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HTMs are evolving into hospital leadership role: CEAI

by David Dennis, Contributing Reporter | August 26, 2016
Health IT HTM Parts And Service Risk Management
For health care technology management (HTM) professionals, 2016 has been a "watershed" year, according to a panel of experts at the Clinical Engineering Association of Illinois (CEAI) conference.

While the speakers lauded the safety record of HTMs, saying they have the best safety records in hospital institutions, they also stressed the importance of not becoming complacent and striving to improve.

Leading efforts in hospital safety by increasing their use of information technologies and moving beyond the “shop” to take on a bigger role in health care organizations as a whole are key ways in which the panelists suggested HTMs may not be realizing their full potential.

George Mills, director of the Engineering Department and the Accreditation Organizations Department at The Joint Commission (TJC), related that customer surveys affirm that clinical engineers have good programs in place and are doing a fine job of managing equipment. “You are doing the right things right,” he said.

“The key sign that we are doing our job is that the phone is not ringing,” added David Francoeur, senior director, program development and support at Sodexo. “This means that there aren’t concerns about the program, but it doesn't mean we shouldn’t be focused on improvement.”

Making sure preventative maintenance is being performed is something most HTM departments take for granted, according to Francoeur, but if compliance is at 99.9 percent he said it is the .1 percent that needs to be dealt with.

Taking a leading role in infection control

The panel agreed that a primary opportunity is in the area of infection control through hand hygiene. To combat statistics indicating as many as 70,000 deaths annually due to HAIs, clinical engineers can take the lead in this remedy.

“Let’s get serious about this through the simple measure of washing our hands,” Mills exhorted. “Be an example in your buildings. Get infection control to your shop, learn how to wash hands properly and show others the way.”

Steve Vanderzee, director of clinical engineering for Advocate Healthcare, seconded Mills. Clinical engineers “are good about it in their shops, but must understand that infection passes via movement within the facility. We should follow the same protocols as clinicians in operating areas.”

Data driven safety

A second opportunity for improvement voiced by the panel is to increasingly incorporate digital tools to measure and assure safety levels.

Mike Busdicker, system director of clinical engineering at Intermountain Healthcare, detailed a comprehensive approach involving reporting systems that allow each staff member, nurse, and doctor to input any and every incident.

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