By K. Richard Douglas
The greater Houston area represents one of the largest population centers in the U.S. and the largest economic and cultural center in the South. The city’s port is the second largest in the U.S. Working in this vibrant area offers residents many avenues for employment and many bedroom communities to choose from.
One of the region’s health care providers is CHI St. Luke’s The Woodlands Hospital in Conroe, north of Houston. The hospital’s CE department has previously been spotlighted in TechNation.
Broderick Richard is a Senior BMET in the clinical engineering department at The Woodlands.
Richard was already making a contribution to health care in another hospital system when he discovered biomed.
“Actually, I started off in EMS at Harris Health Systems LBJ Hospital and while transporting patients to and from Ben Taub I ran across a gentleman name Joe Boone. I asked him, ‘I always see you in scrubs but never see you with a patient. What do you do?’ He replied, ‘biomed.’ I was like, ‘what is that?’ So, the next morning while at LBJ before I started my shift, I started asking around about biomed and a co-worker offered to take me to the manager of biomed at LBJ; Coreaun Jackson. Coreaun showed me the shop and we talked about biomed for almost an hour, and from that moment, I knew I wanted to change professions. I didn’t realize they would pay me to play with electronics all day,” Richard says.
To facilitate his new career, Richard obtained an associate degree in electronic engineering technology with a specialization in biomedical electronics from Houston Community College.
Since entering the field, Richard has been a Clinical Engineer I and Clinical Engineer II, before his 2023 promotion to Senior BMET.
His specialty area is anesthesia. He is manufacturer-trained by GE for the GE Carestation 600 Series, GE Avance CS2, GE Avance as well as Draeger Fabius GS Premium, GS/OS, Fabius Plus, Fabius Plus XL, Fabius Tiro and Fabius MRI. He has also received OEM training on Philips PIC IX System and Philips MX Monitors.
Richard says that any challenges he has experienced are simply the ones to be expected.
“Challenges in biomed, I feel, are pretty much the same for most biomeds; getting to the equipment once it is down. There are times you get called to repair a machine and you have no clue what it does. My go to question in this case is ‘Show me what you did?’ About 75 percent of the time, the machine works just fine and the error is fixed and then they say it’s only working because you are here,” Richard says.
Friday Night Lights
Away from work, Richard spends time with his family or involved in high school football; a Texas tradition.
“On Friday nights during football season, you can catch me on the sidelines refereeing high school football,” he says.
He says that “Friday Night Lights” refers to high school football.
“I normally don’t attend games outside of the ones I’m working. Trying to get to college football. It’s a sport I love and played growing up. Once I had the opportunity to get back on the field, I jumped at it. Also, standing on the sidelines, I get a pretty good view of the game,” Richard says.
He says that he also likes to spend time “cheering my kiddos” as they participate in their prospective sports.
This biomed keeps the Texas tradition alive by not only cheering on his local high school football team but taking an active part in the sport as well.
