The Right to Repair has long been a hot—and contentious—issue in the healthcare technology management sector. Below, Colorado Association of Biomedical Technicians President Leticia Reynolds and Kevin O’Reilly, the Right to Repair Campaign advocate for U.S. PIRG., share how the COVID-19 pandemic has cast a spotlight on this issue and why they believe HTM professionals needs repair manuals—now.
With the coronavirus pandemic pushing ventilators and other essential medical equipment into around-the-clock use, timely maintenance and repair is needed to keep these machines working to save lives.
Some manufacturers provide service information to BMETs, but many make this difficult to acquire. Medical device companies make it so that only their authorized repair technicians can fix the machines that they make. They refuse to provide hospital technicians with service manuals and often require passwords or service keys to access diagnostic information. Some replacement parts need software authorization before use — software that is not provided to hospitals or independent technicians.
Read the full opinion article on Market Watch.
