John Muir Health Walnut Creek Medical Center HTM Department
By K. Richard Douglas
On the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay, across from San Francisco, is Contra Costa County. The county includes the cities of Walnut Creek, Concord, Brentwood, San Ramon and many others.
Serving the health care needs of the people in this part of the bay area is John Muir Health, a not-for-profit integrated system of hospitals, providers and other services. The system’s Walnut Creek and Concord medical centers have received recognition from U.S. News & World Report, Healthgrades, Newsweek and The Joint Commission.
Equipment management for the John Muir Health Walnut Creek Medical Center is handled by its healthcare technology department.
The seven-member department includes Manager Nader Hammoud; Quality Coordinator Irene Advencula; Supervisor Carlos Cervera; Engineer II Alexander Koth, CBET; Engineer I Douglas Boggan, CBET; Technician II Tam Vuong, CBET; and Technician II Nagham Haddad, CBET.
The team provides life cycle management of all medical devices at Walnut Creek Medical Center, from acquisition, service strategy, maintenance to disposal/replacement.
“Service contracts that are designed and set by HTM are managed directly by HTM. John Muir Health has a process called Contracts Review Committee; all contracts must be reviewed and approved by it. HTM sits on that committee on an ad hoc basis,” Hammoud says.
Biomed equipment and minor lab equipment are maintained in-house by the department members. Ultrasound is maintained in-house and imaging equipment is 100 percent managed by HTM. The group also handles project management for medical equipment and cybersecurity in partnership with CISO.
Hammoud says that they have a clinical systems analysts team that reports to IT, that works closely with HTM.
Although a smaller team, the group has expertise in respiratory (vents), OR/surgery (OR tables, anesthesia, ESU), general biomed (pumps, ECG, defibs) and neonatal (incubators, warmers).
Multiple Projects
The additional challenges of the last two years have tested the mettle of many biomed departments. The Walnut Creek team displayed its value through a department swap and several other projects.
“Like other organizations, COVID was an opportunity to show the importance of the HTM department, by swapping departments to be able to receive high-acuity adult patients, regardless of their previous status,” Hammoud says.
“The pediatric department, with 32 beds, had to be switched into a critical care COVID area. For the HTM team, this meant replacing the monitors, and changing the configuration to match adult critical care patient requirements, as well as relocating and repurposing equipment from less critical areas to ensure all services are available,” Hammoud says.
He says that the HTM team, having the visibility of all care areas, inside and outside the hospital, were able to source equipment and get the unit ready in 24 hours.
“Of course, completing this task in such a short time, means everything else will be impacted, such as PM completion or less critical repairs, as well as all planning and strategic thinking for supporting the hospital in the long run; all had been put on hold,” Hammoud adds.
In another case, the biomed team was able to track and identify that low-cost absorbent canisters were failing more often, causing delay to surgeries, as well as cost wise. With the failures, they end up being more costly than the high-cost OEM canisters. Data was presented and a switch back to OEM canisters took place.
Although the switch over to the COVID surge unit was unique, the team generally tackles several projects routinely.
“At any time of the year, we are involved in at least three projects. Our latest and biggest project is a systemwide replacement of physiological monitors. The Walnut Creek Campus HTM team is heavily involved and working side by side with other disciplines and the vendor to ensure a successful project,” Hammoud says.
Replacement of the physiological monitors across the health system, is a more than $20 million project, involving more than 250 monitors for the Walnut Creek campus.
“We work as part of a multi-disciplinary team, including IT, Supply Chain, Clinical, Telecommunication, Epic, Facilities. Being the experts of medical equipment, our expertise and interaction with the medical devices is the key to successful testing and implementation. With one person assigned as biomed project manager for the project, all other members also support the effort as needed,” Hammoud says.
Biomed members have worked on wireless fetal monitoring for labor and delivery, allowing expectant moms to be able to walk around the area and not be confined to a room.
Another one of the big projects that the biomed team has taken on is a nurse call system upgrade.
“Throughout the years, we have been upgrading the nurse call to be the latest and greatest. With the challenge of Windows 7 obsolescence, we have to replace the last pieces in a big chunk versus in phases. Working closely with the facilities department, IT and the vendors, HTM is planning and identifying the best, most efficient route to complete this project, with the least disruption to patient care and the least cost,” Hammoud says.
The seven-member HTM team has accomplished as much as larger departments, especially with the extra requirements of the pandemic. They handle most work in-house and get the job done.