From the May 2016 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


Gary Barkov, clinical engineering multisite manager at Advocate Health Care and the vice president of the Clinical Engineering Association of Illinois, believes that HTM professionals need to do their work in an “evidence-based” way and constantly audit and analyze their performance by getting customer feedback.

OEMs can put software keys or licensing keys into their technology. By doing so, a facility will not be able to use its in-house department for that specific machine, but would have to call in the services of the OEM technician. When OEMs are unable to send a technician to the facility, it would have to send the equipment out to the manufacturer, creating a longer turnaround time. “Many of our end-users need to have their equipment back as soon as possible, especially if no loaners are available,” said Izabella Gieras, clinical technology director at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California.


HTMs may soon be able to access these keys that OEMs use on their devices. “We’ve spent a lot of time and money over the decades to build the tools and technologies for our own engineers to service equipment effectively,” said Matthew McCallum, head of service business management at Siemens Healthcare. “We are in the process of opening those tools up to HTM organizations so they can have the same tools as us.” There are two types of services that OEMs can provide: shared service, where an in-house HTM group would try to repair a piece of equipment, and if unable to, will call in the OEM; and full service, where an OEM does all the repairs.

There has been a narrowing gap between the prices of the two contracts, which some HTM departments are unhappy with. “We are now only looking at a $10,000 difference in some cases. We’re also seeing the diagnostic software [prices] for some high-end diagnostic imaging devices go up,” said Horn. “We used to get it for a few thousand dollars. Now it’s not uncommon to spend $24,000 a year just on that diagnostic software. If you multiply that across all the equipment throughout the hospital and system, it adds up.”

Service contracts may require the HTM customer to be trained in a specific device, and in exchange for that training, the HTMs would have more exclusive access to trouble-shooting keys and event logs. For OEMs, keeping unqualified workers from tampering with their devices is a matter of patient safety. “We might not want to give a customer that has not been verified and trained on the equipment access to the equipment,” said Siemens’ McCallum.

May 2016 Magazine

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