The past few weeks my travels have taken me to several biomed shops across the country and in those visits it was again troubling and clear the one consistency was inconsistency. What I mean was as the individual biomed shop managers and I were talking about their scope of services it continues to strike me the variables of perceived responsibilities from shop to shop. Sure the common medical devices serviced in all biomed shops such as patient monitoring, defib’s, infusion pumps and ventilators to name a few are staples everywhere. Where is becomes “gray and cloudy” though are when pagers/radios, televisions, steam sterilizers, hospital beds and other historic “catch all” responsibilities still get lumped into the scope of hospital biomed shop services. Exposure to advanced imaging or surgical specialty services is merely a “pipe dream” for a majority of these groups.
Now some biomed circles may say, “That’s what biomed’s do and always have.” Probably not an un-true statement but clearly again indicates the lack of advancing consistent service scope structure within the HTM industry as it relates in elevating visibility and acceptance into the areas of imaging and surgical specialties. I will tell you as a seasoned HTM professional now looking in from the “outside” on many hospital based programs across this country the variables in perceived scope tends to suppress biomed shops from advancing their visibility with higher technology devices. It kind of goes hand-in–hand with the old adage of how to find the biomed shop in a hospital – either it’s next to the morgue or follow the steam pipes in the basement and duck your head as you enter the shop door! Get out of the basement in thinking and traditional branding!
The message from this week’s blog is about the importance of consistency and branding of HTM industry services. The consistency of inconsistency will always plague the advancement of any business plan or initiative. As an industry and profession it is up to you, the HTM service professional to drive change and the thinking as to “what is biomed work”. Look outside of your shops and silos as the “advancing technology train” is speeding down the track – now that’s the branding we need to have as a HTM industry.
