Twenty-two miles south of Asheville, North Carolina, the city of Hendersonville is nestled in the western North Carolina mountains. The city is in Henderson County and sits just 15 miles north of the state’s border with South Carolina. The city was officially recognized as the county seat in 1847 and includes many historic buildings, situated in seven historic districts.
In one of those districts, known as the Hyman Heights/Mount Royal Historic District, the city’s first hospital was built. Patton Memorial Hospital had 13 rooms, including one for operating and a staff of four physicians. Many of those physicians settled in the same area. The hospital opened its doors in 1913 and 40 years later, patients were moved to the city’s new hospital; Margaret R. Pardee Memorial Hospital.
Among the workers who call this beautiful location home, are the HTM professionals with the Biomedical Engineering Services Department at Pardee Hospital. The department’s services are provided through a third-party service provider; Horizon CSA LLC.
“The hospital, however, doesn’t view us as a vendor. We are treated by everyone from administration, nursing, imaging techs, to the shipping and receiving department as a valued member of the health care provider team and a trusted advisor,” explains Biomedical Engineering Services Director Matt Yates, CBET, ISE V.
The seven-member team believes that they can add more value by being scrutinized by their colleagues in administration, directors and other hospital staff.
“By conducting surveys that evaluate several different criteria regarding our performance, behavior, and responsiveness, it gives hospital staff a straightforward approach to keeping us accountable and helping us with process improvement initiatives,” Yates says.
In addition to Yates, the team at Pardee includes BMET III Dave Piercy, BMET II Chad Marrow, BMET II Barry Hudgins, BMET I Carl McMurray, Brian Russell, ISE IV, CRES, and David Campbell.
The department is responsible for over 4,200 assets at the main campus. Pardee Hospital also includes 18 practices, two urgent care, three rehab centers, a cancer treatment and research center, a wellness center and a health education center.
Managed by UNC Health Care, Pardee Hospital is a not-for-profit community hospital founded in 1953. It is the first and only hospital in North Carolina to be accredited with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001:2008 for quality health care standards.
Beyond the Usual Projects
When urgent projects come along and there is a need to expedite a resolution, coordination and cool minds prevail among the HTM professionals. Yates describes a recent example.
“The central monitoring system on our ‘step down unit’ was failing. The manufacturer was involved and still could not maintain constant operation. We obtained quotes for a replacement, coordinated quick meetings with nursing, IT, materials management and administration,” Yates says.
“The manufacturer of the system we chose rushed to get it together and had it drop shipped to the hospital. The system was received in the afternoon and quickly delivered to the ‘unit.’ We were installing the antenna system while the reps were setting the system up. All of this took place from a Friday morning with the system installed and complete on the following Thursday,” he adds.
Yates says that the entire progressive unit needed to be moved to another floor with the HTM team coordinating everything with nursing, engineering and IT. The whole move, including patients and monitoring system, was accomplished in a matter of hours.
Problem solving by HTM professionals can result in creative solutions also.
“We were having an issue with the SPO2 trunk cables on our vital signs monitors being constantly broken from being wrapped tightly around the stand,” Yates says.
“The hospital was having a safety fair for the employees and we decided that we could reach the largest group by participating,” he adds. “We took pictures of the cables wrapped on the stands and pictures of properly stored cables. We put these on a poster board for display. Our problem all but went away in a very short time.”
Quick Response by a Well-trained team
Service contracts are managed through the department.
“High-end [and] radiology systems are assigned a specific identification number and placed into our software system,” Yates says. “Each item then is tracked for repairs, PMs, recalls, etcetera. Our system generates a PM work order in correlation with the schedule of the manufacturer. This in turn allows us to insure that the equipment maintenance schedule is adhered to. New service contracts are reviewed prior to approval.”
The department also reviews equipment purchases.
“One of the more considerable impacts that our department has made is being included in the capital equipment procurement process. No equipment is purchased without our input and approval,” Yates says.
“All medical equipment is managed by the department, including any equipment under contract with OEM vendors. This provides a comprehensive program for the medical equipment as well as keeping other department managers informed on their respective equipment status, repair cost, recalls, and replacement needs,” Yates adds.
Data is managed through a Horizon proprietary software product called Sunrise.
“The software allows us to generate reports needed to manage the equipment and the ability to adapt if there is something special for a specific piece of equipment,” Yates explains. “We have consistently used Sunrise to support us during DNV and CMS inspections and have always had positive results and positive comments made as to the quality documentation of the medical equipment program.”
Yates says that the department stays closely connected with hospital staff and department heads, allowing them to “keep an accurate inventory and place more of an emphasis on real time data.” He says that this has enhanced the team’s ability to act faster and keep downtime to a minimum.
“This is crucial in creating positive patient outcomes from an equipment uptime standpoint,” he says.
Career development is a priority for Horizon CSA. The approach includes developing a plan each year for each employee to advance their formal education.
“The training of each technician is specific to the technical needs of the equipment inventory as well as the desire of the individual engineer’s personal and professional growth objectives with an average annual training budget of $10,000 per employee,” Yates explains.
The department also attends AAMI and NCBA symposiums regularly. The biomedical engineering services department at Pardee is a trusted member of the team and they prove their worth every day.