PROFESSIONAL OF THE MONTH Larry Sanlin, BMET III

From the Ocean Floor to Tech III

BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS

U.S. Navy submarine can load up with 15,000 pounds of food at the beginning of a deployment. Aerosol cans, such as spray deodorant or hair spray, are not authorized to be brought onboard. The life of a submariners is unique in many ways. Submariners, when underway, operate in eight-hour shifts. It is a tight community.

Submariners also take on a lot of knowledge as part of life on a submarine. This ability to learn and comprehend translates well to other professions; including biomed.

“I served the U.S. Navy until 1996. After getting out of the U.S. Navy, I looked for a job working as a biomed technician in Chicago, however I ended up taking another job as a field service technician in 2002,” says Larry Sanlin, BMET III, Banner Baywood and Heart Hospital, Banner Health in Mesa, Arizona.

Sanlin says that in 2009, he was laid off from the field service technician job and he applied for a job as a facility maintenance technician. The next day, he received a call from the biomed director asking him to come in to interview for a position as a maintenance technician.

“I was hired and 11 years later, I am a Tech III and managing biomeds at four facilities,” he says.

Sanlin has combined biomed knowledge from his military days with on-the-job training and study to get to where he is today.

“I was hired to repair beds and stretchers. When I wasn’t working on beds, I started doing PMs on equipment and reading tech manuals, expanding my knowledge of biomed equipment and its operations. Also, I gained biomed knowledge during my time in the U.S. Navy on the submarine,” he says.

His military experience provided a firm foundation for the work he does today.

“I did have my 19 years of military training in electronics, which was very helpful, as well as my experience as a submariner, gave me the ability to absorb the required information to succeed as a biomed tech,” Sanlin says.

PROJECTS – ON THE JOB AND OFF

The accumulated experience that led to his current position resulted in the responsibility for overseeing biomeds at four campuses at his health system. That has included several projects.

“I managed two major upgrades [to] Philips telemonitor systems. My knowledge of the Philips system during the last upgrade at Banner Baywood helped complete the upgrade in record time and ahead of schedule. I identified issues that needed to be resolved to finish the upgrade. Also, at this time, I am managing a total replacement of the nurse call systems at three hospitals (Baywood, Heart and Goldfield) facilities. Changing from West-Com to ASCOM nurse call system, which is a million-dollar project. I just completed a BD Alaris major firmware upgrade to 2,600 pieces of Alaris LVP and PCU on time with medium staff,” Sanlin says.

A change in personnel also required Sanlin to step up to the challenge.

“After losing my director and shop manager in a 30-day period, I had to step up and manage the shop and take on the responsibility of four hospitals, while being short three biomed technicians. I had to manage a $2 million dollar nurse call replacement at one facility, replacement and upgrade of telemonitoring at two facilities,” Sanlin says.

There was also the challenge of training and maintaining a 95 percent preventative maintenance completion rate and completing firmware upgrades, while getting the Alaris project completed in 35 days. Sanlin says that he enjoys teaching electronics to fellow biomeds.

Off the job, Sanlin’s interests are varied. He builds computers and servers and has been involved in the martial arts and helps out at his church.

“My interest in computers started when I was attending Tuskegee University at the age of 17. I wanted to become a mechanical engineer. In addition to being accepted at Tuskegee’s mechanical engineering program, I was also accepted into the mechanical engineering program at Texas A&M. I have spent a lot of time in computer labs learning code and writing programs. As a result of what I have learned, I presently have two personal video servers with the capacity of 60 TB movies and TV shows, a home security server, which allows me to monitor my home from anywhere in the world. It’s a hobby I thoroughly enjoy,” he says.

Sanlin says that when he left the U.S. Navy, he relocated to Arizona to start his civilian job with a company called Instron.

“I also started attending church at Living by the Word Family Church. The pastor of the church found out I had training in self-defense, so he asked me to join his martial arts school,” he says.

“I started as a white belt and advanced up to 2nd dan (second degree black belt in Tang Soo Do Karate) and I taught basic and advanced self-defense to kids and adults mixing military and Tang Soo Do self-defense skills,” Sanlin adds.

Along with the martial arts and computer projects, Sanlin manages his church’s audio system and streaming channel.

“I accepted the church’s offer and have been managing their audio system from 1996 and continue to manage their audio system presently. Another thing is the church wanted a website. I knew nothing at the time about creating a website, but I love a challenge, so I told the church to give me 30 days to learn how to create a website. I did learn how to create a website and I have created four different websites for the church,” he says.

Sanlin has been married for 25 years and enjoys his job. Certainly, they appreciate him as well. There is much to be learned under the sea.