In our May issue, one of our features, “Caught in the Middle,” discusses the challenges clinical/biomedical engineering departments often face when working with multiple vendors.

Ken Olbrish, MSBE, enterprise imaging system administrator at Main Line Health System in suburban Philadelphia, says, “Typically, what happens is that information is not successfully passed between the devices, or more likely information is exchanged but it is not formatted as expected or is missing certain pieces of necessary information.”

The upshot is frustrated clinicians who want the system “fixed,” and competing vendors who blame one another. When this occurs, the biomed as diplomat must step in. “Handling these issues is very tricky,” Olbrish says. “The key point is to try to get the vendors to stop the finger pointing and agree to have a constructive discussion.” The common way Olbrish deals with this issue is by sitting the vendors down together and putting them on the spot. He has found that it is harder for vendors to blame one another if they are in the same room together.

How have you dealt with this? Looking forward to your comments on this topic. Thanks!