5 minute read
Department of the Month
BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS
Northwest Ohio borders the western shore of Lake Erie and includes the city of Toledo. Northeast Indiana includes the city of Fort Wayne and includes opportunities for lake-living and camping. Parkview Health serves the health care needs of the region.
The health system was formed in 1995 with its roots going back to 1878 and the original Fort Wayne City Hospital. Today, it serves a combined population of 895,000 with more than 14,000 employees and is the region’s largest employer. It is based in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
“The biomedical services department of Parkview spans seven hospitals and over 100 physician offices, spanning over 7,000-square miles of northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio, maintaining in excess of 48,000 pieces of equipment. We report under the IS division of Parkview Health and employ 27 technicians, a leadership team and support and integrations teams,” says Paul Neher, CBET, supervisor of biomedical services at Parkview Health.
He says that the biomed team spans three generations of workers. Twelve members of the team have at least 20 years in biomedical engineering experience and four of those have more than 40 years of experience in health care.
A few of the facilities that the biomed team covers are Parkview Regional Medical Center (781-staffed beds), Parkview Randallia (166-staffed beds), Parkview Dekalb (57-staffed beds) and Parkview Ortho Hospital (37-staffed beds).
The team uses its CMMS as the funnel point for data collection and report generation.
“Through equipment record keeping, corrective and preventative maintenance records, parts orders, and vendor tracking, our team generates reports not only for internal use, but also for the use of our customers and regulatory agencies,” Neher says.
Additionally, patient data is fed from various systems into the EPIC electronic medical record (EMR). The biomed team ensures that the data is securely routed to the IS infrastructure collection system and then to the EMR.
“The biomedical services team performs preventative and corrective maintenance on a vast range of medical equipment within our facilities, including therapeutic and diagnostic equipment, sterilizers and beds, etcetera, as well as the normal equipment scope. We integrate and manage the flow of data from the medical equipment to the patient EMR. Our IS integrations specialists manage the cybersecurity and integrity of data for all medical equipment within our scope. Instead of regular video feed TVs within the hospitals, our team maintains a network of streaming IPTVs throughout the system,” Neher says.
The department also reviews equipment purchase and service contracts. It makes recommendations to fit the needs of the facilities and customers. Department members research equipment issues for hospital professionals and administrative staff, participate on hospital safety committees,
value analysis steering committees and capital equipment committees.
“Biomed performs reporting of device tracking for the Safe Medical Device Act (SMDA) to regulatory agencies. We receive, distribute, and act on equipment hazard alerts and recalls, and conduct device event investigations. We also report performance monitors and provide an evaluation of the medical equipment management plan (MEMP) effectiveness to both hospital leadership and regulatory agencies. Additionally, our teams review reports for services done by the original equipment manufacturers and vendors to validate that the work they perform meets contracted expectations,” Neher adds.
RISING TO THE CHALLENGE HTM departments and professionals were challenged during the COVID-19 pandemic to take on many unplanned projects and meet the urgent needs of a surge of sick patients. The creation of surge units tested the best skills of the biomed community. The Parkview team sprang into action to assist in this endeavor as well.
“In addition to the regular building projects of new constructions and expansions, the Parkview biomedical services team has been instrumental throughout COVID with the installation of emergent care areas, including some overnight conversions of spaces into patient areas,” Neher says.
He says that the department was essential in the acquisition and disbursement of thousands of pieces of medical equipment to manage the surge of COVID needs, as well as the integration of those devices into the EMR. The department did this without taking a preventative maintenance waiver from the Joint Commission.
The team members helped their facilities maintain a strong commitment to the community throughout the pandemic and the increased demands placed on the system.
“COVID presented many opportunities for teamwork and unique problem solving, as Parkview Health kept up the policy of not turning away anyone in need of care. Parkview biomedical services added many devices to support the rapid increases in COVID patients, such as IV pumps, feeding pumps, vital signs monitors, thermometer devices and respiratory therapy equipment,” Neher says.
He says that room use was changed to meet the requirements for isolation and the acuity of the patients, as well as emergently building isolation and therapeutic rooms to spaces not designed for that purpose.
“Daily, our team members were redirecting monitoring licenses, hardware, and network functionality across our entire system to meet the changing census needs of our patients. And the new daily norm seemed to be deploying new step-down monitoring centers from biomed spares, networking them, rebuilding the central monitoring station sectors and licenses without the aid of the manufacturer. While this was stressful and challenging, biomedical services banded together with other support and service teams to meet this need with teamwork and the care needs of our patients,” Neher says.
He says that in addition to these functions, the department has served on many committees and multi-disciplinary teams to determine best equipment practices and equipment purchases.
“Our members also assist staff with educational opportunities to best determine the clinical applications of the equipment purchased and implemented,” Neher says.
He says that members of the biomedical services team are active members of the Association of the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) and the Indiana Biomed Society (IBS).
This Midwest team of HTM professionals rose to the pandemic’s toughest trials and used its resourcefulness to help area patients and support their facilities.
