallel what was happening in other areas of the organization. This integration however; has been the shining star of that process. “With Scott Stoner leading the charge under the Districts ‘One Team’ mentality, we have seen a complete integration resulting in huge cost savings, tremendous efficiencies and an area that was previously a cost center is now a leading cost savings area. In essence, this integration and Scott Stoner’s team in particular, now saves enough money

annually to justify the cost of having a clinical engineering team at such a small facility,” Flanigan says. Stoner says that they are currently working on bringing their patient monitoring network in-house and supported by both CE and IT, allowing for cost savings and less down time. GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND Attempting to handle all of the biomed duties between two people doesn’t allow for many “special projects.” Yet, the team still remains involved and engaged. “We participate in equipment acquisition, equipment installation, alarm fatigue committee, project planning/ prioritization, change committee (process changes) and EMR integration (this one is difficult and typically research and development work related),” Stoner says. He adds that the pair recently implemented a new CMMS and deployed temperature monitoring throughout the hospital. They have also participated in Adopt a Highway – highway cleanup volunteer, as well as volunteering with the hospital foundation events. “We exercise a one-team/one-goal mentality with the rest of our facility,” Stoner says. In the problem-solving category, the team has been involved with CO2

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

monitoring post anesthesia to meet the 24-hour requirement. “Currently, there are no Telebox’s that support CO2, only standalone units or combined with a patient monitor or IV pump,” Stoner says. “We are in the process of acquiring new X3 monitors from Philips to be used as teles for patients requiring CO2 to satisfy the 24-continuous-requirement, while it automatically charts and saves data which is viewed in real time by our teletech position in the ICU,” he adds. Outside of the workplace, the twoman team attempts to attend conferences. “Due to our remote location, we are unable to attend some of the smaller activities,” Stoner says. “We have, and plan to continue, attending AAMI and possibly MD Expo [and] wish we could attend CMIA,” he adds. “I am currently working on creating a forum for critical access hospitals in California; specifically for biomed/CE/ HTM,” Stoner says. “We are a rarity in the world of health care these days, but we all share similar, unique issues that are specific to these locations. We typically have lower patient volumes compared to large facilities, however we operate in such a way to provide those same great services a person would expect from a large facility,” he adds. He says that for CE, this means the biomeds wear many hats. “We hold a large inventory of active equipment (1482-pieces, not counting O2 regulators and the like), we work with minimal staffing to accomplish all of this. In many cases, we do not have a larger body above us in which we can share resources or ask for historical data when it comes to equipment selection. I work on this in my free time which is a rarity as well,” Stoner says. With Death Valley nearby, it takes a special kind of health care facility and a devoted pair of biomeds to keep patients healthy and equipment running. The CE team at The Northern Inyo Healthcare District accomplishes this task every day. MARCH 2019

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SPOTLIGHT

ASSOCIATION OF THE MONTH The Hawai‘i Healthcare Technology Management Association

hile the palm trees sway and the tourists gather at Waikiki, the serious business of networking all of Hawaii’s HTM professionals goes on behind the scenes. The stillyoung Hawai‘i Healthcare Technology Management Association was formed in 2017.

The association may be the only one that greets the HTM field with its acronym; HiHTM. Leadership in the new association includes President Aaron Predum, CBET, who is the biomed director for Hawai‘i Pacific Health. Jose M. Maldonado, CBET, healthcare technology manager at Tripler Army Medical Center is the group’s vice president. Laura Lewis, CBET, is the association’s secretary and Ramon A. Pagan, CHTM, chief equipment management branch, Tripler Army Medical Center, is the association’s current treasurer. Eric Tessmer, CBET, service manager, Lifescience Resources was one of the presidents of the prior biomed association in Hawaii (Hawaii Association for Biomedical Instrumentation) for several years and helped bring together the interested parties to start up the new association. The association’s website captures its purpose statement perfectly. “HiHTM is the society for Healthcare Technology Management professionals in Hawaii. 18

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Our purpose is to provide a forum for discussion and [the] education of those who provide technology support to the health care community. While the majority of our members are clinical or biomedical engineers/ technicians, HiHTM also encompasses IT personnel, hospital safety officers, Aaron Peterschmidt and Aaron Predum meet and greet educators, field service attendees at the HiHTM Biomed Appreciation dinner event at engineers, OEM design the Brilliant Ox restaurant in Honolulu. engineers and other related professionals in Hawaii,” it reads. The association started through the and also in determining how much cooperative efforts of two groups. progress had been made on each “This started off as two groups, both association’s infrastructure. There were interested at the same time in starting a competing ideas and directions, but by new biomed association; one from the end of this meeting, the decision Kaiser Permanente Hawaii and one was formalized to join forces and from members of a former biomed merge the two entities into one,” association (Hawaii Association for Predum says. Biomedical Instrumentation {HABI}) Predum says that in order to which had been defunct for several accelerate the pace of forming the years. Eric Tessmer of the HABI group, association, they created a steering reached out to Laura Lewis (who committee to be comprised of several represented the Kaiser group), to discuss interested biomeds, who would work what the Kaiser group was doing and to out the logistics necessary to form the see if there might be any interest in association. merging. Within two weeks, the two “From this, teams were assigned to groups got together to discuss merging work on the necessary aspects to create to form one group,” Predum says. our nonprofit association. We He says that this first meeting was subsequently voted in our board of attended by five biomeds from Kaiser and directors, officers and committee five from the group led by Eric Tessmer. chairpersons. Currently we have 10 “This was a very interesting people on the board, four officers, meeting, first in getting an three committee chairpersons and understanding of each group’s interests about 50 members,” Predum adds. WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

PHOTO COURTESY OF ERIC TESSMER

BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS

PHOTO COURTESY OF ERIC TESSMER

SPOTLIGHT

A FIRST EXPO AND TRAINING The new association was organized, duties were delineated and officers were appointed. Now, the important work of an HTM association began. HiHTM had a mandate and set about the task of enriching its members. “A large part of our association is education and encouraging and increasing the level of professionalism in biomed community,” Predum says. He says that the group has already embarked on several initiatives. “AAMI certification test prep classes sponsored and taught by SFC Jose Maldonado and CW4 Ramon Pagan at Tripler Army Medical Center. This program was provided to help the Army biomeds get certified, but SFC Maldonado and CW4 Ramon Pagan generously opened the classes up to any civilians interested. Out of this, in the past year we had several biomeds achieve certification,” Predum says. Predum has reached out to one of the local community colleges and discussed restarting the biomed trades program with their director, which was discontinued several years ago. “In most of our bi-monthly meetings, we feature speakers with engineering, clinical and technical backgrounds to provide education information on topics such as new technology, biomed safety, test

“ We are reaching out beyond our biomed community to invite people in other areas of the medical field to join in our meetings to give them exposure to our organization and to the biomed community.” - Aaron Predum procedures, technical overview and Joint Commission procedures,” Predum says. Most HTM associations and societies host an annual convention or symposium. HiHTM hosted its first expo in February. “In February, we will have our first annual healthcare technology management expo in Hawaii, which will be a joint presentation between HiHTM and Hawaii Society for Healthcare Engineering (HISHE). We intend to have several breakout class sessions and joint association keynote speakers, which will include health care compliance expert George Mills. We are also looking into bringing in a motivational speaker to discuss how to improve interpersonal communication on the job,” Predum says. He says that the group holds meetings every two months. They are simulcast via Skype or Facebook Live. “We have developed a very good relationship with our vendor community. For our last meeting, we invited the Puritan Bennet division of Medtronics to give a technical presentation on their ventilators, which covered a brief history

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

of all the platforms, showing the evolving technology and clinical capabilities, current hardware and firmware available, how to dissemble and troubleshoot, and how to do preventive maintenance,” Predum adds. “During the next year we’ll have more vendors doing clinical and technical presentations,” he says. Increasing membership in HTM associations can be a challenge with the baby boomer generation biomeds retiring in large numbers. Every group needs a plan to replace these members. “We are reaching out beyond our biomed community to invite people in other areas of the medical field to join in our meetings to give them exposure to our organization and to the biomed community,” Predum says, explaining their strategy. When in the Aloha State, remember that there is a thriving HTM association advancing its members’ knowledge, supporting certification and building unity within the Hawai’i HTM community. It’s not only about swaying palm trees and Waikiki tourists in Hawai’i. MARCH 2019

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SPOTLIGHT

BAYSTATE HEALTH

Biomed Helps Revive College Program

pend some time in a hospital and you may hear the steady blip of an EKG, the hum of an X-ray machine or the whirring of an IV pump.

is extremely difficult,” he said. To address the demand for trained workers, STCC now offers a two-year associate degree program in biomedical engineering technology. Students can choose between two concentration tracks: • Biomedical equipment technology (installing, calibrating and maintaining medical devices and equipment) • Biomedical manufacturing technology (manufacturing of biomedical-related equipment and instrumentation) Creswell graduated from STCC when the program was called biomedical instrumentation. The college has not

These are the sounds of functioning, sophisticated medical equipment – and it’s easy to take the life-saving devices for granted. But like cars or household appliances, the equipment needs maintenance and occasional repairs. When the machines don’t work, hospitals turn to highly trained technicians to repair them – people like Kirk B. Creswell, a 1976 Springfield Technical Community College graduate. Creswell has worked at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield for 28 years. He is a clinical engineering manager for Baystate Health, which operates the medical center. “Here at Baystate Health, there are roughly 30,000 patient care devices that are Kirk B. Creswell, center, clinical engineering manager at either electronic, Baystate Health, stands with technicians Emily Bonazelli, pneumatic or clinical engineering service representative specialist, and mechanical,” said Nikolas Fiore, clinical engineering contractor. Creswell. “That’s everything from infusion pumps to offered the program for several years, patient monitors and MRIs – the full but decided to bring it back to meet an gamut. It’s our job to keep that fleet of industry demand, said Adrienne Smith, equipment from breaking. If it does dean of the School of Engineering break, we fix it.” Technologies and Mathematics. The With so many critical devices in need addition of the biomedical associate of maintenance or repair, Baystate and degree program is back by Creswell and other medical facilities throughout New his employer. The Baystate Springfield England and nationwide need trained Educational Partnership is a program employees working on site. Many that provides opportunities for area technicians who have been working for public school students to explore healthdecades will be retiring in the next five care careers. to 10 years, Creswell said. “The demand for qualified workers “Finding qualified replacements with exists in medical facilities not only in the appropriate educational background Western Massachusetts, but throughout 20

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MARCH 2019

New England and all of the country,” Smith said. “STCC is offering the region’s only biomedical engineering technology associate degree program, and industry leaders are looking to us to bolster their workforce.” It’s great to go through a two-year program and know you can have a job coming out of it, and it’s much more affordable than a four-year college. STCC President John B. Cook said the program is the latest to be added under the umbrella of advanced manufacturing. “We offer several engineering technology degrees that prepare students for robust careers, including programs in electronic systems, electrical, mechanical and optics and photonics,” Cook said. “The launch of the biomedical engineering technology program will create terrific opportunities for our students.” Nikolas A. Fiore, of Ludlow, is one of the first students in the new biomedical engineering technology program. Now working part time as a clinical engineering contractor at Baystate, he has nearly completed the electronic systems engineering technology program at STCC and hopes to graduate with dual degrees. Fiore said he has loved working at Baystate since he began as an intern while in high school two years ago. “Every day could be something different,” he said. “It’s good experience. You learn how to interact with clinicians and physicians, and you learn how to work on equipment.” Fiore sees the STCC biomedical engineering technology program as a pathway to steady employment. “It’s great to go through a two-year program and know you can have a job coming out of it,” Fiore said. “And it’s much more affordable than a four-year college.” WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

SPOTLIGHT

Area school students visit the biomedical engineering technology lab at STCC.

STCC President John B. Cook and Adrienne Smith, dean of the School of Engineering Technologies and Mathematics, appear with a defibrillator, one of the types of medical equipment students will learn to repair and maintain. Leaders in the biomedical engineering technology industry say they are thrilled that STCC has rebooted the program. “I love that it’s being offered here in Springfield at a community college,” said Andrea L. Bordenca, chairwoman and chief executive officer for DESCO, or Diagnostic Equipment Service Corp. DESCO and Baystate Health are working with STCC on the biomed program. “The industry needs people from all sorts of different backgrounds and experiences. Having people with this rich breadth of experience coming into the program at STCC and then being able to enter into the field just adds the space for innovation,” Bordenca said. Bordenca said DESCO’s technicians travel to different hospitals to repair, service and troubleshoot equipment. She said she hopes to offer graduates full-time jobs as well as hire interns who are enrolled in the STCC program. “It’s been a challenge for us to find well-trained and well-versed people who

Jennifer Kovarik uses a centrifuge during a recent visit to the STCC biomedical engineering technology lab as part of the Baystate Springfield Educational Partnership.

have the backgrounds in the operation of medical devices paired up with the mechanics and electronics,” she said. “We will train people with a mechanical or electronic background, but having people with a baseline understanding is going to be very useful for us and help us with the hiring process.” Creswell said graduates from the STCC program will have the opportunity to find good-paying jobs. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual wage for medical equipment repairers was $48,820 in May 2017. Median means half the workers earned more than that and half earned less. “You can graduate from the program and get a job that pays well,” Creswell said. “One of the benefits is many companies will help pay for your education. At Baystate, we’ve had a number of people who went on to get engineering degrees while they work here.” But as a starting point, Creswell said students could do no better than to

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consider the new STCC biomedical engineering technology program. “When students come into a program like this, they spend two years, which is essentially the cost of a Honda Civic,” he said. “They get out after two years and don’t have to worry about finding a job. People get recruited constantly in this field.” Creswell said the program will be a good fit for anyone interested in technology and helping people. “My goal is to make technology transparent to the clinical users and even the patients,” he said. “You never want technology to be a barrier to delivering good, compassionate patient care. Our job is to make sure the technology works and do the best we can to make sure the users know how to work it. If they get in a jam, we help them out so they can do what they need to do to care for the patient.” FOR MORE INFORMATION, visit stcc.edu. MARCH 2019

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NEWS & NOTES

Updates from the HTM Industry STAFF REPORTS

RELINK MEDICAL ANNOUNCES NEW LOCATION The company reLink Medical has moved to a new headquarters that is transforming how it serves customers and partners, according to a news release. The new location includes over 76,000 square feet with more than 60,000 square feet dedicated to processing medical equipment arriving directly from hospitals. The news release states that the new facility will provide faster, modality-based equipment triage and handling, biomedical testing and inspection stations, expanded onsite equipment preview and pickup capabilities for buyers and technology infrastructure upgrades for better inventory information and management. Those in the industry are invited to visit reLink and see “how the company is re-inventing the disposition process and secondary marketplace for medical equipment.” The company’s new address is reLink Medical LLC, 1755 Enterprise Parkway, Suite 400, Twinsburg, OH 44087. The phone number is 216-762-0588. •

Physician’s Resource Network

PRN LAUNCHES NEW SITE TO SELL NEW, USED AND REFURBISHED MEDICAL EQUIPMENT Physician’s Resource Network (PRN) has launched a new website to help medical equipment professionals procure new, used and refurbished equipment. The website provides easy navigation and photos of medical equipment available for purchase. Users will have the ability to sign up for inventory updates and clearance item notifications. The website also provides further information on PRN’s rental program or repair/refurbish services. “We offer the most aggressive pricing in the industry and strive to make dealing with our company a positive experience for our clients,” says PRN President Bob Gaw. “The new site helps us better achieve our goal of making the acquisition or selling of medical equipment a pleasant experience.” • FOR MORE INFORMATION, visit www.prnwebsite.com.

DA VINCI SURGICAL SYSTEM COMPANY STORES IFU DOCUMENTS VIA ONESOURCEDOCS.COM Intuitive, maker of the da Vinci Surgical System, announced that it will offer its Instructions For Use (IFU) documents on oneSOURCEdocs.com, an online database that stores instructional use documents (IFUs), operator manuals and service manuals for surgical instruments and equipment. The company, which develops robotic-assisted technologies designed to improve clinical outcomes of patients through minimally invasive surgery, has joined a growing number of manufacturers who participate in the oneSOURCE Manufacturers’ Advantage

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Program. Over 2,500 manufacturers are currently working with oneSOURCE, worldwide, to improve access to IFUs and service manuals needed for the preventive maintenance of biomedical equipment. Heather Thomas, CMO, executive vice president of sales and marketing for oneSOURCE, says many oneSOURCE subscribers have been asking for Intuitive’s manufacturers’ instructions to be added to the database. “By uploading their documents to the oneSource database, Intuitive can help their clients gain access to IFU and

preventive maintenance documents quickly through the oneSourcedocs.com portal,” Thomas said. oneSOURCE provides numerous advantages to manufacturers, free-ofcharge, through its Manufacturers’ Advantage Program. The program enables manufacturers to make their IFU documents available to 80 percent of the U.S. health care market, as well as internationally, communicate updates, and provide 24/7 IFU document and service manual access to mutual clients for compliance with accreditation requirements and patient safety. •

MARCH 2019

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INDUSTRY UPDATES

BC BIOMEDICAL’S IPA-3400 INFUSION PUMP ANALYZER NOW PATENTED The IPA-3400 Infusion Pump Analyzer is now patented under U.S. Patent No. 10,100,828. “Its cutting-edge, patented design uses a dual syringe stepper motor driven system that provides continuous monitoring of the fluid flow without the need to stop and perform intermittent drains like older technologies do,” a news release states. “This provides a more realistic flow path for the infusion device under test and therefore more accurate readings. Also, independent stepper motor control of the customdesigned ceramic valving allows the system to run not only more quietly and more smoothly, but it also allows for a bidirectional powered fluid flow for use in the built-in cleaning cycle.” Some additional features listed in the news release are a 7-inch color touch screen, smooth dual syringe system that eliminates drain cycle inconsistencies, whisper quiet operation, auto start, built-in data collection, built-in auto test sequences and industrial grade SS pressure sensor. •

FOR MORE INFORMATION about Tyler’s Hope, or to make a donation, visit TylersHope.org.

ECRI Institute, an independent, nonprofit patient safety organization, has launched the ECRI Guidelines Trus, a portal to expertly vetted, evidence-based guideline briefs and scorecards. The health care community has free access to the website, which will grow over time as more trustworthy clinical guidelines become available. ECRI Institute developed the new resource in response to urgent pleas from health care professionals after substantial federal funding cuts forced the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to shut down the National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC). ECRI had developed and maintained the NGC website for 20 years. “Trustworthy clinical practice guidelines are essential to medical professionals who need to deliver safe and effective patient care. Since ECRI Institute’s mission is to advance effective, evidence-based health care globally, we are taking the lead to provide free access to trusted guideline resources,” says Marcus Schabacker, MD, PhD, president and CEO, ECRI Institute. The ECRI Guidelines Trust features new summaries of evidence-based guidelines from participating guideline developers, medical specialty societies and other health care organizations. All Guideline Briefs include ECRI’s new TRUST Scorecard, which evaluates the rigor and transparency of a guideline to see how it stacks up against the Institute of Medicine standards for trustworthiness. ECRI evaluations are unbiased, fact-based and free from industry influence. “The ECRI Guidelines Trust is not simply the National Guideline Clearinghouse under a new name. When the NGC website was shut down on July 17, its records became inaccessible. So, the ECRI staff who had worked on NGC had to start over,” says Karen M. Schoelles, MD, SM, FACP, director of the ECRI Guidelines Trust and ECRI Institute-Penn Medicine Evidence-based Practice Center. “It’s an incredible amount of work,” adds Schoelles. “That’s why we are launching with an initial set of Guideline Briefs and TRUST Scorecards, and will be adding new content continuously as it becomes available.” The next phase of the ECRI Guidelines Trust, coming this year, will feature advanced search capabilities, an enhanced user interface and support for guideline implementation and decision-making. •

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND UPDATES, visit www.FBSonline.net.

FOR INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER for ECRI Guidelines Trust, visit www.ecri.org/guidelines or email guidelines@ecri.org.

FBS BOOSTS TYLER’S HOPE FOUNDATION The Florida Biomedical Society (FBS) continues to be a strong supporter of Tyler’s Hope for a Dystonia Cure. The Tyler’s Hope Foundation, established to advance research for a cure and to discover effective treatments of dystonia, recently received almost $1,500 from an FBS fundraiser. Bill D. Hascup, FBS symposium director, said FBS supports the nonprofit via its members and the companies that exhibit at the organization’s annual symposium. In 2018, FBS held a fundraiser at Topgolf in conjunction with its annual symposium. “We’ve done a fundraiser each of our last three years at our symposium. First two years it was held at Dewey’s Sports Bar, this past December it was at Topgolf Orlando. The event cost is funded by FBS and all money collected goes directly to Tyler’s Hope,” Hascup said. Each year, FBS has raised more than $1,000 for the Tyler’s Hope Foundation. In other news, the Florida

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MARCH 2019

ECRI INSTITUTE PROVIDES ACCESS TO CLINICAL PRACTICE GUIDELINES

Biomedical Society held its annual elections in December 2018. The newly elected officers for 2019 and the remaining executive board members are: President-Elect Amy Brantley; President Jim Bowles, CBET; Past- President John Alvenus, CBET; Secretary Frederick McMurtrie, CBET; Treasurer Lou Katchis, CBET, CCE. Currently, the FBS Chapters will be selecting their representatives for the 2019 FBS Board, when this is completed the 2019 agenda will start in earnest. •

WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

INDUSTRY UPDATES

EXECUTIVE LEADER EARNS TOP HEALTH CARE MANAGEMENT CREDENTIAL F. Mike Busdicker, CHTM, FACHE, system director of clinical engineering at Intermountain Healthcare, Salt Lake City, Utah, recently became a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, the nation’s leading professional society for health care leaders. “The health care management field plays a vital role in providing highquality care to the people in our communities, which makes having a standard of excellence promoted by a professional organization critically important,” says Deborah J. Bowen, FACHE, CAE, president and CEO of ACHE. “By becoming an ACHE Fellow and earning the distinction of board

certification from ACHE, health care leaders demonstrate a commitment to excellence in serving their patients and the community.” Fellow status represents achievement of the highest standard of professional development. In fact, only 9,107 health care executives hold this distinction. To obtain Fellow status, candidates must fulfill multiple requirements, including meeting academic and experiential criteria, earning continuing education credits, demonstrating professional/ community involvement, and passing a comprehensive examination. Fellows are also committed to ongoing professional development and undergo recertification every three years.

Busdicker is privileged to bear the FACHE credential, which signifies board certification in health care management as an ACHE Fellow, according to a press release. • FOR MORE INFORMATION regarding the FACHE credential please contact the ACHE Division of Member Services at 312424-9400, email contact@ache.org or visit ache.org/FACHE.

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AAMI UPDATE Nonprofit Shares HTM Insights BY AAMI

AAMI JOURNAL SHEDS LIGHT ON RETIREMENT STRATEGIES FOR MEDICAL EQUIPMENT Healthcare facilities take different approaches to device retirement depending on their unique clinical and technological needs and often according to their financial resources. From the scrap pile to education programs or relief agencies, there are a number of places devices can wind up at the end of life. With that in mind, AAMI’s award-winning journal BI&T (Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology) reached out to leaders of healthcare technology management (HTM) departments at several respected organizations across the country, asking them to describe their decommissioning strategies and the processes they rely on to ensure retirement success. Removing protected health information is a matter of major importance in the retirement of medical devices. Other areas to be mindful of include ensuring equipment remains available for clinician use, protecting against cyberthreats, disposing of devices in an environmentally responsible way, and updating maintenance records. Potential mishaps can be avoided, said Tara Brady, clinical technology risk manager at Kaiser Permanente in California, by taking a “life cycle approach” to technology management and retirement. “At every hand off – the purchase, onboarding, scheduled maintenance, and retirement – there should be accountability and documentation,” she said. Financial considerations also factor greatly in the decisionmaking process. According to Izabella Gieras, director of clinical technology at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, CA, a key retirement challenge is related to the facility’s budget for replacements. “We may say, ‘OK, we have the clinical need,’ or, ‘It’s time to decommission because we’ve reached the end of support,’ but then we have to think about our financial constraints. Therefore, it is essential to plan a proactive replacement plan for all medical equipment,” Gieras told BI&T. I AM HTM AAMI is celebrating the work of healthcare technology management professionals through the #IamHTM campaign. With photos and quotes, AAMI features one professional every week on its social media platforms. 28

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Brothers Gerceia and Morlon Lee, biomedical engineering technicians at Children’s of Alabama, were recently featured. “Healthcare technology management is the nuts and bolts of healthcare,” they said. “The HTM field allows us to make a positive impact on patient care through our work on medical equipment.” Show your pride in the profession by sharing these posts and using #IamHTM in your social media posts.

JOIN YOUR COLLEAGUES AT THE FIRST-EVER AAMI EXCHANGE From June 7-10, thousands of members of the healthcare technology community will gather in Cleveland, OH, to learn about the latest innovations and advances, get solutions to some of their toughest challenges on the job, and connect with their peers during the first AAMI Exchange. The Exchange is the name for AAMI’s growing and revamped Annual Conference & Expo. “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 meetings. “This is about the hustle and bustle of a diverse group of dedicated healthcare technology professionals coming together for a common purpose. The range of information, insights, and ideas that will be discussed – both formally and informally – at the AAMI Exchange will make this a ‘can’t miss’ event.” Throughout the conference, industry experts and leaders will share valuable insights about the biggest trends and challenges in the healthcare technology sector, including artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data analytics, virtual reality, and sterilization and reprocessing. In addition to education, networking, and professional advancement activities, the attendees can visit the Expo Hall to discover the latest technology from more than 200 medical equipment manufacturers. Early-bird discounts are available until March 20. FOR MORE INFORMATION about the conference and to register, visit www.aami.org/aamiexchange. WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

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ECRI UPDATE

Retained Surgical Sponges are a Top Hazard, Technology Solutions Can Help

urgical teams use manual counting protocols to reduce the risk of a surgical sponge being unintentionally left inside the patient during a procedure. While these counts are a vital safety practice, they are themselves prone to error. In its 2019 Top 10 Health Technology Hazards report, ECRI Institute addresses the hazards associated with retained surgical sponges and recommends broader adoption of technologies that supplement the manual sponge-counting process.

RETAINED SURGICAL SPONGES – A TOP HAZARD Surgical sponges that are unintentionally left inside the patient after the surgical site is closed can lead to infection and other serious complications, including the need for secondary operations. Although accurate data is hard to come by, available research suggests that every year thousands of U.S. patients could experience a retained surgical item (RSI), with surgical sponges being the most commonly retained item. Manual counts – in which the surgical team verifies that all sponges are accounted for before concluding the procedure – are standard practice, but counts can be inaccurate. If miscounts result in a retained sponge, complications can ensue, with consequences for both the patient and the healthcare facility. These include: • Subsequent patient health impacts, such as infections or the need for secondary operations. • Prolonged surgical times when a 30

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sponge is, or is thought to be, missing. In addition to potential adverse health consequences for the patient – such as increased risks of infections, hypothermia, cardiac arrhythmias, and other postoperative complications – prolonged surgeries can lead to increased costs or reduced revenue for the facility. • Financial and reputational harm to the healthcare facility when a retained surgical sponge results in litigation or negative publicity. Technologies that supplement the manual counting process are available and have been found to be effective when used correctly and consistently. ECRI Institute contends that broader adoption of these technologies could further reduce the risk that a surgical sponge will be unintentionally retained during a procedure. The prevalence of this hazard – along with the availability, and underutilization, of technologies to help reduce the risk – led ECRI Institute to include this topic as Hazard No. 3 on its 2019 Top 10 list of health technology hazards. The nonprofit research organization produces its annual list to raise awareness about critical hazards associated with medical devices and systems and to promote solutions that can help prevent patient harm.

have limitations – the possibility of a miscount being an obvious one. For instance, staff may conclude that all sponges have been accounted for when in fact a sponge is missing. In this case, the surgical team might not learn of the discrepancy unless (or until) the patient returns with a complaint of pain or discomfort. Several studies have found that in the vast majority of cases in which an unintentionally retained sponge was later identified, surgical staff had thought that the manual count was correct. In other situations, staff may determine that a sponge is missing. Whether this determination is correct or incorrect, the surgical team must try to locate the sponge before surgical closure, extending the surgery and likely requiring an intraoperative X-ray.

MANUAL COUNTS – AN IMPERFECT SOLUTION Manual counting protocols are standard practice for reducing the risk that sponges or any other surgical soft goods will be unintentionally retained within the patient. However, manual counts

TECHNOLOGY OPTIONS – AN UNDERUTILIZED RESOURCE Technology options consist of a scanning device that can count or detect proprietary sponges that incorporate a detectable tag. These technologies can WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

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ECRI Institute has tested and rated two adjunct surgical sponge technologies, one that counts sponges and one that detects them. Both systems performed well in the organization’s testing. Similarly, studies conducted by individual hospitals have shown such technologies to be effective at reducing the likelihood of unintentionally leaving a surgical sponge inside a patient. (Refer to ECRI Institute’s 2019 Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for details about these studies.) Despite their apparent effectiveness, such technologies have not yet been implemented widely. ECRI Institute estimates that approximately 20 percent of the hospitals in the United States use some form of adjunct technology to supplement the manual counting process or to aid in the detection of missing sponges. Barriers to implementation likely include the added steps involved in incorporating the technologies into a

surgical procedure as well as the added expense associated with their use. “It might take some time for OR staff to get used to a new workflow,” notes Julie Miller, senior project engineer in ECRI Institute’s Health Devices Group, “but facilities should also take into account the time and expense associated with a retained sponge.” A cost analysis using ECRI Institute’s PriceGuide data shows that the use of proprietary tagged sponges could cost an additional $12 per procedure, compared with using traditional sponges. Additionally, ECRI Institute found during its testing that using a sponge counting or detection technology added about one minute (or less) to each testing scenario. Miller counters: “A minute of OR time isn’t cheap, but compare that to 18 minutes of OR time that might be required to locate a missing sponge, or to the unreimbursed costs associated with an RSI, which can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars per occurrence if it results in litigation.” It’s worth noting, however, that these systems are not designed to prevent retained suture needles, device fragments, or other types of RSIs. Rather, they address only surgical sponges, which are the most commonly retained item. ECRI INSTITUTE RECOMMENDATIONS While the use of counting or detection technologies is not currently required in the standard of care, ECRI Institute nevertheless encourages broader adoption of such technologies as a supplement to the manual counting process. When employing an adjunct technology, ECRI Institute recommends that healthcare facilities: • Use the technology correctly – that is, in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions for use.

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Avoid Dangerous Device Hazards !

2019 Top 10 Health Technology Hazards See what’s on the list ECRI.org/2019hazards

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Cyber ess Surgic nectio 1. g Mattr ed Discon 2. cessin Retainator s mming 3. VentilAlarm Repro 4. and cope Progra s s Endos n Pump Alarm 5. System Infusio or ical 6. s Lift Monit t Electr 7. Patienng s ing System 8. Cleani onent Charg 9. Comp y Batter 10.

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be used to aid in the counting and/or detection of sponges (and other soft goods), thus serving as a technological adjunct to manual counts. Current systems offer the following: • Counting, using a bar-coding system – These systems use a scanning mechanism to count uniquely coded items in and out of the procedure (i.e., before incision and then before any type of surgical closure). • Detection, using a radio-frequency (RF) system – These systems can verify the presence of a misplaced or unaccounted-for sponge, which may be inside the patient or elsewhere in the OR (e.g., in the trash, on the floor). • A combination of counting and detection, using a radio-frequency identification (RFID) system.

• Use the technology in every procedure requiring the application of surgical soft goods, not just for selected cases. • Remove untagged sponges from stock, unless there is no tagged alternative. • Inspect sponges removed from the sterile field for tears, verifying that all fragments are retrieved before closure. • Make confirmation of adjunct technology use a mandatory field in your facility’s electronic health record. This article supplements ECRI Institute’s 2019 Top 10 Health Technology Hazards report. An Executive Brief of the report can be downloaded from ECRI Institute as a free public service. The full 2019 Top 10 Health Technology Hazards Solutions Kit, which includes detailed problem descriptions and recommendations for addressing the hazards, requires membership in ECRI Institute programs. For more information, visit www.ecri. org/2019Hazards, or contact ECRI Institute by telephone at (610) 825-6000, ext. 5891, or by email at clientservices@ecri.org.

MARCH 2019

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RIBBON CUTTING Edge Biomed

att Spencer started Dixie (DXE) Medical, a medical equipment sales and service company, in 1999. Dixie Medical grew to $25 million in annual sales with over 30 employees and was acquired by Sarnova in 2012. After working with Sarnova for about 3 years, Spencer decided to take a short break before starting Edge Biomedical with some key partners in the medical field.. However, they noticed that most non-hospital health care facilities struggled to find local, qualified biomedical technicians. The current trend shows the health care space consolidating in an effort to find efficiencies; providers in Florida may be associated with providers in Texas and elsewhere. Tracking and maintaining thousands of equipment pieces worth millions of dollars becomes more of challenge in this environment. In response to this need, Edge Biomed has created a footprint, as well as asset management tools, designed to make maintenance and compliance much easier for everyone in the chain of care.

Q: WHAT IS THE MAIN FOCUS OF EDGE BIOMED? A: Our primary focuses are asset management and equipment maintenance, which include a full inventory, annual inspections, equipment stickers, service documentation and any necessary repairs. All compliance and service documentation is stored in Edgeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proprietary asset management software, eBioTrack, which is a cloud-based software that requires no installation and is mobile-optimized and accessible 24/7 from any device. Reporting and exports are done with a single click. 32

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DOCTORS EQUIPMENT REPAIR Contact: Matt Spencer Website: www.edgebiomed.com Email: support@edgebiomed.com Toll Free: 888-841-5155

Matt Spencer, President Edge Biomed

Q: CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT THE SERVICES EDGE BIOMED OFFERS? A: Biomedical equipment repairs by factory-trained, professional technicians that follow specific Edge protocols that include: annual, required inspections for full compliance, recommendations for specialty equipment purchases and compliance documentation. While Edge does not sell equipment, we are able to provide advice and direction on where equipment can be acquired. Ultimately, our mission is to keep your existing equipment working properly. Additionally, eBioTrack is a revolutionary tool that is constantly evolving to meet the needs of our customers. Q: HOW DOES EDGE BIOMED STAND OUT IN THE MEDICAL EQUIPMENT FIELD? A: Edge has a large footprint of full-time technicians that perform both onsite and depot services. We have over a dozen techs that are highly trained, fully insured and serve as the preferred field service provider for several manufacturers. Edge is fully insured for exactly what we do, which is service medical, as well as some life-saving, equipment. Most third-party biomedical

companies do not carry sufficient liability insurance. Additionally, eBioTrack is the only affordable, customer-accessible asset management program for non-hospital health care facilities. This tracking tool sends automated email reminders for events and utilizes an easy-to-read dashboard that manages sites, equipment and people. Edge also invests heavily in factory training to improve our service offering to customers. In the last 12 months, we have completed training courses for manufacturers of microscopes, ESUs, ultrasounds, defibrillators, ventilators, infusion pumps and sterilizers. One of our greatest strengths is the collective knowledge of our technicians. Edge has set up an infrastructure that supports the customer and allows the technician to be a technician. Many other third-party service providers must juggle paperwork and administrative tasks. Edge takes all those duties off the technician, which allows them to focus on the customer and their needs. Q: DO YOU HAVE ANY SPECIFIC GOALS THAT YOU WANT EDGE BIOMED TO ACHIEVE IN THE NEAR FUTURE? A: We expect to have a national footprint of full-time biomedical technicians in the next five years. Edge hopes to become a resource not only for our national customers, but also manufacturers that do not have their own field team. WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

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BIOMED 101

Avoid Battery-Related Risks BY DAN MCMARTIN

ccording to the FDA, up to 50 percent of service calls in hospitals surveyed are battery-related issues. Your hospital or clinic relies heavily on battery-powered medical devices to ensure patients receive the care they need when they need it most. Ask yourself this question: will the batteries you installed reduce downtime and keep devices running? Subpar performance or unexpected battery failure can have serious consequences on patient care and operational efficiency. To avoid battery-related risks, follow these four tips to ensure your devices perform at their fullest potential.

FIND THE RIGHT BATTERY FOR THE DEVICE From device requirements to battery specs and quality, there are a variety of considerations when selecting the right battery. It may seem obvious, but you must match the battery to the device requirements. Using a battery that doesn’t have the proper specifications puts you at risk of damaging the device and sacrificing performance. This can lead to increased risk of failure for the people who are relying on it to function as it’s intended. Pay close attention to manufacturer requirements such as voltage and amp-hour ratings and find a battery that you trust to meet that performance. You should also check terminal type to ensure a proper connection. It is more important to match the requirements than trying to overpower the device or save money with a battery rated below what is recommended. A perfect match combines power rating, terminal type and size. You may have chosen the right battery for the system and at a lower cost, but can you trust it will perform as advertised? Not knowing if the battery will live up to the specs printed on the label is a serious problem that could leave you and the patient at risk. 34

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Don’t gamble on quality to save money. Make sure your supplier has a quality management process in place. Remember, printed specs are only part of the equation when choosing a reliable backup power source. USE FRESHLY CHARGED BATTERIES Batteries should be tested and charged (if needed) before they are put into use. The importance of battery freshness and a full charge isn’t often considered but the impact on performance can be huge. As an example, Sealed Lead Acid (SLA) batteries that have been sitting too long (typically 6+ months) can begin to sulfate, which deteriorates their capacity and compromises the battery’s overall function. Recent regulations require Lithium-ion batteries to be shipped at a state of charge not exceeding 30 percent of their rated capacity. That means you should test and charge these batteries before use to ensure proper performance. In some cases, you may even need to “wake up” the battery, so it will accept a charge. If you are buying from a battery specialist, they can advise you on that process.

Working with a supplier that can guide you on charging and maintenance for the various battery chemistries will help lower the risk of subpar performance when battery power is needed most. SEEK QUALITY MANUFACTURERS The reputation of your health care facility is a reflection of the level of care it provides. Shouldn’t the parts and suppliers you use measure up to that same standard of quality? If a battery fails and patient care is compromised the physicians and leadership team could look to you for answers. Every little detail counts when patient safety and access to important devices is on the line. You need a supplier you can count on to get you the high-quality batteries you need. With such a variety in suppliers and battery choices, the differences in quality are not always obvious.

“ If a battery fails and patient care is compromised the physicians and leadership team could look to you for answers.” One way to manage this risk is to ensure the batteries come from a supplier that has implemented a quality management system certified to ISO 13485 standards. Some may overlook this in components like batteries, but the risk is too great to ignore. Achieving ISO certification means WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

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the manufacturer or supplier took the extra step of having a third-party firm evaluate their process to ensure it measures up to the standards set out by the International Organization for Standardization. The importance of regulatory compliance and ISO is also being highlighted by respected trade organizations through training classes and seminars. Armed with the combination of quality products and a trusted supplier, you can ensure you’re protecting your most valuable assets – patient care, patient satisfaction, operational efficiency and your brand. IMPACT OF LOGISTICS What happens when you order a battery for a current or upcoming PM and it’s out of stock? Having a supplier that is local and stocks the batteries you need keeps downtime to a minimum. If they aren’t local, ensure they keep the most common batteries in stock and offer fast and affordable shipping. You don’t want to incur expensive equipment downtime while you wait for the battery to arrive. Having a partner with predictable and reliable shipping or delivery could be the difference in keeping efficiency and quality of care high. As an HTM professional, you can’t afford to have unexpected battery failures, unplanned downtime or subpar performance. When is the last time you thought about the quality of your medical device batteries? Do you have an efficient solution for delivery and battery services? After all, it’s CHANGES not justNEEDED a battery, it’s a PROOF APPROVED life. CLIENT SIGN–OFF: DAN MCMARTIN is a supplier quality engineer

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SHOP TALK EPIQ7C ERROR I am getting an intermittent error 200.8D48.8PYN.23 occurring a couple weeks apart. Can anyone provide guidance to what is causing this error?

Q: A:

A 200 EC could be many things. I would suggest sending in error logs to get read to see what is causing the error. Could just be software and perhaps a reload is worth a try. Call 800-958-9986 for link to upload logs.

AGFA CR 30-X DOESN’T RECOGNIZE CASSETTE FORMAT The device doesn’t recognize cassette format (mostly large cassettes). I had this problem three years ago, changed the cassette fixation steel band, and everything was fine. Now. I have the same problem. I changed the steel band again (it had crack at its end), but this time the problem remains. Calibrations for Cassette Fixer Motor passes, but doesn’t recognize large cassettes again. Anyone have any idea what to do next?

200.8D48.8PYN.23 is a software error. This error sometimes happens when entering in 3D color zoomed or ending an exam while in 3D also when using a sector probe. Reinstalling software will fix the issue.

Check that the fix mechanism is not cracked, if so you would have to replace the fixation unit completely or make this piece in a lathe.

Reloading the software should fix this problem. Please let me know your software version. REPLY: Thanks for the input. I reinstalled software through the software maintenance on the system and restored system settings. Does anyone have an error list they could provide?

Try replacing the cassette edge sensor and make sure that the transport rollers are in good condition.

CAREFUSION - ALARIS 8100 I have pumps that have high bottle voltage with the calibration set in even after replacing the new sensors. Sometimes it is so high that it will fall outside the acceptable range (1.835 - 2.830V) and failed the press calibration. The pump is also causing a lot of 240.4150.5 errors in this case. Does anyone have idea what the problem might be to cause this, knowing the sensor is good?

I have had similar situations, and the fix is to replace the logic board on the 8100 and then you will need to flash the LVP to get it to talk with the PCU (8015). Once done, you will find that the pressure sensor voltages will drop to normal levels

I don’t test that way. I have 700 pump units model 8100 and 300 model 8015 controls. I don’t condemn the pressure sensors unless they cause errors in run mode. It looks like you’re checking voltage with an analog sensor test in maint s/w. If that’s under 3 vdc with loaded set, I will let it run a couple minutes in the analog sensor mode, as that bypasses all sensors and will sometimes help “loosen” things up a bit. I will then put it in “run” mode and use forceps to pinch off bottle then Pt. sides to make sure it works correctly. Then, I put it through the “PM” s/w and it usually works! I have not replaced many logic boards (maybe a dozen) in all my units in over 5 years. These units get used pretty hard, too! I’ve replaced at least 250 bezels on 8100s over the last few years, and a lot of pressure sensors as well. I don’t know if this helps, but I’ve had pretty good success. Good Luck!

SHOP TALK

is compiled from MedWrench.com. Go toMedWrench.com community threads to find out how you can join and be part of the discussion.

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LADIES FIRST

Women in HTM Kicks off 2019 Webinars STAFF REPORT

ebinar Wednesday is off and running in 2019! The free “Women in Healthcare Technology Management” webinar was a huge success with 230 attendees for the live presentation plus more have viewed the recording online! The attendees for the live presentation are eligible to receive 1 CE credit from the ACI.

The special 60-minute webinar focused on women in HTM. Men have traditionally dominated the field of engineering. Over the past 20 years, more women have entered the field, especially in the Healthcare Technology Management arena. Webinar Wednesday hosted an expert panel of accomplished women who hold leading roles within health care facilities and HTM-related companies. The presenters were Integrity Biomedical Services Owner/President Michele Shahbandeh, Huntington Memorial Hospital Clinical Technology Department Director Izabella Gieras, Medinas Health Founder and CEO Chloe Alpert, ZingBox Co-Founder and CTO May Wang and Penn State Health System Director of Clinical Engineering Samantha Jacques. The presenters provided a historical overview of women in engineering, shared their own experiences as well as highlighted other successful women in the field and their contributions. TechNation and MedWrench worked together to bring this webinar to the HTM community. Attendees provided overwhelmingly 38

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positive feedback in a post-webinar survey. “Working in the HTM field for about 25 years now, it felt great to hear so many of my concerns and personal goals were shared amongst the speakers today. I am happy to say that I have overcome so many obstacles through hard work, dedication and continuous education. Thank you for this great presentation and acknowledgement of women in the HTM field,” shared M. Garcia, Senior Medical Systems Engineering Technician. “Ladies, you did an exemplary job with this webinar presentation. Thank you,” said M. Moore, Engineering Technician. “I have been in the HTM field for 25 years. This is my first ever all-female led seminar relating to my career choice. Thank you for presenting,” E. Petrea, CBET, said. “The webinar was inspiring, as I was able to see and hear how others have succeeded in the field,” said D. Palumbo, Intermediate Technician. “As a fresh out of college, young professional, it is very reassuring to hear from individuals you can relate to who have achieved positions that reflect your ambitions,” shared E. Eichorn, Biomedical Intern. “As a female engineer, it was very refreshing to see this topic acknowledged and discussed. It was great to hear an overall perspective from

in and outside of our field. The young lady that was 30 under 30 was very impressive,” said K. Ziemniak, Clinical Engineering Manager. “Truly amazing women of HTM, we should all be very proud of what they individually and collectively have accomplished and their contribution to

“ I have been in the HTM field for 25 years. This is my first ever allfemale led seminar relating to my career choice. Thank you for presenting.” - E. Petrea, CBET the field. My guess is it took a lot of courage and determination that ‘the majority of us’ may never have had to demonstrate or prove,” said T. Cordes, Perioperative Clinical Engineering Supervisor. “Excellent webinar. It was the first I attended and I look forward to more in the future. All speakers were so well spoken, honest and knowledgeable,” shared J. Ruiz, Database Administrator. “As a woman in biomedical engineering, I am very familiar with the challenges. Listening to today’s webinar confirmed that I am doing the right things to stay visible to the team in a positive way, that I am adding value to the department, and that when I take a hard stance, because I believe in what I’m doing, to not go soft because others WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

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“ The ‘Women In Healthcare Technology Management’ webinar was very empowering, inspiring and uplifting. A definite super charge that was well needed to start the new year off,” -E. Jones, Biomedical Engineer don’t agree. Thank you ladies! You all are a beautiful inspiration to just keep going,” S. McClinton, CBET, said. “Wow! Very impressed! Super group of leaders! Information was thoughtful, personal and spot on. I heard work hard, learn from others (male or female), keep moving forward and enjoy what you are doing. And, I totally agree. Well done Webinar Wednesday,” shared M. Pritchett, CBET. “The Webinar Wednesday series is a great learning experience. I’m very thankful that MD Publishing has these wonderful Webinar Wednesdays and that my boss is supportive in allowing me to register and attend any and/or all of them. This webinar was one of the best so far, being a female in a male-dominated field, I learned a lot in such a short period of time. I’m familiar with losing my passion and how hard it is to get it back, but I’m willing to work as hard as I can to prove that the passion is just buried,” said A. Hale, Biomedical Engineer. “Thank you so much for the information, listening to all of these successful women made feel again my passion for this career and that yes it is possible, as a woman, to find a place in the HTM field – even if you are coming from another country. The most important thing is keep trying and never give up. Thank you,” said K. Castro, Biomedical Engineer. “The ‘Women In Healthcare Technology Management’ webinar was very empowering, inspiring and uplifting. A definite super charge that was well needed to start the new year off,” said E. Jones, Biomedical Engineer. “As a woman joining the tech field I have experienced my share of stereotyping. The webinar has helped build a sense of camaraderie that I haven’t felt. The men I work with are amazing and have helped me feel included; but it’s nice to have another woman to share experiences with,” said A. Egan, BMET. “Webinar Wednesday is an amazing learning and growing experience. It gives insight and awareness of people, devices and issues that touch so many in the HTM community. I will forever be a fan,” said J. Newell, President, B.R.I.T. Tech Institute.

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ELECTROMAGNETIC INTERFERENCE (EMI) FILTERS TE Connectivity (TE) offers special electromagnetic interference (EMI) filters for use in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) rooms where Class II drivers are used to power LED lighting. These new TE filters are part of the Corcom family of products, which are highly engineered, sealed assemblies of electrical filtering components that eliminate unwanted electrical magnetic interference. With the new Corcom filters for LED lighting in MRI rooms, room light manufacturers can offer high-efficiency, patient-centric lighting while safeguarding against electrical interference risk to the MRI equipmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s functionality and output that may be caused by LED lights. FOR MORE INFORMATION, visit te.com.

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ROUNDTABLE

ROUNDTABLE Real Time Locating Systems

eal Time Locating Systems (RTLS) are not new to the health care landscape, but continue to be updated to provide improved accuracy and new features. There is more than one type of RTLS and as the technology advances they continue to provide cost-saving opportunities. One key to proper use of a RTLS is finding the one that best fits the need of a facility.

TechNation contacted some of the leading RTLS companies in the health care sector and quizzed them about the latest offerings for this roundtable article. Participants are Jake Bartnicki, vice president of sales, Intelligent Locations; Tommy Lee, senior director of product strategy, Accruent; Sandra Rasmussen, senior vice president, sales and marketing, Sonitor; Mark Rheault, founder and CEO, Infinite Leap; and Jeff Wells, vice president, workflow technologies, Midmark RTLS. Q: HOW HAVE RTLS SYSTEMS PROGRESSED IN THE HEALTH CARE SPACE? BARTNICKI: We have seen the health care industry become more and more excited about RTLS technology and the dramatic impact it can make on the hospital’s bottom line. What we have found is that our customers are hungry 42

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for actionable data to make better, more-informed decisions. The industry is demanding solutions that can easily add additional services and solve problems campus wide. RTLS systems are not just for locating equipment anymore – they’re about driving the most value to a hospital in a costeffective manner. LEE: In the past decade, we have seen dramatic progress in RFID and RTLS technology. Performance improvements, new features, smaller devices and lower costs are a testament to the considerable investment that companies have made in the technology. If you’re in supply chain, materials management or support services, you’re often asked, “Why aren’t you bringing my stuff on time?” and you’re likely frequently challenged with how to answer. Technology has now evolved that gives these groups the power to change that dynamic. Powerful software platforms, combined with sensors, can collect more and more data from the physical space. Beyond simply passing data back and forth, intelligent algorithms and process workflows, continuously improved through machine learning and analytics, can generate a level of automation and accuracy that is staggering to comprehend. As hospitals continue to streamline workflow

processes, they would do well to keep a finger on the pulse of these growing IoT technologies, because their advancement has already begun to shape the future. RASMUSSEN: Early RTLS installations focused predominantly on asset tracking – where is my pump? Where is my wheel chair? This was mainly as a result of some of the inherent location accuracy and battery power challenges associated with first generation RTLS technologies. With the advent of ultrasound-based RTLS from Sonitor, health care facilities now have the ability to reliably get room-, bay- and bed-level accuracy. This opens significant and real opportunities for facilities to look at, manage and optimize staff workflow and capacity, patient flow, equipment inventory, loss prevention and equipment distribution. Emergency department workflows can be mapped to minimize patients that leave without treatment and diversion hours. This alone can deliver significant ROI to hospitals. Patient wait times can be analyzed and bottle necks removed improving patient satisfaction scores. ORs can be scheduled more efficiently and effectively eliminating down or wasted time and increasing the number of surgeries preformed, ultimiately delivering more revenue to the hospital. WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

ROUNDTABLE

Loss prevention and improved utilization of moveable mobile medical equipment can be automated saving productivity hours while also reducing or right-sizing equipment fleet, reducing cost and delivering significant savings. RHEAULT: We believe that the vast majority of hospitals in the U.S. with more than 400 licensed beds have tried some type of RTLS technology. Now, many of those have only attempted very limited deployments, maybe only used in conjunction with their nurse call system for example, or other single-use, single point type solutions. There really aren’t that many organizations that have been successful in deploying enterprisewide, for multiple use cases. This is unfortunate because the technology is available, and the value is there. The most common use of RTLS technologies is focused around monitoring the location of mobile medical devices, which makes sense. But even those relatively simple deployments often suffer from inadequate resourcing and inadequate operational maintenance, in many cases rendering them practically irrelevant. Along with traditional asset tracking, we have seen many hospitals finding ways to leverage the location infrastructure to extend into environmental monitoring through such use cases as measuring temperatures of refrigeration units, blanket warmers and for ambient temperature in sensitive locations. We believe that even though the use of RTLS has progressed, it is far behind where it could be, and that is largely because as an industry we’ve been poor at measuring value and ROI. Thankfully, I think we’ve been able to prove, at a large scale, and in multiple locations, that RTLS is ready for prime time in health care and can justify the investments. WELLS: We have seen the evolution of RTLS and its impact on patient care. Previously, real-time locating was often deployed for asset tracking and equipment management. Today,

however, RTLS is recognized for its unmatched ability to capture location information and interactions of assets, as well as patients, staff and family members. This drives greater workflow efficiencies and elevates the care experience. The data points that are now accessible from patient-caregiver interactions are making dramatic differences in improving processes and reducing waste. Q: WHAT FACTORS SHOULD BIOMEDS CONSIDER TO DETERMINE COST OF OWNERSHIP? BARTNICKI: Biomeds have enough on their plate to worry about a system that is not living up to its promised potential. When determining the cost of ownership there are many factors that can be measured: installation fees, hardware fees, battery life, ongoing maintenance, etc. What we believe to be the most important factor is ease of use. The system must perform the way it was intended to and nothing less. Cost of ownership skyrockets with RTLS systems with exorbitant upfront capital expenses that have to be recalibrated on a regular basis. Another huge factor is the expense of adding on additional use cases like patient tracking or hand wash hygiene monitoring, these costs have potential to cripple the organization and should be known before installing an asset tracking application. With additional departments leveraging these types of technology and the increased focus on data analytics, we have found being an end-to-end solution incorporating everything hospitals need from installation of hardware to management software to end user analytics decreases the cost of ownership and skyrockets the value for our clients. LEE: Solution architects must analyze the workflow(s) and design their system using the right combination of location sensors for high-accuracy use cases. In addition, the deployed solution must factor in the usable battery life of the tags and location sensors, and alert

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users of potential battery failure. Unlike passive tags, active tags cannot be detected if the battery needs to be replaced, rendering the tags useless. In some cases, tag size and operational temperature of active tags are limiting factors for their usage.

Sandra Rasmussen, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Sonitor

RASMUSSEN: Biomeds should analyze total cost of ownership. This should include: total cost of software and any recurring annual fees or licenses; total cost of hardware and recurring annual fees; total number of devices that need to be installed and maintained to deliver required accuracy (room, bed, bay); if PoE powered, cost of cabling; if battery powered, battery life time, cost and type of batteries; disposal cost of batteries; tenting cost (if cabled devices are used when a change needs to occur in a patient’s room); hours and effort required to change batteries on different vendor devices; time to install and time to certify, train and hand over to hospital; tag cost and battery life; tag attrition; ability to obtain remote support and diagnostics; and real-time reporting of device and tag status (on-line/off-line) and battery status. RHEAULT: This is a great question, as over the last few years we have seen too MARCH 2019

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ROUNDTABLE

many hospitals woefully underestimate the TCO. They focused on the capital investment, and explicit operational costs, such as annual support and maintenance agreements, but completely missed on planning for the resourcing, replacement and process change costs that are required to actually generate value in a demonstrable and validated form. The operational support and ongoing process improvement efforts are components we make sure are realistic and fully accounted for in all of our solution designs so that our clients are not surprised by the TCO when the technology has been implemented, and the program moves into years 2, 3 and beyond. One of the things that we really try to guide hospitals to do is to match their expenditures as closely to the expected return that they are forecasting. This helps focus the projects and also drives hospitals to find more ways to leverage the system to produce greater value. I also think it is a good reminder that cost is only an issue if you aren’t generating value. Meaning, as long as I’m creating a return in a reasonable time frame, that is a fair amount greater than what I’ve spent, cost really shouldn’t be an issue. In our work in this space, we’ve identified more than 120 different ways that RTLS and other real-time technologies can demonstrate value – such that the total value generated, cumulatively across all the use cases, far exceeds the TCO. WELLS: Total cost of ownership can have many layers. The first consideration is the initial infrastructure investment of the hardware, software and implementation services. It’s important to understand what is really required to achieve the appropriate granularity to meet facility needs. For example, Midmark RTLS can provide immediate, zone-level accuracy using a facility’s existing Wi-Fi network; we also natively deliver bed-level accuracy without a host of extraneous devices, making it highly effective in the care environment. 44

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Establishing a carefully architected plan can make a significant difference to TCO. If you haven’t orchestrated in-depth conversations with a vendor’s solution architects and implementation team, you may be setting yourself up for additional expense at project launch. Beyond the installation phase, some vendors impose annual tag licensing fees and per-seat fees that can bloat ongoing operational costs, especially in larger health care facilities.

Jake Bartnicki, Vice President of Sales, Intelligent Locations

Q: WHAT ARE SOME OF THE NEWEST FEATURES AVAILABLE IN RTLS SYSTEMS? BARTNICKI: There are so many ways to leverage RTLS technology and “connected” hospitals are finding more and more clever ways to improve operations and streamline workflows with the technology. While features and use cases are endless, I would say the most important feature is the scalability of the solution and how easy it is to add on additional use cases and features. For example, using our solution, once hospitals have a hardware infrastructure in place they can easily layer on additional use cases. Typically starting with asset tracking hospitals can add patient tracking, staff tracking, digital wayfinding, environmental monitoring, hand wash hygiene monitoring, etc. The possibilities are truly endless.

LEE: Many RTLS vendors have recently developed APIs which enable their systems to readily connect into core CMMS/HTM platforms, which are now also offering their own frameworks for RTLS integrations. These CMMS frameworks are typically bidirectional web services that enable “plug-andplay” integration so that RTLS data and controls can increase technician productivity and make patient care more efficient. These RTLS APIs enable automatic bidirectional flow of data such as badge number, badge type, location and extended data for mobile equipment such as arthroscopic instruments and portable X-ray machines. This gives biomed departments strong control, with the ability to create, update, associate and disassociate badges to equipment within the CMMS. Another new trend in RTLS systems is the increasing use of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) sensors, taking advantage of chip sets found in mobile phones and wearables (e.g. gyroscope, accelerometer, barometer, etc.) that communicate through a mesh network. Though they have less range and slightly less accuracy per sensor, with lower power requirements they last longer and their dramatically lower cost means they can be used more widely. RASMUSSEN: Hospitals are constantly being challenged to do more with less and to leverage technology that delivers value added benefits to their facility (in the form of ROI), helps them deliver a higher quality of care with greater patient satisfaction and is easy to manage and maintain – all at the right cost. Some of the newest features include infrastructure that combines Gateway and Location Transmitter technologies into a single device, helping reduce the total number of devices required in a deployment. Another is a staff tag designed with the health care provider in mind via a discreet design (form factor of standard issued ID badge) delivering support and help at the touch WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

ROUNDTABLE

of a button. Also, RTLS administration and system performance software with a web-based user interface that provides easy access to tag and device status and battery life making managing and monitoring the system painless and efficient. One exciting new feature is ForkBeard – a unique technology that transforms the billions of smartphones into tags – your phone is now your tag. One hundred times more accurate then BLE, Forkbeard accurately positions mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops with a latency of only up to 1-2 seconds. And, the ultrasound technology always ensures 99.99 percent room-level location accuracy, which makes Forkbeard the only indoor positioning technology needed for all workflow and wayfinding applications.

Mark Rheault, Founder and CEO, Infinite Leap

RHEAULT: Technology is always changing, but at the root of an RTLS system, it is all about providing accurate and timely information on where something is. The systems have become better at doing this reliably over the years, and the technology works. I think we will continue to see new vendors appear, and existing vendors get better. I think prices will drop, devices will get smaller, various systems will be able to integrate together better based on standards, innovation will increase,

and, as this happens, hospitals will be able to more easily justify the programs. But, with regard to the latest and greatest, I think the most encouraging developments are around just how many ways health care organizations are able to use the technology to make a difference in the way care is provided. We honestly see that the patient experience can be made better and health care can become more efficient, all as a result of RTLS and the data it produces and processes that it enables. We think that is much more meaningful than new technology features, even though there are some pretty cool things happening in that area as well. WELLS: RTLS solutions continue to innovate, streamlining connectivity and usability, making it easier for caregivers to focus on direct patient care. Our integration with smart IV pumps shows the location of each device, as well as the pumping status. Not only does this solve the dilemma of searching for IV pumps, it also eliminates the need for staff to enter a patient room to determine if the located pump is in use. Retrospective data on pump location also provides insight to pump utilization, enabling health care organizations to reduce costs by using devices more effectively and managing a leaner fleet. There are many other features that make RTLS user-friendly in the health care market, including more wearable badge options for patients and staff, and enabling BLE wayfinding to help patients and family members better-navigate their visits. Q: WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF RTLS TECHNOLOGY AND WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF EACH? BARTNICKI: Legacy RTLS systems like Wi-Fi, RFID, infrared and ultrasound have been around for many years and a lot have not lived up to expectations. Wi-Fi technology can leverage the current Access Point installation, but have high latency, low battery and low accuracy. Infrared and ultrasound have

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

high accuracy but are extremely expensive and are incredibly laborious to install. We have found that Bluetooth Low Energy is a great technology at a more affordable price point. Some would say that BLE is not accurate enough, but with smart filters and algorithms we can provide room-level accuracy and it can be installed and operational in two weeks. While every technology has its negatives and positives, selecting a company that will partner with your organization and help the system grow and provide additional value is paramount.

Tommy Lee, Senior Director Of Product Strategy, Accruent

LEE: RTLS operates through “tags” which provide tracking visibility by constantly pinging their locations within a facility. One of the most common systems uses triangulation within a facility’s network of Wi-Fi access points. If floor-level or area-level accuracy is sufficient for the facility, this Wi-Fi network support is cost effective as it doesn’t require additional infrastructure. However, when room- or zone-level accuracy is required, additional specialized sensors must be installed in strategic locations. As active tags pass through their field, the system updates their “last read location.” These use technologies such as infrared (IR) MARCH 2019

TECHNATION

ROUNDTABLE

light, low-frequency radio, ultrasonic sound and BLE. RTLS technology is particularly popular for highly mobile assets such as wheelchairs and patient beds. RTLS has also gained momentum in recent years for tracking staff, including nurses, doctors and even wandering patients, with systems that can be programmed to trigger ondemand alerts and notifications. RTLS is a more cost-effective approach for facility-wide coverage compared to RFID systems, which require the installation of readers and antennas throughout the hospital. RASMUSSEN: There are many types of RTLS. Radio Frequency (RF) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) are predominantly communication tools and can deliver zone level accuracy at best, but do not deliver room or sub-room level accuracy. For the room-, sub-room-, bay- or bed-level accuracy, ultrasound-based RTLS provides the best level of accuracy, although infrared (IR) has also been used. RHEAULT: There are different RTLS technologies, such as Wi-Fi, BLE, infrared, ultrasound, passive RFID, UWB, and proprietary RF. All of them have pros and cons, and different health care organizations have various things they are trying to accomplish, such as finding mobile equipment, understanding room utilization or ensuring vaccines will not get spoiled. Each of these use cases requires different accuracy levels of locating hardware and software functionality. That’s why we always start our collaboration with health care systems by performing an RTLS solution design. During this process, we discover the needs and propose viable solutions and associated cost that align with their objectives. Since most hospitals have many use cases, we usually see that a hybrid approach is going to be required. So, we have our favorites for specific use cases based on our experience in working with dozens of products and 46

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vendors over the years, but we never go into a new project with a predetermined preference for which technology is going to be best. It always depends upon the goals and requirements of the situation.

high initial capital expenses. If you have someone telling you otherwise, get a second opinion. We put significant resources into our platform to make sure it works easily and as it was intended to work while staying affordable for any hospital. When evaluating RTLS solutions find one that can solve your immediate need and then grow with your organization. There are so many opportunities to leverage technology to improve operations and provide meaningful data analytics. When used to its fullest potential RTLS technology can have a significant impact on operational and capital budgets which frees up resources for the institution to reinvest in itself and offer new and exciting innovations for patients and staff.

Jeff Wells, Vice President, Workflow Technologies, Midmark RTLS

LEE: While RTLS technology will tell you where something is, it does not tell you whether its being used and how much (i.e. utilization). In combination with RTLS, medical device discovery and security tools that monitor network traffic down to individual devices will provide data around actual utilization and the location at the time it is being used. This additional vector of data provides a deeper layer of information for capital planning. For example, the average hospital systems’ infusion pumps hover around 40 percent actual utilization rate whereas higher efficiency hospital systems with good people, process and technology can achieve 60 to 80 percent utilization. Ultimately, this reduces the number of infusion pumps to purchase, manage and maintain. Lastly, a common alternative to employing RTLS technology with closed loop workflows is a decentralized model of keeping additional equipment on the floors. However, this approach often leads to overbuying of inventory, and an inconsistent cleaning process. Although this can be an easier approach to implement, with the additional equipment that HTM is

WELLS: Midmark RTLS, formerly Versus Technology, offers both Wi-Fi locating for zone-level accuracy, as well as discreet, aesthetically pleasing sensors that capture IR signals emitted by badges and tags. This design provides hospital-wide visibility while achieving bed-level and better granularity where it’s needed with one simple sensor in each location. Although our platform was the first on the market to use infrared, numerous competitors have attempted to engineer around this design to avoid patent infringements. Clearly, not all RTLS solutions, even those that use infrared, are designed in the same way, making it even more important for health care buyers to explore the unique differences of each vendor’s offerings, regardless of the locating technologies used. Q: WHAT ELSE DO YOU THINK TECHNATION READERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PURCHASING AND USING RTLS? BARTNICKI: RTLS technology does not have to be daunting or have incredibly

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registration required to maintain along with ever-increasing emphasis on reducing hospital acquired infections, one must seriously evaluate whether this alternative is a better model, financially and for patient care, compared to a technology and data-driven model. RASMUSSEN: RTLS programs require thoughtful evaluation and investment to implement. The long-term value of having RTLS is well documented in terms of meaningful improvements in quality, patient satisfaction, compliance, workflow, infection control and more. When considering an RTLS, technology platform decisions matter – especially with regard to accuracy, infrastructure, and ongoing maintenance which all contribute to cost-of-ownership and speed of return on investment. It is important to ensure that there is proper buy in and training of the clinical staff that will be utilizing the RTLS as well as the biomed staff. When evaluating a technology, key features and benefits for evaluation and consideration include: use case and overall level of accuracy required; location update rate, accuracy; reliability of the system; scalability; and aesthetics. RHEAULT: We started this by talking about how the majority of the larger health care systems have tried RTLS at some point and in some way. However, what we didn’t make clear is that there has been a lot of “wreckage” left in the industry. Lots of projects that didn’t deliver as expected and ended up being a wasted investment. I want to stress that only a small portion of this wreckage was caused by poor technology. The majority of failed projects were because of the lack of adequate planning, identifying and implementing appropriate process improvement changes, understanding the ongoing operational maintenance needed ongoing and not baselining and

capturing the key metrics such that the amount of improvement could be identified and communicated to the executive sponsors. That last one is particularly important as that can kill or slow down many promising programs. Showing success at each stage is critical to building momentum for any program designed to grow over time, such as with RTLS. Also, if I could make one concept crystal clear, it would be that while there is a potential for great value, it does take work. While not anywhere near the effort or the cost of implementing an EMR, it is similar in that you don’t just install Epic or Cerner on a server and walk away and expect it to succeed. Hospitals need to think about RTLS in a similar, though obviously scaled back, way. Learn from those that have made mistakes so that you don’t repeat them, and copy those that have been successful so that you can move with as much velocity as possible. The path and the examples are there … don’t try to reinvent the wheel. WELLS: Purchasing an RTLS solution isn’t limited to an infrastructure decision. Reputable vendors prompt buyers to ask questions of manufacturers to understand how a real-time locating solution will support workflow and efficiencybuilding within their unique care environment – not only for asset tracking, but also for patient flow applications in the ED, OR and hospital-wide. Stakeholders should call or visit RTLS reference sites, see the different technologies in action, examine device installation and make sure it meets both short- and longterm goals for aesthetics and functionality. They should also consider how solution deployment will impact the culture of their organization. Without staff engagement and a change management plan, technology solutions can be undermined by end users, resulting in unsuccessful utilization.

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resident Calvin Coolidge once said; “Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of facts within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity.” With the eventual retirement of many seasoned HTM professionals, the tips and tricks, knowhow and stratagems that came out of years of experience could be lost on their successors. Those things that are garnered through experience are not always taught in the classroom.

One of Coolidge’s wise sage predecessors was Benjamin Franklin who said, “Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.” That reflects a similar Dutch proverb that recognizes that smarts often come with age and experience. The tricks learned by using a particular tool, following a certain procedure or fully utilizing their CMMS may all come out of experience for a biomed. In many cases, an approach or idea occurs to one person that is unique or useful and is worthy of sharing. With that in mind, some of those good ideas are shared here thanks to the HTM professionals who use them. Carpenters have tricks of the trade, auto mechanics have their own hacks and shortcuts, so it is no surprise that HTM professionals pick up a useful idea or two over the years. Sometimes those “tips” just come out of necessity or from learning what works best. Many of them can help more junior colleagues. “Maybe a tip for a new biomed that I’ve learned in my experience, no matter what you’re getting called out for; take a cart and your tool bag, because inevitably you’ll be heading back for one or the other, it seems,”

says Roger Streidl, CBET, biomedical equipment specialist at the Soin Medical Center in Beavercreek, Ohio. “Always take pictures of the ID numbers of the item you worked on, while you are out there the first time, to save time trying to figure it out after the fact,” Streidl adds. IT’S IN THE SOFT SKILLS Some non-technical tips can be turned into daily habits as many biomeds observe what works in practice while interacting with colleagues. “Be nice and courteous to whoever you are dealing with, develop relationships; this has helped me tremendously; also follow through on whatever you are committed to do,” says Derick Davis, BBA, CBET, senior biomedical

“ G iving appropriate recognition and expressing gratitude is so important when it comes to generating support.” - Derick Davis equipment technician at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. This kind of “soft skill” is often not taught alongside electrical or anatomy knowledge. It is a crucial element of working in HTM. In a June 2018 edition of TechNation’s Biomed 101 feature, Connor Walsh, a clinical engineer at Southeast Louisiana Veterans Healthcare System, says that the soft skill of communication is a key to the HTM field. Part of this is showing appreciation. “Giving appropriate recognition and expressing gratitude is so important when it comes to generating support and, unfortunately, all too often it is lost during day-to-day operations,” he says.

“A personal rule of thumb of mine is that you can never say ‘thank you’ or ‘good job’ too much. Although you may think it is an easy task, the individual assisting you may have jumped through numerous hoops to get it done for you. Coworkers or employees that feel underappreciated are far less likely to want to continue to assist you when something arises,” Walsh says. “If you find it difficult to remember the last time you sent some appreciation to someone that helped you, take the time to let them know their work and effort is valued,” he adds. “Make a friend in every department. They can help you find equipment from those little nooks and crannies you would have never found by yourself,” says Tony Cody, technology management/ENTECH director at Banner Health. Davis says to show customers confidence and humility. “Always have the ‘I’ll take care of it’ mentality when you are going on the floor to fix a problem. Have the confidence in your abilities to fix whatever it is; if it’s not your specialty, find who the right contact is,” he says. GOOD ATTITUDE AND UTILIZING RESOURCES That old adage about never assuming anything holds true for HTM. Don’t assume you know more than you do when you are new to a piece of equipment. Be organized and use every available resource. “Don’t be afraid to try and fix something; if it’s already broken, you can’t do any worse,” Davis says. “Learn about each piece of equipment you touch, what does it do? How is it used? Ask the person who called in a work order for a piece of equipment to show you how it works if you don’t know. Don’t be afraid to say 52

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that you don’t know, but be sure to follow that up with, ‘I’ll find the answer,’” Davis adds. Davis drives home the point that a biomed should provide the highest level of service when he says to “treat each piece of equipment that you’re working on as if it would be used on your mother.” To further illustrate the point about doing excellent work, Davis says to “take pride in your work and documentation; act as if it will be reviewed by your director [or] accrediting agency.” “Be organized. Being a biomed, you are bombarded with a lot of information you need to keep track of; dates, meetings, contacts, etcetera, so use what’s available. I put all of this information on my Outlook calendar. That way, I don’t have to have Post-it notes all over my desk,” Davis adds. Another tip for newer biomeds, as well as veterans, is to think outside the box and utilize every resource available, including the regulations of medical devices. “Oftentimes, biomeds are so focused on servicing the equipment, that they

“Three items are worth looking into when you are having issues with a particular vendor or equipment,” he says. “One, whether the company is registered to market its product in the U.S. Two, MAUDE database on device experience. This is where hospitals and manufacturers report on issues experienced with devices. A wide spectrum of reports ranging from near misses to serious injury and death. Three, recalls; safety notices issued by manufacturers, or warning letters issued by FDA to manufacturer,” Kai adds. “Vendor tech support can be a valuable tool when repairing equipment; they are well versed on the equipment you are working on and can provide helpful information,” Davis says. He also says that HTM professionals should make sure they are getting the proper amount of rest and to show up to work on time with the right attitude. PHONE IN HAND Smartphones have proven to be a lot more than a means to place and receive calls. They can also replace your

“ Be organized. Being a biomed, you are bombarded with a lot of information you need to keep track of; dates, meetings, contacts, etcetera, so use what’s available.” - Derick Davis are not aware there is a wealth of info available to the public on vendors at the FDA website. Also, there is a misconception that equipment is tested by FDA prior to going to market which is not true. Most are cleared based on ‘substantial equivalence, 510K,’ ” says Salim Kai, MSPSL, CBET, ABET PEV, senior director of biomedical engineering at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

brain’s ability to memorize many details and are a source for information and keeping your ducks in a row. James Swandol, BSM, CBET, manager, Healthcare Technology Management at Baylor Scott and White Health in McKinney, Texas says that conveniently available notes helped when he was a technician. “Working in a hospital system, my on-call included covering multiple WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

article contributers campuses; it was sometimes hard to remember where everything is on the different campuses, and even harder to remember passwords for systems you don’t work with every day. I created my on-call notes and stored them in my Notes app on my iPhone. My notes included vendor phone numbers for troubleshooting, biomed passwords for equipment and step-by-step instructions on how to do anything from programming a tele box to how to get a purchase order after hours,” Swandol says. Besides the use of an app, the camera on a smartphone has proven to be very useful in its small form factor. “Also, this is probably pretty common these days, but using your cellphone to take as many pictures of devices as you disassemble them to remember where connections go is a great tool. And also store photos to shared drives for future reference for PM procedures or repair procedures,” Streidl says. “Your smartphone camera can save you hours of refiguring out which hose goes on where,” Cody says. “It is a common tip today to take pictures of everything to have a reference for later. What most people forget to do is take a quick second and verify the picture came out clear and has everything in the frame that you want,” says Andrew Arment, biomed tech II with Banner Health. GETTING THE MOST FROM DATA There are more than a few tips and pieces of advice that relate to the use of your CMMS. “The heart of any HTM program is the data that resides on the CMMS system. This needs to be kept up to date and accurate. Keeping your database clean will give you accurate reports,” says Joseph E. Fishel CBET, MBA,

healthcare technology systems manager at Sutter Health eQuip Services. “When running a report, know why you are running it. Often, we look at our achievements without looking at what were the drivers for your variances to make corrections,” he says. Clean and comprehensive data input means useful results. “Make sure your data is correct. How can you make recommendations for equipment replacements if you have no idea when it was purchased, how much it cost, and how much service time and money you have invested?” Cody asks. Cody also says to make sure you thoroughly document in your CMMS. He says that it can help your perceived productivity, future service and build credibility of your expertise. “Your CMMS is powerful,” Cody says. “Get reports sent to you and have dashboards built. It helps make sure you don’t let anything slip through the cracks. Learn spreadsheets. Most CMMS exports data to spreadsheets. You can build powerful tools,” he adds. Streidl agrees about that bestpractices with CMMS are a sure-fire way to make efficient use of a great tool. “Log your work into your CMMS as soon as you can so you’re not trying to remember things well after the fact. Get to know the shortcuts inside your CMMS that will save you time like cloning work orders for work that is identical, or quick closing PM work orders,” he says. To make life easier, Swandol suggests keeping ahead of the curve. “Stay ahead of schedule; midway through the month we run a report for the upcoming month’s preventive maintenance schedule. We go ahead and order parts and start prep for the upcoming month at that time; that way on the first day of the month, we are ready to get to work; we are not sitting around waiting on parts to come in,” he says.

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

Andrew Arment, biomed tech II at Banner Health

Joseph E. Fishel, CBET, MBA, healthcare technology systems manager at Sutter Health eQuip Services

Kim Roeder, biomed tech II, at Banner Health

Matthew Lothamer, biomed tech at Banner Health

Nicholas Castro, biomed tech at Banner Health

Roger Streidl, CBET, biomedical equipment specialist at the Soin Medical Center

Salim Kai, MSPSL, CBET, ABET PEV, senior director of biomedical engineering at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Tony Cody, technology management/ENTECH director at Banner Health

MARCH 2019

TECHNATION

TIPS TO GET THE JOB DONE AND EXCEL From dealing with the boss to unseating a screw to testing X-ray equipment, there is a tip or trick to get it done. “If you are in imagining or a biomed, who takes care of X-ray, get a piece of image intensifier screen and put it in your tool bag. If you feel an X-ray machine isn’t producing X-ray, put the film in the X-ray field and turn off the lights in the room. When you radiate the film, it will glow. This is a quick way of seeing that you are making radiation,” Fishel suggests. Save some time in duplicating your previous work. “For documentation, one trick I used to do was to keep templates saved on my computer to help cut time when typing up work order notes,” Swandol says. “Since we always document what test equipment we used, I had templates for different equipment. These templates would include information on all the test equipment I would use to complete preventive maintenance on a particular piece of equipment,” he says. He says that the only thing he would have to do when test equipment was calibrated was update his templates with the last calibration date and he was good for another year worth of documenting. Cody says to never horde knowledge. Share and learn from fellow BMETS. “Never waste time. If you literally have nothing to do then find something useful to do. If nothing else, pick up a service manual and invest in yourself,” he suggests. Cody says that whenever possible, use the end of the day to prep for tomorrow. 54

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“Help your shop develop PM templates. It saves you a ton of time. Learn alternate sources. Knowing many options on where to find a part or repair service besides the OEM can save time and money,” Cody says. “Learn BMET regulatory requirements; it helps you understand why the ‘boss’ wants you to do things a certain way and it helps you make a transition to leadership. Communicate; do it

A great habit to get into comes from Nicholas Castro, biomed tech at Banner Health. “When possible, lay out screws/ bolts/nuts in a similar layout to how they are removed from a device; it can save time when reassembling,” Castro says. He also suggests that you keep a backup shirt and that you should always be polite to your local salesperson. “Ask as many questions as you

“ N ever waste time. If you literally have nothing to do then find something useful to do. If nothing else, pick up a service manual and invest in yourself.” - Tony Cody before, during and after the event and if you go to your boss with a problem, always have a proposed solution,” Cody adds. Other members of the team at Banner Health had a number of suggestions to help their HTM colleagues; both rookie and tenured. “If you are trying to attach a hose to a connector – like a BP hose – use a heat gun to soften the plastic of the hose, for a better seal,” says Kim Roeder, biomed tech II, with Banner Health. “If you have a stripped screw, use a Dremel to cut a line in the head of the screw. Then use a flat head screwdriver to remove the stripped screw. If that doesn’t work, use a ‘Grabbit’ bit,” Roeder adds. And then, there are these tips. “It has become a personal habit of mine to always have a note pad in my pocket and at least two pens with me no matter where I go. It is fast and easy to take a quick note rather than try to remember too many things at once,” Arment says.

need to. When dealing with medical equipment, it is better to sound uninformed than to guess wrong on something,” suggests Matthew Lothamer, biomed tech with Banner Health. “Make sure your documentation includes any information another tech might need if they were to pick up where you left off on a CM,” Lothamer says. “Do not delete important emails.” “Always keep stuff you scan into the work order. Learn hospital policy, at the very least, know where to go to find it,” says Greg Pyle, biomed tech II, at Banner Health. Some of these ideas may already be part of your portfolio of tips and tricks and some may qualify as new additions. Just as with forums, listservs, associations and conferences, one of the reasons to make contact with other HTM professionals is to share knowledge. Every new idea can make for a more efficient, organized and productive day. WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

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Professional Interview Etiquette, Tips For Success BY CINDY STEPHENS

our resume made it through the screening process and you have been scheduled for an interview. Your resume outlined your background, experience and skills, but it is the interview that gets you the job. You should spend time preparing for the interview.

Go above and beyond to research the company, read the company’s website and social media sites so you understand what they do and what products and services they offer. Read recent news articles about the company and the industry so you are informed and up-to-date. Review the job description and the qualification requirements ahead of the interview to help you connect your experiences and skills with the company’s needs. Be prepared to highlight how you are suited for the position based on your experiences, talents, strengths and abilities. Prepare a list of references with specific contact information and bring additional copies of your resume with you. Neatly and completely fill out any application forms and do not say, “see resume.” Bring appropriate forms of ID to complete the I-9 Employment Verification form. Turn off your cellphone or put it on mute (and DO NOT answer or text during the interview period). Be sure to arrive at least 10-15 minutes early. Know where you are going and how long it will take you to make the trip at the specific time of the day required. Don’t chance it! The first impression is made within the first few seconds of meeting you, so it is extremely important to ensure the 56

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first impression is a positive and lasting one. Remember your appearance, your tone of voice, body language and personal conduct all contribute to the impression that you make – whether positive or negative. Professional attire and attention to detail still count so dress for success. If you’re uncertain about what to wear for the interview, dress more formally rather than too casually. Be sure you are well-rested. If it is a telephone or video conference interview, it is very important to find a quiet room and do not allow interruptions. Remain 100 percent focused on the caller and interview. If you are asked to do a Skype or video interview, be sure to practice the setup and the call with a family member or friend ahead of time. You want to stand out from the competition. The candidates who ace the interview show they are capable, willing and eager to do the job, and need little supervision or motivation. They also demonstrate they have a good personality and work well with others. Professional etiquette is very important for a successful interview and it will ensure you present a positive, confident and polished image. Greet the interviewer and everyone involved with a smile and a firm handshake. Maintain eye contact, be a good listener and smile! Do not interrupt. Treat everyone with respect and provide your undivided attention. Maintain good posture and convey confidence, enthusiasm and professionalism. Be honest in your answers, and never be negative about a person or company. Use good communication skills detailing your experiences and

Cindy Stephens, Stephens International Recruiting, Inc accomplishments. Focus on the discussion and the question that is being asked. Expand on your answers, using this time as an opportunity to tell the interviewer more about you and to demonstrate some of the qualities they are looking for (such as team player, leadership). Express confidence and competency that you can do the job. The interviewers are trying to see how you can contribute to the company. Sell yourself, but do not brag. Demonstrate your attitude with your smile and by remaining positive. Be sincere and passionate about your interests and experiences. Exhibit excitement about the position you are interviewing for. If you really want the job you are interviewing for, say so. If the company is your top choice, make it known. Candidates who seem sincerely interested in them impress potential employers. The key here is sincerity – they will know if you are putting on an act. For technical questions, be direct and WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

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RepairMed repairs all models of these devices to component level: to the point. If you are unable to answer a question, be honest and explain how you would approach a problem situation. When asking, “tell me a little about yourself” managers are looking for serious answers. Talk about your accomplishments and abilities. Do not talk about your childhood, family or hobbies (unless specifically asked). Your goal is to be clear and concise. You should be prepared with your own questions that show your sincere interest in the company and the position. This also allows you to gather the right information to make an intelligent decision to determine if this is a good fit for you. Do not bring up salary expectations during the interview - this is usually discussed during the second interview or offer stage. However, if you are asked, be accurate in stating your current salary and be very careful in stating your salary expectations. You may just miss a good opportunity by overstating your salary requirements. The typical salary to start is an incentive increase of 3 to 5 percent. Before the interview ends, summarize your strengths and explain why you feel you are a good fit for this position. Determine when the employer expects to make a hiring decision or ask about the next step in the interview process. Get a business card from everyone you met so you have the proper titles and spelling of names for all the people with whom you met. During the hiring process, follow-up communications and professional courtesies are extremely important. Employers will judge a candidate’s ability to communicate effectively during every phase of the interview process. Follow-up with your interviewers. Send a hand-written thank you note right away. This demonstrates your communication skills and level of interest in the job. With the difficult job market and tough competition today, you need to stand out from the others and make a good impression. It is not enough to be technically savvy, smart and experienced to succeed in today’s workplace. If your technical skills are comparable to other candidates, then the use of common courtesies, professional etiquette and excellent communication skills give you the competitive edge to stand out.

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20/20 IMAGING INSIGHTS Three Ways To Save Thousands in 2019 BY CAM CONKLIN

hen it comes to medical device repair, the lowest price is not the path to long-term savings. In fact, there is often a high cost for the lowest price that takes years to overcome.

Real, sustainable savings in the complex imaging device industry come from carefully concerted strategies that don’t emphasize price. Success depends on strategic inventory management and maintenance, and in-depth knowledge of lifecycles, historical failure timelines associated with specific makes and models of probes, coils and radiography systems. Following are three critical components for inventory management and ROI that are proven to produce long-term savings, increased access and greater efficiencies. PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE Ben Franklin’s famous quote, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” really hits home for managing imaging devices. Our Centers of Excellence have built preventative maintenance programs proven to extend the life of probes and coils which helps cure the high cost of ownership. Getting just six more months of use from one device can free up thousands of dollars in operational costs. When preventative programs are built upon research, testing and other activities that go into evidence-based repairs, they have a much higher propensity to extend the life of a device and prevent potential failures. Engineers at our Design and Manufacturing 58

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Cam Conklin, Global Customer Experience and Partnerships for Innovatus Imaging Center of Excellence build preventative protocols around our vast data of knowledge from proprietary testing and our more than 150,000 successful probe repairs and 25 years of manufacturing and repairing MRI coils that are proven to minimize failures and extend performance as originally intended by the OEM. For most makes and models, our data can help us determine a general time frame that specific parts may diminish in their performance, lifecycle expectations, and recommend maintenance schedules accordingly. For example, replacement of a bending rubber on a TEE probe as preventative maintenance will prevent a larger, much more expensive failure downstream. STRATEGIC PLANNING A savings strategy that drives profitability by lowering costs involves a holistic approach to inventory management. Successful inventory

management is not just about price points and first-in/first-out (FIFO) rotations of new and old equipment, it is about finding ways to make each device last longer to postpone major purchases and free up capital budgets. Having information either via your own observations or testing and benchmarking input from repair partners can help predict when given models are likely to start to diminish in performance. This knowledge helps avoid downtime from failures or compromised performance. TRAINING Consultative, knowledge sharing from industry leaders can have a big impact. Partners with the greatest ability to help you save money are those with the most knowledge about when and how specific probe, coil and radiography device models start to diminish in performance. Partners that continue to test and expand their knowledge base can provide insights, maintenance schedules and, very importantly, training on inventory management and maintenance strategies that maximize uptime and ROI. FOR MORE INFORMATION about savings and inventory management strategies or to schedule a 10-minute demo of our exclusive Savings Planner tool, contact Cam Conklin at CamC@ innovatusimaging.com. CAM CONKLIN is responsible for Global Customer Experience and Partnerships for Innovatus Imaging and has more than 20 years leading savings and inventory management strategies for imaging devices. He has been with the Innovatus Imaging team since 1998. WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

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CYBERSECURITY BY JOSEPH E. FISHEL, CBET, MBA

have found that fact, logic, and common sense are frequently a strong basis for making good decisions. When I made decisions that weren’t good, I usually found that I didn’t have enough facts, or the right facts, which skewed my logic and common sense. FACTS: • Cybersecurity hacking is now a way of life. • You don’t know what you don’t know. LOGIC: • Gather all of the information you can on what is capable with your network right now. • Talk to your IS/IT department about decisions already made for the future. Are they switching network vendors, increasing security levels, etc. COMMON SENSE: • Gather all the information you can on what you have available to you. Set up a meeting with your IS team. Some organizations only have 1 or 2 IS/IT staff and others may have over 1,000. Determine what you have. What you can do, and then develop a plan. Having attended many cybersecurity lectures everyone seems to be on board about cybersecurity being a priority, but where to start seems to be vague. We are at a point similar to someone who is starting to put a Jigsaw puzzle together. Some people sort out all the corners and edges and complete the outline first. Others sort out piles of colors or parts of objects together and work from there. FACT/LOGIC With most cybersecurity attacks coming from the outside of your organization the logic is to build a wall or protect 60

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your devices from being seen or accessed from the Internet. If you can’t be seen from the Internet then it makes it harder to grab network information. You don’t want a hacker to get control of a surgical robot during a surgery. Perimeter protection is the same as building a wall. This is why sitting down with your IS/IT team is important. They know their system and can help identify the means and methods needed to protect the medical equipment from being seen from the Internet. Because medical devices connect in different manners this can drive the Internet of Things (IoT), IoT protection to be different. Some networking systems can only protect using a MAC address, others an IP address. It is important to find out what your current system can do so that you can start utilizing its capabilities. Devices that connect wirelessly may need special attention. The IS team may already have a perimeter protection plan in place. Remember this is their IS/IT equipment, but medical devices may not have been included. One of the ways is to use an Access Control List (ACL) which is a table that tells a computer operating system which access rights each user has to a particular system object, such as a file directory or individual file. This is used in a manner similar to parental control on your TV. Placing an ACL on an edge router can create the perimeter we are trying to create. An edge router is a specialized router residing at the edge or boundary of a network. This router ensures the connectivity of its network with external networks, a wide area network or the Internet. An edge router uses an External Border Gateway Protocol, which is used extensively over the Internet to provide connectivity with

Joseph E. Fishel, HTM Manager for Sutter Health eQuip Services

remote networks. By applying it to edge routers is a way of restricting access of a device to be queried from the Internet. Some devices will still require Internet connection to function. You will have to identify if a device needs to connect to the Internet and include that connection in your ACL to allow the device to continue to operate. This is especially important for remote VPN and alert call outs such as CTs arcing or MRI helium levels. Monitoring for 30 days prior to lockdown can give you an indication of what devices actually communicate outside the hospital, but if no emergency callouts occur you won’t see them. There is no one way to protect all devices. Because of how devices are used and how they connect, whether it be static, DHCP, wired or wireless. They all have special needs. Identifying how to do this within your network will require feedback from your IS/IT networking team and that should be the first step. Depending on the networking system it may require the MAC address, the IP address or a host name. If using an IP address this becomes difficult. WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

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what service patch level or patch is on the device can make the difference in the number of vulnerable devices. Constant updating of the data is imperative. Other things to consider are what devices use microprocessors and whose microprocessor it is. This was important to identify medical devices susceptible to Specter and Meltdown and if they were networked to identify the risk. We can’t always protect, but we can identify what is vulnerable to prepare for the future. Identifying the manufacturer of your network card on a device can be important information for the future as well. The Boy Scout Motto is “Be prepared.” We must be prepared to keep our hospitals a safe place to treat and heal.

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When a device is set up on DHCP, the IP keeps changing so the protection can’t be done. In that case, other options need to be identified. While working on this you should also be starting on your strategic plan. Identification for what information or fields for you CMMS to collect need to be identified. You can start with MAC addresses and IP addresses. Networking is based primarily on these two items and are important. You need to be verifying these on your devices and colleting them in your CMMS. Other data to consider collecting the operating system manufacturers, the version as well as what service patch and patch levels. When WannaCry was being released it was imperative to know this information to know what devices were and weren’t vulnerable. Knowing this information made it quickly identifiable as to what devices are affected and a remediation plan can be developed. In some cases, knowing

JOSEPH E. FISHEL, CBET, MBA, is a Healthcare Technology Systems Manager for Sutter Health eQuip Services.

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THE FUTURE BY JOHN NOBLITT, M.A.ED., CBET

ack in October, I wrote about the need for a more proactive stance in finding the next generation of HTM professionals. I began to ask myself, where should one look for the next generation of HTM professionals.

Knowing the next generation must have a college degree I had to look at where future community college students will come from. Years ago, many of the students in the BMET program here at Caldwell Community College where career changers. Many, if not most, had federal and state funds available for retraining purposes because of plant shutdowns, etc. These students brought life experiences to the classroom and to the career field, but finding that first job was not near as easy as it is today. In today’s job market most of the career changers that came into the HTM field probably would have just gone to work somewhere else instead of going back to school. So, the logical place to start looking for the next HTM professionals are the local high schools. I’m beginning efforts to bring HTM information to more Health Occupation Students of America (HOSA) students. After doing more research, I’m sure HOSA is where we can find many of the next leaders in HTM. The HOSA website states: HOSA is an international student organization recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Health Science Education (HSE) Division of ACTE. HOSA’s two-fold mission is to promote career opportunities in the health care industry and to enhance the delivery of quality health care to all people. HOSA’s goal is to encourage all health science instructors and students to join and be actively involved in the HSEHOSA Partnership. (www.hosa.org/ about) 62

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To promote career opportunities in the health care industry … that sounded exactly like my mission and the website went on to state: to enhance the delivery of quality health care to all people. I can certainly get behind that and then I came upon their creed. It sets the tone for a quality health care professional. The HOSA creed is: I recognize the universal need for quality, compassionate health care. I understand the importance of academic excellence, skills training and leadership development in my career pathway. I believe through service to my community and to the world, I will make the best use of my knowledge and talents. I accept the responsibility of a health professional and seek to find my place on a team equally committed to the well-being of others. Therefore, I will dedicate myself to promoting health and advancing health care as a student, a leader, an educator and a member of HOSA-Future Health Professionals. Judging from their mission and creed it appears the HOSA organization is setting a great foundation for many to become a health care professional. However, my guess is that many HOSA members, students and teachers, know little about the HTM field and the endless opportunities. In my limited outreach so far, that has been the case. When you say biomedical to a HOSA member they seem to want to talk about forensics. So, I have to again explain the career field and they always seem fascinated. I am encouraged by the HOSA instructors’ sincere interest in the HTM career field and that they are receptive to getting more information and providing it to their students. One instructor I was speaking with was

John Noblitt, M.A.Ed., CBET, Educator at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute

shocked at how many avenues you could find in this career field. Another initiative to help find the next generation of HTMers I hope to accomplish this year in North Carolina would be to have HTM shops across the state get involved with local HOSA chapters to provide more HTM exposure to HOSA students. Activities such as going to a HOSA class and discussing the career field with the students (and possibly doing a small demonstration, such as testing an ESU – they love the sparks) and explaining how and why HTM professionals do what they do would be a great recruiting tool. This type of exposure is a great way to ensure more young people enter into the career field. This exposure must be ongoing if it’s to be effective. Every time I have done something like this with high school students, I get a couple students interested in the program who had never heard of this career field. I hope to see this initiative go one step further and find ongoing internship opportunities for any interested students WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

EXPERT ADVICE

in local HTM departments. This will provide a dual role, it will provide a solid foundation for students entering a college biomedical program and provide a steady stream of future HTM leaders. I sincerely hope efforts such as this may alleviate some of the projected staffing shortages in the HTM field. As with any problem, we need not put all our eggs in one basket. As a community college professor, I know all too well that the numbers of high school students attending community colleges is going down. So, with that in mind, please don’t forget about that kid that shows the qualities we are seeking in an HTM professional. I hope to report back with some progress on this endeavor soon.

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JOHN NOBLITT, M.A.Ed., CBET, is an educator at Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute. vc_TechNation_Clr Ad_7x4.5_19Jan23.pdf

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THE OTHER SIDE Are You Reporting Your Progress? BY JIM FEDELE, CBET

have had many conversations with colleagues about the reports we present to our bosses and customers. It is interesting to hear about the variation of information that is reported.

Building a status report (annual or quarterly) can be time consuming. Gathering data, deciding what should be included and formatting this information takes thought and preparation. We need to ensure we are informing and not boring our audience with the details of our operation. I have built many annual reports for my customers and have learned from these challenges. I would like to share some strategies that I developed. The activities needed to track and maintain medical equipment are many. Our foundational responsibilities are adding and deleting equipment and scheduling and repairing it. When you factor in regulatory agency inspections, recalls, incident investigation and leading a team of technicians, it is easy to understand how spending time on an annual report could get pushed to the bottom of the to do list. Pulling together a good report will take many hours to complete. The time factor alone makes it susceptible to derailment since most of us barely get an hour without interruption. Working on the report requires a strategy that mitigates interruptions in order to keep the process moving forward. I break my report down into six parts: employees/team; work requests; inventory; savings; special projects; and

goals. Over the course of a month, I work on each of these sections individually. Our own technical nature is one obstacle that stands in the way of building a good report. As engineers and technicians, we love our acronyms and our data. We also have a mindset that solving problems is just part of our job. We tend not to recognize that the special requests and problems we solve should be shared with our bosses and customers because we feel they are just “part of our job.” The result is a report filled with graphs and data but missing the many value-added activities we do daily to assist our customers. I am as guilty as anyone. I love graphs and data and that is what I want to see in a report. However, if you are running a good program without any issues with core responsibilities, our bosses and customers need to know what additional activities we are performing to support the operation. Creating a report full of data and graphs about preventative maintenance (PM) and corrective maintenance (CM) only, tends to be overly technical and doesn’t really accomplish anything. Putting together everything needed for a report can take forever, from searching through the many work requests, to identify all our value -added tasks and special projects. This timeconsuming process made me think that I need to find a better way to capture this data. I have started a file to store valued-added activities and notable events to easily retrieve them for the next report. I also learned that I should

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spend a little time on it monthly, while events are fresh, to ensure nothing is missed. When building my report, I keep in mind the purpose of the report. What am I trying to accomplish? As a service provider, I need to illustrate to the customer that I am meeting and trying to exceed their expectations. I include small graphs of PM and CM completion percentages, but I also provide valueadded analysis such as identifying high-failure devices and preventable physical damage. I want to ensure that the contents are beneficial and meaningful to customers. Finally, and most importantly, I try to keep it as non-technical as possible. My ultimate goal is to make the report understandable to people outside of my world and to wow them with what we have done for them. MARCH 2019

TECHNATION

EXPERT ADVICE

ROMAN REVIEW Probabilistic Decisions BY MANNY ROMAN, CRES

just watched a very interesting interview conducted by leadership guru Peter Bregman. The interviewee was Annie Duke a former professional poker player who won a World Series of Poker bracelet, not an easy feat. The subject of the interview was Ms. Duke’s book “Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don’t Have All the Facts.” What follows is my interpretation of the proposed probabilistic decision-making.

Normally, when we mere mortals make decisions, we judge the decision based on the outcome. If things worked out, it was a good decision, if not, we made a bad decision. The fear of making a bad decision can be enormous. We want to be 100 percent sure that the decision will produce the intended outcome. Ms. Duke has a better proposal. Those of you who play poker know that it is a game of incomplete information. Unlike chess where all the pieces are plainly visible, a poker player has to make decisions (call, bet, raise, fold) without knowing the opponent’s cards. The great poker players have mastered the process of making decisions on probability and odds. When faced with a decision, they analyze the percentage chances that the opponent has a particular range of cards, the percentage chance that his own cards will beat that range, the expected value of making a particular decision based on these calculations, etc. Our “Hero” does not need to know for sure that he can beat the opponent. He only needs to know that his chances are maybe 55 percent that he will. If our Hero has that edge, he makes the call, if not he folds. In the long run, this is a profitable way to play poker even if the 66

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short term is a loss. So poker is not about winning or losing, poker is about making good decisions. That is probabilistic decision-making. In business and in life, making good decisions is also critical. However the process we normally use may be flawed. First, we must realize that everything we do is based on our personal list of resources. These include our value system, biases, risk tolerance, attitude, experience, knowledge, etc. These resources will tend to distort our perception of what we need to do and how to do it. It will even distort what we think is the desired outcome. We must be sure to perform an unbiased examination of the relevant facts and possible outcomes as possible. Poker players attempt to remove emotions from decisions by studying previously played hands so they know what to do when a similar situation arises. They develop a mindset that is based on probabilities. They constantly prepare before sitting down to play. So what can we do? Prepare to make decisions based on the probabilities that an action will provide a particular outcome. There is no 100 percent. There is only a numeric chance of success. The analysis that is undertaken determines that number. Therefore, the analysis is critical. First, as Stephen Covey said, in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” “Begin with the end in mind.” Determine what outcome we wish to achieve. Make sure that it is as well-defined as possible. We must know what we want and also what will be acceptable if we cannot achieve number one. Make it a SMART goal: Specific-what exactly do we want, Measurable-how will

Manny Roman, CRES AMSP Business Operation Manager

we know we got there, Achievable-make sure it can be done, Relevant-it makes sense to the project, Time bound-it has an appropriate time allotment. Once we know where we want to go, it should be easier to know what to do to get there. It’s as if we looked at the outcome and saw what steps we took to get there.

“ Once we know where we want to go, it should be easier to know what to do to get there.” We perform an appropriate analysis of the available information, make choices regarding the relevance of each item and assign an importance value to each item. We then decide on maybe a couple of paths we can take based on these facts. In a probabilistic decision, we are not looking for 100%. We are determining the percentage chance of attaining the desired outcome from the relevant paths. If we have WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

EXPERT ADVICE

Calibrate, then Celebrate. done the proper analysis, we will be able to say that path A has X percent chance and path B has Y percent. I know that the desire is to achieve 100 percent. However, what is the real difference between 55 percent chance and a 75 percent. No matter what, the choice is clear. If, after proper analysis, these are the only two choices and one is only 5 percent better than the other, what will we do? Continue analysis? Freeze and do nothing, which is in itself a decision? There is only one thing to do. Go with the percentages and then ask ourselves, “Is there any additional information that will make me change the decision?” Now, if the decision is of minor consequence, or easily changed, then don’t go through all this stuff. If you are hungry or thirsty, then the first item that satisfies that need will suffice. Don’t perform the normal dinner dance. “What do you want for dinner?” “I don’t know, what do you want?” “I don’t really care, just pick something?” “Italian sounds good.” “Yeah, and so does Mexican.” “So which do you want?” I don’t know, you pick” “I picked last time.” Blah, Blah, Blah. Result: frustration, anger and Chinese.

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DID YOU KNOW? Science Matters

GPS is jammed for many reasons As GPS satellite navigation ties our world closer and closer – and privacy shrinks – many people have reasons, malicious or trivial, to interfere with the GPS signals.

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In tense regions ... Nations can block GPS signals that their rivals use for military navigation and weapon control Jamming can shut down civilian air and sea navigation when powerful jamming transmitters go into action Source: www.gps.gov; NASA; Gizmodo; GPS World Graphic: Helen Lee McComas, Tribune News Service

TECHNATION

MARCH 2019

WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

WOW IT’S NEVER BEEN THIS EASY TO EARN CE CREDITS

TWO WAYS TO LEARN AND EARN ed

entials

E-APPRO

In itu

AAM

•

te ED

View recorded webinars in our archives and download a certificate from your computer within 1 hour.

• C

Join your colleagues every Wednesday for our live webinar series.

CEUs Provided by the AAMI Credentials Institute.

IT ALL STARTS ONLINE WEBINARWEDNESDAY.LIVE

the medical product support network “MedWrench connects a wide range of biomed engineers, helping them to share knowledge and experiences.” –Fadi Ali, RSS

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

“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

–Sam Morgan, Kaleida Health

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

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

MARCH 2019

TECHNATION

BREAKROOM

THE VAULT

o you consider yourself a history buff? Are you widely regarded among coworkers as an equipment aficionado? Here is your 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-march-2019. Good luck!

FEBRUARY PHOTO GE MPX X-ray Control (circa 1983)

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!

JANUARY WINNER Tyler Martin, Biomed Tech II, Merch Health

TECHNATION

MARCH 2019

WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

When It Comes To

CENTRIFUGES, One Name Stands Out

BIOMEDICAL Your Centrifuge Solutions Center • Free Tech Support • Depot Repair • Rental Units

• Re-manufactured Parts • New Parts • Exchanges

www.ozarkbiomedical.com

800-457-7576

OVER 11 YEARS OF QUALITY BIOMEDICAL REPAIR SOLUTIONS FOR YOUR SPECIFIC NEEDS. EQUIPMENT INCLUDES: • • • • • •

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SERVICES INCLUDE: Flat Rate Repair

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Free Tech Support

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EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

Telemetry Case Kits and Dash Front Bezels Available

MARCH 2019

TECHNATION

BREAKROOM

BULLETIN BOARD bulletin board

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

CONTINUING EDUCA TION

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

Career Opportunities Reference the career section: https://www.medwrench.com/bulletin-board/careers

Be ca us e

Qu ali ty M at te

rs. April 1-2 - Conquest Imaging Toshiba A plio Series

TECH NICA L

Follow Ben Calibrating!

Trisonics April 17-18 - 000/S3000 2 /S 0 0 0 Siemens S1 ourse C ng ni ai Tr

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

TECHNATION

MARCH 2019

Position Title: 626 Is Hiring Imaging Engineers In New York, New Jersey, Florida, And Surrounding States! THE WORLD MOVES FAST. WE MOVE FASTER.™

Description:

PROS PECT S

Experts in Siemens Medical Imaging

April 2-11 - Technical Prospects Artis dFC/FA Training Course

Company: 626

626 is currently recruiting experienced Imaging Service Engineers to join our dynamic team! We are seeking engineers who thrive on fixing technical issues and maintaining high quality customer satisfaction. Applicant should be able to work in a fast paced, high pressure and time sensitive environment. More info on how to apply here: http://bit.ly/NowHiring626

WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

BREAKROOM

TIPS TO IMPROVING EMPLOYEE ENGAGEME

NT IN A BMET SHOP

If you are a leader in the HTM community, then you realize there are unique challenges to increasing the employee engagement of your front-line contributors (Employee engagement is the commitment the employee has for the organization and its mission). Your technicians are bright and need to grow and challenge themselves with emerging technological trends in the ever-changing world of today’s healthcare. That is what brought them to the career field and it is one of the reasons they stay. There are many lists of advice you can find that talk about increasing employee engagement, but I want to include some comments and tips for our unique community. 1. Commit to your employees – Care about your employees and get to know them. Family, hobbies, likes, and dislikes. 2. Training – Find ways to train. This can be OEM, 3rd party providers, or OJT. Don’t forget the soft skills. 3. Take feedback from your employees well Yearly “mandatory” corporate feedback from a surve y is not enough! Encourage them to bring up issues and take appropriate action. Always follow back to show that you have taken their comments seriously. 4. Team building exercises – We do regular get-to gethers. We have a yearly chili contest, volunteer for the hospital trunk-or- treat, a shop holiday party, spons or a needy family, and a BBQ to name a few. 5. Growth and rewards – Give them a clear path to promotion and a fully transparent assessment of where they are presently. When a raise is appropriate pursu e it for them. When they are ready for the next level, promote them. See number one. If nothing else, remember to care about your emplo yees. They feel it and know they you are trying to do what is best for your employees, department and organization . They will give you a mulligan when you mess up and work with you to improve employee engagement.

Read more here: http://bit.ly/ImprovingEmploye eEngagement

MARCH 2019 2

AAD 2019 American Academy Of Dermatology Annual Meeting Washington, DC

St. Patrick’s Day

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

MARCH 2019

TECHNATION

SERVICE INDEX www.ambickford.com • 800-795-3062

RepairMED www.repairmed.net • 855-813-8100

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

57 7

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Asset Management Asset Services www.assetservices.com • 913-383-2738

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

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

www.intermed1.com • 386-462-5220

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

Biomedical www.alcosales.com • 800-323-4282

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

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

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

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

InterMed Group www.intermed1.com • 386-462-5220

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

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

Multimedical Systems www.multimedicalsystems.com • 888-532-8056

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

RepairMED www.repairmed.net • 855-813-8100

Sodexo CTM www.sodexousa.com • 1-888-Sodexo7

avantehs.com •

www.jetmedical.com • 714-937-0809

P P

P P P

59 16

P P

sebiomedical.com/ • 828-396-6010

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

P P

www.injectorsupport.com • 888-667-1062

Healthmark Industries

TECHNATION

MARCH 2019

P P P

P P

P P P

HMARK.COM • 800-521-6224

Multimedical Systems

www.multimedicalsystems.com • 888-532-8056

PRN/ Physician’s Resource Network

www.prnwebsite.com • 508-679-6185

P P

Fetal Monitoring Multimedical Systems

www.multimedicalsystems.com • 888-532-8056

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

P P

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

Hand Switches inRayParts.com www.inrayparts.com • 417-597-4702

Healthmark Industries HMARK.COM • 800-521-6224

P P

Infusion Pumps

P P

AIV

P P

Elite Biomedical Solutions

aiv-inc.com • 888-656-0755 elitebiomedicalsolutions.com • 855-291-6701

Master Medical Equipment 59

masterfitmedical.com • 866-468-9558

Multimedical Systems www.multimedicalsystems.com • 888-532-8056

P P

Endoscopy

Computed Tomography Injector Support and Service

Infection Control 35

Cardiology Southeastern Biomedical, Inc

InterMed Group www.intermed1.com • 386-462-5220

Cardiac Monitoring Jet Medical Electronics Inc

Avante Ultrasound avantehs.com/ultrasound • 800-958-9986

P P P

Diagnostic Imaging Avante Health Solutions

ALCO Sales & Service Co.

Cyber Security InterMed Group

PartsSource

P P P

www.maullbiomedicaltraining.com • 440-724-7511

Batteries

Contrast Media Injectors

Maull Biomedical Training 64

TRAINING

www.rsti-training.com • 800-229-7784

A.M. Bickford

SERVICE

RSTI

PARTS

Anesthesia

Company Info

AD PAGE

TRAINING

SERVICE

PARTS

AD PAGE

Company Info

P P

WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

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

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

RepairMED www.repairmed.net • 855-813-8100

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

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

www.ozarkbiomedical.com • 800-457-7576

www.ampronix.com • 800-400-7972

RSTI www.rsti-training.com • 800-229-7784

www.selectpos.com • 866-559-3500

www.ampronix.com • 800-400-7972

BMES www.bmesco.com • 888-828-2637

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

www.innovatusimaging.com • 844-687-5100

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

www.MedWrench.com • 866-989-7057

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

www.rsti-training.com • 800-229-7784

aiv-inc.com • 888-656-0755

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

P P

IBC

Jet Medical Electronics Inc www.jetmedical.com • 714-937-0809

57 27 7

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

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

P P

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

RepairMED 71

www.repairmed.net • 855-813-8100

P P

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

P P

Southwestern Biomedical Electronics, Inc.

P P P

USOC Bio-Medical Services

www.swbiomed.com/ • 800-880-7231 www.usocmedical.com • 855-888-8762

Patient Monitors 27

Avante Patient Monitoring

avantehs.com/monitoring • 800-449-5328

Portable X-ray 4

23 7

inRayParts.com

P P

www.inrayparts.com • 417-597-4702

Power System Components

Interpower www.interpower.com • 800-662-2290

P P

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

8 17

RSTI

P P P

www.rsti-training.com • 800-229-7784

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

P P P

aiv-inc.com • 888-656-0755

Rental/Leasing Avante Health Solutions

P P

avantehs.com •

P P

elitebiomedicalsolutions.com • 855-291-6703

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

Refurbish AIV

P P

www.sodexousa.com • 1-888-Sodexo7

Recruiting Sodexo CTM

Patient Monitoring AIV

P P

PACS RSTI

www.bmesco.com • 888-828-2637

Online Resource MedWrench

P P

BMES

MRI Innovatus Imaging

P P

Monitors/CRTs Ampronix, Inc.

P P

Monitors Select BioMedical

P P

Biomedical Repair & Consulting Services, Inc.

Mammography Ampronix, Inc.

P P

Labratory Ozark Biomedical

avantehs.com • www.brcsrepair.com • 844-656-9418

TRAINING

aiv-inc.com • 888-656-0755

SERVICE

AIV

Avante Health Solutions

PARTS

Infusion Therapy

Company Info

AD PAGE

TRAINING

SERVICE

PARTS

AD PAGE

Company Info

Elite Biomedical Solutions

MARCH 2019

TECHNATION

SERVICE INDEX

TRAINING

www.alcosales.com • 800-323-4282

Avante Patient Monitoring avantehs.com/monitoring • 800-449-5328

Avante Ultrasound avantehs.com/ultrasound • 800-958-9986

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

Jet Medical Electronics Inc www.jetmedical.com • 714-937-0809

61 29

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

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

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

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

Radcal Corporation www.radcal.com • 800-423-7169

Replacement Parts

Southeastern Biomedical, Inc

Elite Biomedical Solutions

sebiomedical.com/ • 828-396-6010

elitebiomedicalsolutions.com • 855-291-6701

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

P P

Career Institute of Technology admissions@cit-texas.com • (512) 807-8300

ECRI Institute

A.M. Bickford

www.ecri.org • 1-610-825-6000.

www.ambickford.com • 800-795-3062

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

RSTI www.rsti-training.com • 800-229-7784

Tri-Imaging Solutions 36

Telemetry

www.triimaging.com • 855-401-4888

aiv-inc.com • 888-656-0755

Avante Patient Monitoring avantehs.com/monitoring • 800-449-5328

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

BMES www.bmesco.com • 888-828-2637

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

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

Multimedical Systems www.multimedicalsystems.com • 888-532-8056

RepairMED www.repairmed.net • 855-813-8100

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

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

P P

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

P P

www.triimaging.com • 855-401-4888

P P

Ampronix, Inc.

23 41 59

Tri-Imaging Solutions

www.ampronix.com • 800-400-7972

Avante Health Solutions

P P

Avante Ultrasound

P P

Innovatus Imaging

P P

avantehs.com • avantehs.com/ultrasound • 800-958-9986 www.innovatusimaging.com • 844-687-5100

P P

5 63 67

P P

P P P

P P

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

Innovatus Imaging www.innovatusimaging.com • 844-687-5100

RSTI www.rsti-training.com • 800-229-7784

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

MARCH 2019

P P

Ultrasound

P P

Tubes/Bulbs PartsSource

AIV

Training

Respiratory

TECHNATION

SERVICE

Test Equipment

ALCO Sales & Service Co.

PARTS

Repair

Company Info

AD PAGE

TRAINING

SERVICE

PARTS

AD PAGE

Company Info

CONTINUED

8 49

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ALPHA INDEX A.M. Bickford…………………………………………… 67 AIV……………………………………………………… 39 ALCO Sales & Service Co.……………………………… 61 Ampronix, Inc.……………………………………………… 4 Asset Services…………………………………………… 64 Avante Health Solutions…………………………………… 2 Avante Patient Monitoring……………………………… 29 Avante Ultrasound……………………………………… 55 BC Group International, Inc…………………………… BC Biomedical Repair & Consulting Services, Inc.………… 71 BMES…………………………………………………… 23

COME GROW WITH US

Career Institute of Technology………………………… 11 Crothall Healthcare Technology Solutions……………… 77 D.A. Surgical…………………………………………… 41 ECRI Institute…………………………………………… 48 Elite Biomedical Solutions……………………………… 41 Engineering Services, KCS Inc…………………………… 6 Healthmark Industries………………………………… 36 Injector Support and Service…………………………… 59 Innovatus Imaging………………………………………… 8 inRayParts.com………………………………………… 57 InterMed Group………………………………………… 61 Interpower……………………………………………… IBC Jet Medical Electronics Inc…………………………… 35 Master Medical Equipment…………………………… 59 Maull Biomedical Training……………………………… 64 Medical Equipment Doctor, INC.……………………… 16 MedWrench…………………………………………… 69

Build Your Career at Crothall Healthcare Technology Solutions Career opportunities abound when you are part of a growing Team. Crothall Healthcare Technology Solutions (HTS) has grown 373% in just the last 5 years and an amazing 20 times over in the last 10 years. With growth comes new jobs and new opportunities.

Multimedical Systems………………………………… 33 Ozark Biomedical……………………………………… 71 PartsSource…………………………………………… 17 PRN/ Physician’s Resource Network…………………… 35

Come see why Crothall has earned Modern Healthcare’s Best Places to Work six years in a row.

Pronk Technologies, Inc. ………………………………… 5 Radcal Corporation……………………………………… 63 RepairMED……………………………………………… 57 RSTI……………………………………………………… 49 Select BioMedical……………………………………… 27 Sodexo CTM……………………………………………… 3 Southeastern Biomedical, Inc………………………… 67 Southwestern Biomedical Electronics, Inc.…………… 24 Stephens International Recruiting Inc.………………… 33 Tri-Imaging Solutions…………………………………… 22

ISN’T IT TIME FOR YOU TO FIND OUT MORE? Come grow with us. Please contact: Glenn Garrett Talent Acquisition Recruiter Glenn.garrett@compass-usa.com

USOC Bio-Medical Services……………………………… 7 Webinar Wednesday…………………………………… 69

EMPOWERING THE BIOMEDICAL/HTM PROFESSIONAL

CROTHALL.COM

MARCH 2019

TECHNATION

BREAKROOM

FLASHBACK

Medical Dealer Expo 2002. This fall marks the 17th anniversary of MD Expo! Take a walk down memory lane with us as we flashback to the very first MD Expo, then called Medical Dealer Expo, held at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia, October 27-29, 2002. MAKE NEW MEMORIES with us at MD Expo Houston April 11-13. Register today at mdexposhow.com!

1. George Blaser (center) and Kevin Blaser (right) speak with an attendee in the exhibit hall. 2. and 5. Manny Roman presented on the “Principles of Serving Radiology Equipment” and represented DITEC in the exhibit hall.

6. and 7. A. Ray Dalton, Founder of PartsSource, Inc. networked with attendees during the exhibit hall and presented the Keynote Address, “Thriving in a Changing Marketplace” for the 2002 event.

8. Modern Biomedical & Imaging speak with attendees during exhibit hall hours.

3. Jenifer Brown, national recruiter for Premier, Inc at the time, presented on “Marketing Yourself in this New Century.” 4. Jim Fedele, took a break from WRITING his column, for then Medical Dealer magazine, to RIDING a mechanical bull at the Hoedown finale party.

6 78

TECHNATION

MARCH 2019

8 WWW.1TECHNATION.COM

If You Just Need One, Order Just One The Interpower® solution for hospital-grade replacement cords: if you just need one, order just one. Made-to-order to your specifications, we offer both replacement cords and special orders. We have no minimum order or dollar requirements, so this empowers you to order just what you need—whether it’s 1, 5, 100, or more. We provide value-added options, such as special labeling and packaging. For example, you can mark your cords with labels that contain identifying information (e.g. Operating Room 1, ER 2, etc.). With your cords specially labeled, hopefully they will stay in the correct location. If you need to replace one, you only have to order one. Made in Iowa, we manufacture a wide selection of clear, black, and gray North American hospital-grade plugs on power cords, cord sets, and replacement cords. All Interpower manufactured cords are electrically tested for safety and carry the appropriate approvals.

Contact Customer Service for More Information •

Made in Iowa, U.S.A.

•

No minimum order or dollar requirements

•

1-week U.S. manufacturing lead-time on non-stock Interpower products

•

Same day shipments on in-stock products

•

Blanket or scheduled orders available

•

Value-added options available

•

Free technical support

Order Online! www.interpower.com

Business Hours: 7 a.m.–6 p.m. Central Time

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.