Many successful biomed careers start from humble beginnings. In the case of Frank Cabrera, CBET, CRES, senior director of Clinical Engineering for Banner Health, it all started with medical training in the U.S. Navy and progressed to overseeing the day-to-day operations of a major clinical engineering program.
Cabrera didn’t start out as a biomed, but curiosity about the profession one evening sparked the beginning of a long career.
“My first exposure to the biomed profession was very early in my Navy career. I was working in the emergency room at a small clinic in San Diego as an EMT one night and I noticed a couple of vans pulling into the parking lot. Several people exited the vans with what looked like tool bags and cases,” Cabrera remembers. “They all came into the facility and began turning on and checking/testing all the medical equipment going from department to department.”
With curiosity getting the better of him, Cabrera talked at length with one of the biomeds when they took a break and learned who they were, how they received their training and how to apply for the job classification.
“I then applied, and eight months later I was on my way to Denver, Colorado to attend the joint Army/Navy biomed training facility (USEMEOS),” he says.
He completed the program’s basic training in 1981 and the advanced training in 1982.
After completing the initial training, Cabrera was assigned to a small hospital in Twenty-Nine Palms, California as a general biomed tech. He spent a year in that role.
“Upon completion of the advanced program, I was assigned to Portsmouth Naval Hospital for three years, where I focused on biomed as well as diagnostic imaging service. Highlights of this tour consisted of performing over 25 Radiological Acceptance Inspections in remote areas such as: Keflavik, Iceland; Naples, Italy; Rota, Spain; Bermuda; Puerto Rico; Cuba; and several sites in Virginia and North Carolina,” Cabrera says.
His next tour of duty was to be a part of the commissioning crew for the USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) hospital ship.
He says that the ship included an 80 bed ICU, 12 ORs, complete diagnostic imaging department to include CT and angiographic capabilities, 75-bed casualty receiving area, full laboratory, full pharmacy as well as capabilities to produce its own fresh water and oxygen.
“When the ship was completed, our team ensured that all the equipment that was installed, operated to manufactures’ specifications. Notable deployments while assigned to the USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) include: Desert Storm/Shield, Operation Sea Signal, and Iraqi Freedom,” Cabrera says.
When his tour on the hospital ship ended, he was transferred to the National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) in Bethesda, Maryland, where he ran the clinical engineering program for five years. This was a rare opportunity, since Cabrera’s team had responsibility for the Medical Executive Treatment Unit, the White House, Air Force One and Camp David, along with other smaller clinics in the area.
The land of the rising sun was the next stop for Cabrera, where he worked in the Naval Hospital in Okinawa for three years. There, he ran the logistics program.
After his time in Japan, he was selected to be a part of the inaugural staff at the new DOD biomed training facility at Sheppard Air Force Base.
He returned to the USNS Comfort for his last tour to wind up a 24-year naval career after returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Today, Cabrera oversees the day-to-day operation of the Banner Health Clinical Engineering program. The Phoenix-based health care system includes 30 hospitals in seven states and has more than 300,000 pieces of equipment in inventory with a net asset value in excess of $30 billion.
“We have a very strong service organization, with over 130 technicians and specialists, and we pride ourselves with a cost of service ratio (CSR) of less than five percent,” Cabrera says.
The extremely low CSR is achieved “by facilitating vendor partnerships/relationships which empower the Banner Health service engineers to have access to all the diagnostic tools and support the original equipment manufacturers (OEM) have at their disposal as well as negotiating very aggressive parts discounts,” he adds.
Reducing Costs
When it comes to taking on special projects, Cabrera has been focused on cost savings.
“I like to think outside the box for ways to reduce operational service expense for the organization,” he says. “With that said, several years ago I looked into the possibility of consolidating and internalizing surgical service for Banner Health. The equipment involved in this category included: rigid/flexible endoscopes, handheld surgical instruments and surgical power tools.”
What he found was that this type of service was decentralized amongst several departments in the facility. He says that because of this, there was a lot of opportunity for reducing the expense with consolidation.
The end result is a program that has exceeded expectations by delivering greater than 20 percent expense reductions.
On the Home Front
“I am currently married for 26 years to my high school sweetheart, Debbie,” Cabrera says.
The couple have four children, ranging in age from 17 to 24; Seth, Aolani, Tyrus and Kiyomi. He says that he and his wife are “very close to becoming empty nesters.”
Away from work, Cabrera enjoys coaching youth baseball, working on cars, gardening and tinkering with home improvement projects.
Cabrera describes himself in uncomplicated terms; “I’m a pretty simple guy who always strives for improvement no matter what the occasion presents; could be in the gym, on an athletic field, business or in service opportunities. I also enjoy coaching and teaching.”
