Our February Focus On column references an emergency exercise at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, NY. In the exercise, doctors, biomeds, and other hospital staff ran through all the necessary steps of dealing with a hospital-wide pandemic flu emergency, from checking patients in, to setting up equipment, to stemming the spread of contamination.

Joint Commission regulations require facilities to undertake regular emergency exercises to test how plans on paper will fare during an actual emergency situation.  

While the staff at Westchester Medical performed well in the drill, there were still some bumps in the road. "There were a couple things, like finding outlets for the equipment and running phone lines to the right places, that until we actually put the physical structures in place, we didn't think about," says Garret Doering, the hospital's director of emergency management.

On the heels of an upcoming Joint Commission conference on effective emergency preparation strategies, we invite you to share your department’s experience with emergency equipment plans. What are some of the strategies your hospital is putting on paper and what are the most efficient ways to test it?  

At some point we all come into contact with a manager we would all like better communication with. Randell Orner, a manager at an OEM, is looking to gather data to improve communication satisfaction within the biomed community. He has a short survey he invites all BMETs and CEs to take, which will help him develop best practices in this area.

The survey is free and just takes a few minutes—here’s the link and Randell thanks you in advance: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Q9JWTDK

In the January issue of 24x7, the article, “The Art of the Deal,” covered negotiating tips to help secure the best prices on device purchases, as well as ideas on how to know what to include in a contract.

For example, Arthur Bartosch, CBET, director of biomedical engineering services, Westchester Medical Center, Valhalla, NY, advises that the skill level of in-house personnel will always play a role in what kind of service contract to obtain. Knowing what his techs can and cannot do determines what is mission-critical and what fosters the highest return on investment.

When Bartosch eventually gets to the negotiating table he then makes sure that he is getting everything he needs to fully support the device. Some questions include: What are the hours of coverage? Is glassware included? Is it a 24/7 gold, silver, or platinum contract? After determining all that, it is time to talk about a reasonable price.

Have tips of your own? Share them now on by commenting on this blog.

Did you watch the Grammy Awards last night? There are a lot of good things about these types of shows and last night one of the things that stood out for me in this celebration of music was how influential musicians are on another's career. The awards honored many musicians on a larger scale, but more specifically and personally individual artists acknowledged various musicians and the impact these artists had on their career.

How about you? Did you have a mentor or someone you admired who gave you advice that has helped you in your career? I invite you to share it with your colleagues and comment here. Of course, if you’ve got some of your own good ideas you’d like to share on a “larger scale,” please e-mail me at jkirst@allied360.com and I’ll post it on your behalf. Thanks!