by
Olga Deshchenko, DOTmed News Reporter | August 05, 2011
From the July 2011 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
For instance, a 400-bed hospital in the Midwest can compare itself to all other 400-bed facilities that are using ABS or narrow it down by certain demographics or criteria, such as say, children’s hospitals, explains Painter.
One of ABS’ key features is its ability to bring users across the country together, according to Painter. “Not only is it a benchmarking tool but it’s a networking tool for performance improvement, which really is something we didn’t have at our fingertips before,” he says.
If two hospitals had similar performance across several areas but one was much better than the other in a particular measure, the CE department can ask the association to reach out to the better performing hospital. “If the hospital was agreeable, AAMI would put us in touch and we could begin to communicate about the practices that hospital uses to obtain such good results,” Painter says.
Courtest of Unfors Instruments
AAMI’s subject matter experts also employ the solution’s data to write and submit articles to the Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology journal, as well as share best practice findings at AAMI’s annual meeting and with regional biomed associations.
According to Painter, ABS also enables CE departments to meet The Joint Commission’s standards for performance. By using a benchmarking solution, biomeds can see identify areas for improvement in their programs. Currently, ABS has more than 200 sets of data in its database.
A role shift?
In addition to benchmarking data, AAMI’s product also provides a venue for an interactive online community, where users can ask questions and share information with each other.
And these days, biomeds are leaning on networking more and more. Tight budgets may limit the availability of dollars for educational purposes, so many departments also depend on cross-training to stay up-to-date on the latest equipment.
According to Immanuel’s Luebbe, who is also the secretary treasurer of the Heartland Biomedical Association, Omaha has about 75 biomeds throughout the area’s eight hospitals. All of them are friendly with each other and often swap knowledge and share advice. “I’m familiar with different brands of equipment because I’ll hear someone talk about their experience with it,” he says.
