Going through HTM training, there may be one particular piece of advice from an instructor that hits home and stays with a biomed. Hector Gonzalez, CBET, a biomedical technician in the Biomedical Technology Services Department with Baylor Scott & White Healthcare in McKinney, Texas is no exception. Gonzalez has repeated the story many times.
“While attending the biomed program back in school, my professor focused on the importance of the quality of our work, and every week, he would remind us that it could be one of our family members who could need a piece of equipment that we’d serviced,” Gonzalez recalls.
“While on my first year as a biomed I was working as a field technician for mechanical ventilators and those words from my professor about the quality of work always stood in the back of my mind. To my surprise, that same year my father fell ill and had to be intubated,” he says. “When I walked to his ICU room for the first time and stood next to the ventilator, before even looking at my dad, I saw that the initials on the service/PM stickers were ‘HG’ Hector Gonzalez.”
“I felt a relief, as I knew that my father was on a ventilator that was serviced by me, and thankful to my professor and his teachings about quality of work, it was a top-serviced ventilator,” he adds.
That experience only served to reinforce the choice of profession that Gonzalez had made. The advice given in the classroom had practical application in the real world.
As happens so often, Gonzalez’s entry into the field was happenstance. He went to a community college, still not certain what career field to choose.
“As I was browsing through their catalog, the Biomed Engineering Technician program caught my interest,” he says. “When I started reading through the description, I knew that was exactly what I wanted to do. It sounded like a new challenge every day. I have been in the field for 12 years now, it hasn’t disappointed me yet.”
After entering the program, Gonzalez was amazed at how in-depth it went into the anatomy and physiology of the human body.
“I asked myself so many times through the two-year program, why are we studying all this if we are going to be biomed technicians, not nurses? It wasn’t until I was in the field that I realized how much of that knowledge was necessary to perform our jobs correctly,” he says. “Now I wish that we could have [had] more time to spend on those subjects.”
One particular challenge that Gonzalez encountered was mastering the language and terminology used by biomeds, since English is not his first language.
“I attended biomed school back in Puerto Rico and all my classes were in Spanish, so when I moved back to the states, it became my biggest challenge. I have to say that I have met a lot of great people in this field that have helped me through my career,” he says. “To all of you ‘Thank You,’ for your patience and for taking the time to help me grow as a professional.”
After leaving Puerto Rico at 17, Gonzalez joined the Army. He wanted to see the world. He had lived elsewhere in the U.S. before settling in Texas. He had been stationed at Fort Hood at one time.
Asked about career growth experiences that he remembers, Gonzalez recalls a time from a former position that involved implementing a new network and required cooperation between IT and biomed.
“When we installed the HL7 server, which is the server that translated the information from the physiological side of the equipment to the networking side, we had to work with biomed and IT, as far as getting the configuration together and that took a lot of steps between the two departments and all the parties involved,” he recalls.
Gonzalez started his HTM career as a critical care equipment field support engineer. In the meantime, he has held various positions from entry level biomed to biomed manager. These days, he is assigned to the surgery department as the OR biomed but he tackles the duties of a general biomed as well.
“As biomeds, we wear a lot of different hats, and that’s one of the things I love about our profession; there is something new every day,” he says.
Recognition
Everyone who goes to work and does a job appreciates some recognition. Gonzalez has been fortunate to have earned several awards. Among them are the Texoma Healthcare Systems Spirit Excellence Award in 2004, the CREST Services Rising Star Award in 2005, Team of the Year award in 2005 and PRIDE award in 2012, the Baylor Scott & White Healthcare CEO Service Excellence Award and the Five Star Spirit award during 2013 and 2014. He was also awarded the Service Excellence Award last year.
Gonzalez’s willingness to get involved may have also saved a life.
“I went to a Philips training earlier this year, and as I went for an afternoon run along the San Francisco Bay, I was stopped by this sweet lady. I was surprised when she told me that she had people following her and that they were going to harm her,” Gonzalez recalls.
Initially, he thought it was a joke or a set-up for a reality TV show. He looked around for a camera crew before realizing that the woman was very serious.
“I sat with the lady and tried to find out what was going on. She asked me what she could take over-the-counter to end her life,” he says. “Right after that, she told me she wanted to jump off the bridge, and she looked off towards the bridge. At that point, I contacted 911, and the police arrived almost instantly and they took control of the situation.”
Gonzalez is always looking out for the safety of others.
Away from Work
One hobby Gonzalez really enjoys is running. He tries to run twice weekly for about 10 to 11 miles in about an hour and 20 minutes. The extreme heat of the Texas summers keep him to these limits.
“When the fall comes around, I ramp it up to four times a week with three 11-mile runs and a 14-mile run at the end of the week. My best time was 16 miles in one hour and 51 minutes,” he says.
“I have a beautiful family of five. My wife is very supportive of what I do at the professional level, and in my personal life. I have three beautiful young teenager daughters, two of which are in high school and one in middle school. My six-year-old son is in first grade,” Gonzalez says.
His family is important to him and continues to serve as motivation at work.
Gonzalez’s employer can be sure that he will give 110 percent because he knows that it could be a family member who depends on his work.