Q: Does anyone out there have a commitment to work agreement that they have an employee sign before sending them to an expensive manufacturer’s training course?
A: Yes, we currently have to sign a two-year agreement.
A: If you’re in a “right to work” state or if the employee is an at-will employee, you won’t have a leg to stand on.
A: Our health system used this kind of form for over two years and I’ve even signed it myself (with heavy protest). After pushing back a number of times, it eventually got taken to our HR department and they laughed at it. They told our facilities management people that it’s not worth the paper it’s written on. I understand the attempts to “jail or hold a gun to technicians’ heads” so management doesn’t have to spend much time on employee relations. “Why treat a technician like a valuable resource, when they can’t quit without paying back some hefty fees.” However, if management suspects any employee of using the system to get trained, then leave … don’t send them to training in the first place. I have attended various training schools for many years and through three different careers. Every employer has invested varying amounts of money and I have invested quite a lot of time in order to make me the technician I am today. I have worked at each company a minimum of 6 years before getting a better offer (which included counter-offers). I wonder where our careers would be today if every one of us signed these agreements 20 or 30 years ago? How about the managers, supervisors, department heads, administrators, vice presidents and CEOs … do they sign such agreements? Did they get to where they are on their own dime, or did they get help from the government or parents or maybe bosses that recognized the investment is part of doing business. Business 101 – Train good people and treat them well, give them the tools to do the job.
A: An employee breaking a commitment to work agreement looks bad, but I doubt they are really enforceable. It would probably be considered indentured servitude. In at least one case in Illinois even a non-compete agreement was found to be unenforceable. Your agreement should have a prorated training repayment clause. That is more likely to be enforceable.
A: Good question. You may want to send two to the training and ask for a discount.
A: I have used these in the past, but never tried to enforce them. I found a better way. We had a shop meeting. I explained the hospital’s view of the situation. When they pay for outside training, they rightfully expect to be able to benefit from that training for at least a couple of years. If HTM employees begin taking their newly acquired training and run off to get a job where they make another dollar an hour, then the hospital will soon stop paying for this training. It makes perfect sense. So, I emphasized the importance of giving the hospital at least a couple of years of service after any training, else the rest of the shop members would suffer in the long term. We made a collective, unwritten agreement – anyone who went to school would try their best to stay with the hospital for at least two years afterwards. If they were in serious stages of seeking another job, they would turn down the school opportunity.
This worked well for our $280,000 annual training budget, and we never lost a single person in 7 1/2 years. People do not take advantage of the situation when they are treated fairly and made aware of the consequences of their actions. Trust on both sides is required.
Q: How does your department specify which devices will be maintained and repaired by HTM professionals and which will be maintained and repaired by IT?
A: Our facility delineates by device function. Medical devices and medical servers fall under HTM. The common network backbone and non-medical servers are IT. When medical systems interface with the standard network we separate responsibility at the point of interface. Strictly medical networks such as our 1.4 Ghz telemetry network are entirely the responsibility of biomed.
A: We try to base it on what is needed for that device. Some devices require network connectivity that can be done by biomeds, others are more behind the scenes that only IT can do on their infrastructure. Anything that needs to be punched down in the closets is IT, anything VLAN or wireless for the device is usually configured by IT, the rest of the equipment is us. To sum it up in a nutshell, from the wall plate back is IT and anything that needs configured/set up on a VLAN or server related is also them. Hardware and machine functionality is us.
Q: What time intervals do you use for PM completion? I have a policy that states PM completion must be within (plus or minus) 30 days for annual, semi-annual, quarterly, etc. Do you define this in a policy or use the default time intervals that The Joint Commission has.
A: We do life support equipment within the month assigned. All other equipment is done by the tenth of the following month. It is defined in our Medical Equipment Management Plan.
A: That is a slippery slope. We are not JCAHO and instead use DNV and we just went through a survey. This specific question was asked and the surveyor told me of his displeasure with the way various facilities try to give themselves a grace period on PMs. We use during the month due as our standard and I have never had this method questioned. It gets too difficult to explain your rationale if you start giving yourself wiggle room. We instead have some codes we can apply in situations where a device is in use, out for repair, not locatable, etc. We don’t count these as complete, but we don’t ding ourselves for not getting say a ventilator done that was in use on a patient for the entire month and let it dilute our completion percentage.
A: We define it in our MEMP. TJC allows for this unless another AHJ or Condition of Participation has a set standard. So, for most medical equipment we allow 60 days prior to the first day of the month it is due and 30 days after the first. Quarterly PM intervals are 30 days prior and 30 days after the first of the month the system or device is due.
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