By K. Richard Douglas
An introduction to electronics in the military is often the catalyst for a career in biomed. It provides a useful skill set that many HTM professionals can depend on as a foundation.
That was the case for one experienced biomed in Texas.
“I’ve always enjoyed keeping up with electronics and the advancement of technology growing up. It all started when I joined the Illinois Army National Guard in 2007 – discharged as an E5 in 2013 – as a Multichannel Transmission Systems Operator-Maintainer. I was always working on radios, satellite terminals and setting up encryptions for said radios so I always had a niche for troubleshooting and problem solving,” says Jesse A. Glasco, CBET, senior biomedical equipment technician in the healthcare technology management department at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in Waxahachie, Texas.
He says that during this time, he was going to college and trying to decide his career path.
“I wanted something that made me feel like I was making a difference, something that made me feel accomplished and made me proud of what I do at the end of the day. I spent a year studying electronic engineering technology, but then heard from my best friend about the biomed classes he was taking,” Glasco says.
He reasoned that there is always a need for health care professionals and researched biomed and decided it was the right career path.
“I graduated from Southern Illinois University in 2015 with a bachelor’s of electronics systems technology and with a full-time job in HTM,” Glasco says.
Glasco says that he studied electronics management research, troubleshooting and maintenance, solid state electronics, LAN/WAN networking physics and many other electronics application studies.
“Near the end of my studies, I attended an internship program with a local regional hospital where I was hired before my internship was even finished,” he says.
After his National Guard service, Glasco was a BMET I at Heartland Regional Medical Center in Southern Illinois in a shop with just two techs.
“Within my first year after getting my bachelors, I continued studies toward my CBET and passed it my first attempt in 2015. This led me to obtaining an advancement to BMET II at the same hospital. After five years of working there, I was offered the biggest opportunity to date of moving 650 miles to become a senior BMET with Baylor Scott and White in Texas, where I’ve been since April 2021,” Glasco says.
On the job, Glasco deals with everything from nurse call, IV pumps, ESUs, vents, bipaps, patient monitoring, telemetry, defibrillators and OR tables, although his primary focus is on patient safety. He continues to receive specialty training on devices at his facility.
“I have attended training on the Puritan Bennett 840 ventilator and I’m currently scheduled to attend the training for the Baxter PrisMax CRRT machine at the end of February 2023,” he says.
Patient Safety Focus
A keen eye and resourceful thinking are often helpful attributes for those working in the health care field. Glasco saw an opportunity to improve patient safety at his facility and took steps to initiate an improvement.
“Upon coming here to my current facility, I took on a portion of responsibility for HTM’s Environment of Care role. I attend EOC rounding every month and attend the quarterly meetings. While becoming familiar with my facility, I noticed that the lavatory pull station cords were a white color. These cords were the same color as the grout in the tiling for the walls and it caused the cords to blend in,” Glasco says.
He tallied up the number of pull cords in the facility and their lengths to order spools of red pull cord.
“I decided to make it my facility’s performance improvement for the year as patient safety is our number-one priority in HTM. We are currently changing hundreds of pull cords throughout the facility to better protect our patients,” Glasco says.
He has also started mentoring the next generation of HTM through his employer’s partnership with Texas State Technical College.
“I’ve always loved teaching others, and this partnership has been a blessing for me as, again, it gives me a sense of accomplishment and belonging. Due to the continually changing advancements and integrations of medical equipment, it is important to show these new members of our HTM field that our duties go further than just repairing and checking equipment,” Glasco says.
Away from work, Glasco enjoys video gaming, and in particular, Star Wars/Lord of the Rings, and likes to listen to Audible books on his commutes instead of the radio.
As for family, he says he has “a beautiful wife of almost nine years and two wonderful kids.”
Glasco characterizes himself as just a small-town guy from Southern Illinois who strives to continue learning and advancing with the world around him.
“I never settle for anything less than perfect in anything that I do. My first boss’s biomed ethos has always stuck with me; ‘If I’m not comfortable with using the device on my family, then it isn’t good enough to put back in to service.’”
With that focus on patient safety, Glasco is the kind of HTM professional you want around.
