David Scott, CBET, recently won the 2009 AAMI/GE Healthcare BMET of the Year Award, which he accepted at the AAMI conference—Congratulations Dave! He is a manager at the Children’s Hospital in Aurora, Colo, and he is also the president of the Colorado Association of Biomedical Technicians (CABMET).

This is a very active group that has educational sessions throughout the year, an annual symposium, and a certification study group that it offers via teleconference. CABMET’s other officers include VP Robert Preston, CBET; Secretary Cindy Lusietto; and Treasurer Ken Ottenberg , CBET. What makes this organization tick?

I invite CABMET members and members of all biomed associations to write their comments on the successful practices they’ve employed to keep their organizations growing.

At 24x7 we are always interested in hearing your comments to posted blog topics. We’re also interested in your best practices on topics we haven’t covered, as well as questions on your search for answers to be more efficient. Veteran biomed Victor Sarmiento, had some questions about electrical leakage measurements. Here’s what he said:

“Through the years of sustained improvements in medical instrumentation designs, what do your readers feel, or what are their opinions on continuously conducting a regular electrical leakage measurement, a program normally undertaken by their respective biomed department? Most departments are doing this religiously year-in and year-out, in guise, or to justify that by doing so it ‘enhances patient safety.’ ” He added that as a result departments “allocate enormous amounts of time and manpower towards its implementation.”

Then he asks: “Can any justify the need for it to be done only during the first initial inspection and maybe every five years thereafter or after a major repair was done on the device? Do they really need to be done on a regular basis? Does it really help improve patient safety? What are your thoughts on this topic?”

We’ll all be looking forward to your comments and thanks!

Fred Jaramillo, biomed manager at University of Colorado Hospital, Aurora, Colo, offers a best practice he gained from a session at the AAMI conference. He told me it had to do with Six Sigma. According to Wikipedia, it’s a “business management strategy that seeks to improve the quality of process outputs. Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified financial targets (cost reduction or profit increase).”

Fred said it gave him another tool to solve problems. He said: “I can look at something and say, ‘here’s the problem and here are the steps to a solution.’ You can adapt the program and get team input. You can retool or change the program and eventually have a solid process.”

Have you used Six Sigma? Any tips? Did you attend AAMI and pick up other pearls of wisdom? Please e-mail me at jkirst@ascendmedia.com and I’ll post your best practice. Thanks!

At the AAMI show this past weekend in Baltimore, I asked Gregory S. Duncan, CBET, CHSP, chief biomedical engineer & safety officer at Children's Hospital and Research Center in Oakland, Calif, if he had any "best practices" to share with our readers. Here's what he said:

"By reviewing 'No problem found' submissions on repair work orders you can spot trends. Often, you'll find it's not a mechanical problem with the equipment and it can be corrected with customer training. Or, by observing the clinicians' use an educational session can be provided right then."

Have you tracked repair information and found the same thing? What works for you? Be sure to submit your comment and let us know.

 

We’re interested in your best practice when it comes to reporting device incidents—does your department have a procedure that works well? What if you simply order something, from batteries to pumps, that doesn’t perform well, what’s the quickest way to get your replacements? Every now and then I read on the Biomedtalk Listserv that some manufacturers don’t respond well to returns, so we’d love to hear what works.