Empowering the Biomedical/CE Professional
In the last issue of TechNation, Preventative Maintenance intervals were covered from the perspective of the manufacturers. I also briefly touched on the American College of Radiology (ACR) maintenance and verification intervals. Since publication, I have received many requests for our ACR compliant PM form and several questions regarding testing standards for ACR and other ultrasound accreditation organizations. The ACR requirements for accreditation consist of three components. For our purposes we may ignore the first two components which apply only to the physicians and sonographers within an accredited department. It is the third component, “Continuous Quality Control”, which I will...
A multi-service commitment to excellence
“The transition from Sheppard AFB could not have been smoother. The program moved over 75 staff and their families and over $8 million of training equipment from April 2010 to March 2011.” - Chief Warrant Officer 4 Faaruwq A. Muhammad “Our Navy BMET students are actually expected to go on a ship and be the only person on a carrier handling more than 5,000 pieces of equipment. Or they may also be called upon to go to an isolated duty station where there’s not going to be any support.” -Petty Officer First Class Oswaldo Hernandez How’s this for an exercise in efficiency?...
This month, TechNation asks the experts about purchasing and maintaining patient monitoring equipment. Responders address issues ranging from finding equipment and parts to IT connectivity and alarm management. They include Mike Balakonis, president of patient monitoring supplier and repair company MedEquip Biomedical; a team of patient monitoring experts from Covidien, a manufacturer of the equipment; and Michele Shahbandeh, president of Integrity Biomedical, a third-party equipment and service provider. TechNation: What are the biggest trends right now in the patient monitoring equipment market? Balakonis: I see more and more wireless being integrated, and all patient monitors will be manufactured with...
Providing value to its members
A convergence of biomed associations back in the 90s produced the Ohio Clinical Engineering Association. Those associations included the Toledo Biomed Association, the Central Ohio Medical Equipment Technicians Association and the Dayton Biomed Association. The name of the statewide organization became the Ohio Clinical Engineering Association (OCEA) in 2005. The seeds of the organization were originally planted even earlier. In 1974, a group of hospital medical equipment engineers with the Greater Cleveland Hospital Association, sitting on a joint safety committee, took issue with the city over some requirements for hospital equipment. The city wanted all devices to be UL listed....
Please share a little bit about your company’s history and how you achieved success. BC Group is in the Biomedical Test Equipment Business. We are a vertically integrated organization providing Design, Manufacturing, Distribution, Sales, Service and Support for a very large range of Biomedical Test Equipment. Our “One Stop Biomed Shop” theme sums up our business. Our model is to provide, from a single source, all of the equipment, tools and supplies that the Biomed Community might need. We not only offer an extensive listing of test equipment manufactured by us and our many partners, but we also provide labels,...
The BioTronics Clinical Engineering Department at Shadyside Hospital
Western Pennsylvania’s largest employer started its journey to mega-organization as a single psychiatric hospital. Those beginnings trace back to 1893, when the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) began as simply UPMC Presbyterian Hospital. Today, UPMC operates more than 20 hospitals and employs more than 3,000 doctors. Within the massive $10 billion global health enterprise that is UPMC today, is a subsidiary called BioTronics, which includes clinical engineering services. BioTronics was started by a group of employees at Shadyside Hospital in Pittsburgh in 1984. Its purpose was to provide medical equipment repair and management services to area hospitals and physician’s...
Lifelong tinkerer finds her passion
When you win fourth place in a regional stenography contest and have your sights set on being a secretary, how do you end up as a biomed instead? A dad’s willingness to teach his daughter how to work on cars provides part of the answer. That exposure to tools and the electric components of an engine was the early motivation for Judy Ploszaj, Biomed Tech at Aurora Sinai Medical Center in Milwaukee, Wisc. She received her first set of tools on her 19th birthday. “When I first got out of high school, I was a secretary in many different areas...
Report: Biomeds Must Come Out of the Shadows
By Robert King To really improve the profession, healthcare technology managers need to leave the basement… literally. Biomedical equipment technicians and clinical engineers have to increase collaboration with other departments and visibility in the boardroom to show their true value to executives and administrators, according to a new report, Positioning Healthcare Technology Management for the Future, commissioned by AAMI’s Technology Management Council (TMC). “The old stereotype is that we are the guys down in the basement at a workbench fixing machines,” says Matt Baretich, president of Baretich Engineering Inc. in Fort Collins, Colo., and a co-author of the report....
How does a pacemaker work?
Healthy adults have normal resting heart rates of 60 to 100 beats per minute, and any change to that rate — everything from beating too fast, too slow or even irregularly — may indicate a medical problem. When it’s an ongoing problem it could mean faulty electrical signaling within the heart. We’re all born with a pacemaker. It’s called the sinoatrial node (SA node), a small area at the top of the right atrium (upper chamber) of the heart. The SA node automatically generates an electrical signal that causes the upper chambers of the heart to contract. This signal begins...
connecting vital signs monitors to the electronic medical record
As the government’s meaningful use incentives are driving hospitals to rapidly adopt Electronic Medical Records, an increasing number of hospitals are also looking towards connecting their medical devices to the EMR for the purposes of automated documentation. Connecting vital signs monitoring systems to the EMR can increase the accuracy and efficiency of getting vitals data into a patient’s record. But this has made the systems more complex—not only to install and use, but also to shop for. In a recent Health Devices Evaluation (September 2011), ECRI Institute reviewed, tested, and rated several vital signs monitors, focusing on their ability to...
