I recently received a notice from the California Medical Instrumentation Association (CMIA) about an upcoming chapter meeting where the speaker will discuss device development. Monthly association meetings often include speakers and/or training and sometimes the speaker’s company will host the dinner.

How does your association find its monthly speakers? How do you decide on the training? We’re hoping you’ll share your best practices and help other regional associations learn how to strengthen their offerings and attendance.

Welch Allyn just introduced its new Welch Allyn Connex electronic vitals documentation system that converges all aspects of vital signs documentation into one system to help eliminate vital signs documentation errors from acute care settings.

The release said that studies have shown that 10,000 omission and/or transcription errors can occur per year for a typical 200-bed facility; 8,000 hours were wasted with manual vital sign documentation; and more than $250,000 was lost in productivity due to lack of access to vitals. It went on to say the availability of an automated system that captures and wirelessly transmits patient data minimizes all of these issues.

When you hear about a new product that can save time and money and improve patient safety, how do you let your administration know about it? Do you file it away until a similar device needs replacement, or does your department proactively share innovative technologies?

Share your best practices here and if you have a best practice on a different topic, e-mail me at jkirst@allied360.com and I’ll post it on your behalf. Thanks for participating!

In the course of doing some research on the currently in-development standard IEC 80001-1:2010, regarding IT networks and medical devices, I learned about the hazy status of some standards. Regulatory bodies like The Joint Commission do not adopt all international standards, even though they may create a solid framework for streamlining hospital practices.

If a particular standard is not mandated by a regulatory body, how does your hospital determine whether or not to adopt the standard themselves?

If implementation is decided upon, do you look for specific guidance documents to help implantation or do you rely on training or perhaps another means of interpretation?

We’re certainly curious to hear about any experiences you might have had with implementing standards, so feel free leave a comment and share.

In our August Up Front column I shared information from a recent seminar I attended about reinventing yourself within your career. In the seminar Pamela Mitchell, founder of The Reinvention Institute, said reinvention is about changing how you work and changing how you see your work—in other words, doing what you already do, but doing it differently. It could entail a change in your attitude and approach to your work, or it could mean getting some new skills that help you do your job better.

Have you reinvented yourself within your work? If you have a great idea about how to do that, blog about it with us and comment here. Also, don't forget to take our Annual Compensation Survey, now available at www.24x7mag.com/survey - Thanks!

“If you don't like something change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.” Mary Engelbreit

Every year, we post our Annual Compensation Survey to assess salaries and satisfaction across the United States. The short survey is completely confidential and only takes a few minutes to complete. We publish the results in the December issue, and while the results mostly consist of comments and charts, the comments in the article yield insight into how departments overcome and cope with challenges. For instance, in the 2009 survey here are some comments regarding workloads:

A CBET at a hospital in Oregon said, “Our workload is managed by keeping teamwork in our shop as a top priority. Our workflow is maintained by keeping communication open within our department and between directors and managers of critical departments. Cross training is also an essential part of our completing all tasks in a timely manner.”

A female CE underscored the understanding of her director as a key factor in keeping workloads among her colleagues manageable. “There are always projects waiting in the wings for us to work on when we are ready,” she said, “but they are not assigned to us unless we have the time to take them on.”

One BMET III said, “The workload is actually lower now that we have adopted a more risk-based program.”

As you can see, the survey provides solid information that your colleagues can use each day, so please take a few minutes to complete the survey (www.24x7mag.com/survey) to further spread ideas that can make a difference. Thank you in advance.

Once a problem squarely in the realm of IT, cyber attacks on medical devices—including viruses and information-stealing malware—are now a threat looming large enough to necessitate biomed intervention. As hackers get smarter about infiltrating health care networks, hospitals need to get more organized in how they deal with them.

While medical devices haven't been targeted specifically by hackers yet, they may become corrupted or damaged just the same if a hospital's network is breached, according to Axel Wirth, national health care solutions architect with computer security company Symantec Corp, out of Mountain View, Calif.

"Medical devices tend to be a weak spot" in a hospital's network, he says. This is especially true of older equipment. Since device configuration lies in the hands of the manufacturer in the US, biomeds need to cement a good working relationship with their vendors to make sure equipment is properly patched and up to date. Hospitals with several of the same older device are especially vulnerable. If networked, all devices could be affected during an attack.

24x7 will be focusing more on the growing threat of cyber attacks in an upcoming Focus On article, but first we want to hear what you've seen and heard at your facility. Have you spoken to your IT department? What's the best way to approach this subject? Also feel free to share any tips for working with corrupted equipment.

In our June issue, the “Focus On” section featured advice from leaders at four different associations from across the country. These members have served in various leadership roles and continue to participate in their activities. We asked their advice on how to start an association and also what they had done to help it expand. The answers—as varied as the location of these four associations—highlight the need for commitment from members to help them grow.

Are you part of an association? What best practices can you add? Comment here and share your ideas.  

At the recent AAMI conference in Tampa, Fla, I spoke with Mike Reed, general manager of education services with GE Healthcare. He said that there were a number of hospitals that had paid for training but had not sent the techs due to financial constraints. 

Mike said: “We’ve seen instances where hospitals purchase tuition but the biomeds weren’t able to attend because they couldn’t get the money to travel to class.”

A serious problem, considering how important training is to everyone. When budgets tighten and “no travel” policies are implemented, what’s the solution? 

Mike’s suggestion, get the whole package. “Get the training that also includes lodging and airfare.” 

A great suggestion, thanks Mike! We’d also like to know your best practices for making sure training that’s been paid for is received. We hope you’ll comment here and share your ideas, to the benefit of everyone.

The Service Solutions article in the June issue of 24x7 focused on an overview of the electronic medical record, or EMR. The thorough article provided insight from biomeds working on the implementation process. One of those interviewed, Derrick W. VanKampen, a biomedical device integration analyst 2 in the IT department of Tampa General Hospital in Tampa, Fla, shared this information:

“There are a lot of items that facilities and clinical engineering will have to look at, assess, and complete in a very short amount of time, which means there are a lot of organizations that are going to have a lot of work coming their way very fast.”

The article probed decisions, testing, responsibilities, and other aspects of getting an EMR operational in a facility, and we’d like to know if the article helped you, and also if you’re working on EMR implementation in your hospital. If you are, please share your insight and best practices to smooth the way for those who will have to work on this—sooner rather than later. Thanks!

When Southeast Alabama Medical Center (SAMC) in Dothan, Ala began to hear about the difficulties in finding hospital assets in a timely manner from patients and staff alike, the complaints did not fall on deaf ears.

For one thing, biomeds found the process of performing preventive maintenance cumbersome. “As the month goes on there’s less and less PMs that are due for maintenance and it gets tougher and tougher to find them,” says one SAMC biomed.

Furthermore, patients were also getting lost in the shuffle. “There were certain instances where patients were at the front door waiting for wheelchairs and they were starting to get disgruntled,” says Scott Lapham, senior network engineer at SAMC.

The hospital evaluated the concerns and implemented a wide-reaching RTLS, which tracks a variety of equipment and non-equipment assets, helping to clear up these issues—particularly helping biomeds with PM compliance. And people have started to notice, as Lapham says he hears staff praise these new efficiencies almost every day.

We’re interested in hearing other best practices for evaluating feedback and making changes. How is feedback given and received in your facility? And feed free to share any specific instances.