In September 2008, Chuck Alloway wrote a Soapbox titled: "BMETs Into IT? Why?" This opinion piece was one of our most read columns and sparked a few positive letters in support of Chuck’s opinion.

A recent letter said: “I just wanted to take my hat off to Chuck Alloway and his Soapbox article. My experience is that none of the IT people own tools and constantly borrow our tools, they don’t stock back up parts—not even a mouse or keyboard—they rotate broken printers throughout the hospital and the installs they do never take wire management or safety into account.” The writer also said it seems difficult to develop a working relationship with IT colleagues.

The last comment may be the most important point, because with good communication and a positive working relationship you can address the other issues and resolve them. What are your best practices in this area? We’d love to know your secret.

You can’t look at the Internet, read a magazine, watch TV, or listen to the radio without hearing something about President Obama’s stimulus package, but how does that relate to you and your work? In my March “Up Front” column I shared thoughts by a few of 24x7’s board members on this topic. Their comments highlighted that the more relevant issues for clinical/biomedical engineering departments rested on how to get money for training and new equipment at a time when budgets are crunched.

We’d like to know where you stand on this. Has the stimulus bill brought positive changes to your department? Does adoption of the EMR go hand in hand with replacing older equipment to integrate the EMR? Let us know if the recovery act has changes your world.

A clinical engineer in the Southern Region of the US has some concerns about older equipment and needs your help. Although the question below has a specific focus, I find it especially relevant due to the present economics and tight budgets everyone faces today. How do you handle this?

“I understand that all hospitals have older equipment of some sort, but where do you draw the line? If a monitor is 25 to 30 years old and out of service, do you keep it until failure, or push for new equipment? How do you push for new equipment when it seems that you are the only person that seems to care that it is past its useful lifespan?”

Looking forward to your comments.

In December, Debra J. Grigg, BA, ASBMET, biomed department manager at Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare in Illinois turned to all of you for help in how to secure training (See "The Training Game" posting). She said she received some good ideas and now she would like your best practices on a topic that tends to periodically raise its head: The Cell Phone Use Policy.

Debra says it has come up again and here’s what she says: “We are building a new hospital, which will be completed in late 2011. At the current hospital we have concerns about the use of cell phones throughout all areas of the hospital. We have some newer equipment but our patient monitoring equipment, as a whole, is older. At this time we allow cell phone use in general public areas or patient areas where there is minimal medical equipment in use. The docs and hospital administration are requesting that I look into this issue again.”

Debra would specifically like to find out the best practices of other hospitals regarding the use of cell phones and BlackBerrys, etc in all areas of the hospital. “Do they use the ‘three foot away rule’ when a cell phone is answered in a critical care area? How is this being handled in their hospital’s Cell Phone Use Policy?

As always, we look forward to your comments. Don’t forget, it you have a topic you’d like advice on, e-mail me (jkirst@ascendmedia.com) and I’ll post it on your behalf.

Daylight Saving Time—coming a week early, this Sunday, March 8—marks a busy day for already busy biomeds. What a task! Time stamps are critical in health care and while a lot of equipment may update automatically, a large number of devices still need the human touch.

If you have any best practices on how to accomplish this time-consuming undertaking, please share them for the benefit of all—it’s less than a week away and before you know it, November will be upon us and it will be time to change them back.

Who has the best system when it comes to documenting equipment? D. Taylor, a clinical engineering technician III at Advocate Healthcare South Suburban Hospital in Hazel Crest, Ill, says they use St Croix Asset Manager, and even though it has many features, it does take time to manually enter data. The team is looking for your suggestions and here’s what D. Taylor says:

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