In imaging, the relationship between the clinical engineer and the people who use the equipment is very important. If you don't have a good relationship, you may not get reliable answers. Likewise, a clinical engineer is helpful to facility staff, because in some cases they may provide input and knowledge on how to use a particular piece of equipment to extend its life, prevent downtime and optimize patient throughput to maintain that critical revenue stream.

In my previous role as an imaging director, I relied heavily on clinical engineers to help recommend the best equipment to achieve and exceed departmental goals, which was extremely helpful with capital equipment purchasing decisions. Not only do I want to prolong the life of my equipment, I also want to meet the needs of patients and budget.

As a clinical engineer, once you see yourself as an important component of the service offered to patients, you begin to think about ways to improve the process. You're not just someone making sure the machines are up; you're someone making sure your facility is getting the maximum out of its investments.

Over the course of three decades, I've seen things change little by little, but the changes occurring now are moving much more quickly. Health care systems in the IT realm are evolving and clinical engineers should take that as a cue to partner with IT experts within the system and share knowledge across departments.

By partnering with equipment users and other technology experts within the health care delivery system, evolving our mindsets to no longer act just as a fixed-cost center., and being proactive, we can contribute our expertise in extremely valuable ways to help improve health care.
The task is to move from a mentality of the micro-task to the macro-task (system management) with duties being performed for the hospital instead of just the machines. Ultimately, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Robert Hughes is the vice president of clinical technology at TriMedx. Prior to joining TriMedx in 2008, Robert oversaw imaging and clinical engineering departments for several health systems including Community Hospital in Indianapolis, Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center in Tennessee, and Columbia Regional Hospital in Missouri. He also gained invaluable experience in a previous role as a radiology engineer with GE Medical Systems. In total, he has more than 30 years of technology and health care experience.

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