V.B.A. NEWS vol.3 no.1 May 1996 

 Notes from the president:

 What a great Winter meeting! I hope in 1996 we see continued growth and even more new faces. We didn't have as much education as I would have liked but I know it was a tough year for everybody. That is why this professional organization is even more important than ever. We need everybody working to bring low cost classes,events and all other benefits into being. I know my involvement with VBA has been a great benefit to my career and has also been rewarding to my hospital. I thank the Board for electing me to the job of President again because I am committed to making this a positive, growth oriented and rewarding vehicle for helping all Biomed types. I would like to see Virginia set an example in excellence in our profession and I feel involvement in a professional society üis a major key to making that happen. No matter how small your input, it can make the difference. And speaking of involvement I would like to congratulate Steve Haupt on becoming President of SBET (AAMI). Luckily he has not lessened his commitment to VBA and his experiences in a national group will only add to our group. Education committee needs support. The amount of detail and work that goes into just a one day class is daunting.

All the people that have helped have worked very hard but we can't burn them out! If you have mentioned you would help but are waiting for us to track you down and ask DON'T. Chase us down! Please! All of us are very busy with our paying jobs and I know I don't always have time to call everyone back the first time. Please harass us into taking your help!

 To contact me:

804-594-2618 office

804-594-2000 page

804-869-8012 car

804-833-7307 home and answering machine

804-594-3487 fax

Maroyc@AOL e-mail

804-833-7308 home fax

 So there is no excuse !!!

And don't make plans for Aug 7,8 &9. Annual meeting - Be there !

 CORPORATE MEMBERS:

 Corporate Members have played a vital role in the founding of the Virginia Biomedical Association. The VBA would like to recognize and thank the corporate members for their support.

 ACCUCORE

AMERICAN IV PRODUCTS

BIOTEK

CADMET

CINCINATTI SUB-ZERO INC

DATASCOPE CORP

DITEC INC

DRAGER INC

ECPI COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY

FIBERTECH MEDICAL

FISHER CONSULTANTS

HERAEUS LASER SONICS

HEWLETT PACKARD CO

HOFFMAN SURGICAL

MARQUETTE ELECTRONICS

MEDEX INC

MEDICAL DATA ELECTRONICS

MID-ATLANTIC CLINICAL ENGINEERING

PHYSIO CONTROL CORP

PROTOCOL SYSTEMS INC

SENTRY MEDICAL PRODUCTS

SHERWOOD MEDICAL

SPACELABS INC

SUMMIT INSTRUMENTS CORP

UNIVERSAL HOSPITAL SERVICES

ZOLL MEDICAL CORPORATION

 Working in the Radiology Department

 Radiology departments generally incorporate several medical imaging modialities, all of which are complex "high tech" systems. Besides your basic X-Ray systems, you are likely to find ultrasound, CT, MRI, and Nuclear Medicine equipment. These articles will focus on X-Ray systems, since they are the most common and not as specialized as the other modialities. This makes them  the best starting point for an in-house imaging service program.

 The psychology of working in the radiology department is unique to what most biomed techs have experienced in their career. X-Ray techs generally have a better understanding of their equipment than an ICU nurse or an OR tech. Using this equipment is the primary focus of their jobs. Also a certain "eliteness" can often be detected. Radiology equipment is much larger and more expensive than other medical equipment, and are used to generate substantial amounts of revenue. They are unlikely to entrust servicing of this equipment to someone whose experience is working on IV pumps and patient monitors (minor equipment in their view) until they have proven themselves.

 There are also some ground rules to keep in mind. Do not keep an X-Ray room down for an extra day in order to save $100. While most of us would not mind having an extra hundred dollars in our wallet, this amount is insignificant to the radiology department. This may be the hardest thing to get used to. While a nurse manager is usually grateful if you save them a couple of hundred dollars, a radiology director often will not bat an eye at spending $5000 for a part. In fact, X-Ray tubes, which can cost from $5000 to $50,000 are consumable parts and could need replacement at anywhere from 6 month to 5 year intervals, depending on how they are used.

 Your job is to help keep the department running smoothly by minimizing downtime. You should also try to save money where you can, but remember, in a busy department, scheduling and staffing are of utmost importance. A down room means upsetting the schedule of the radiologist in examining patients, the possibility of sending an X-Ray tech home now, and paying another overtime later, there is also the problem of lost revenues, and of course, the effect on patient care. During busy times of the day (usually in the morning) it is important to get a room up, or at least in some usable condition as quickly as possible, and if necessary complete the repairs later. If there is an issue of downtime vs repair costs, it is best to explain the options to the radiology director and have him or her make the decision, rather than just doing what you think is best. Remember, its their department, their money and they have fewer options in dealing with down equipment. They can't just borrow an X-Ray room from another department, like you can do with an IV pump.

 All Radiology departments are different, and it is important to adapt yourself to your particular department and spend time there learning. Becoming an Imaging Specialist is a full time job. If you just dabble in X-Ray between dealing with ICU, Rehab and the OR, you will never get over the learning curve and are not likely to develop much credibility with Radiology. Learn how the department works, observe their scheduling and staffing methods. Learn about reading X-Ray films, so if told that an image doesn't look good, you will know what they are talking about. Learn about film processing and Quality Assurance. Establish a relationship with the manufacturers service reps, because you will need their help from time to time.

 Servicing Radiology equipment is a time consuming responsibility. To minimize daytime downtime, I do some PMs on the evening shift. You can spend as much as 16 hours on a Rad/Fluoro room to do a complete PM and repair any problems encountered. Some systems are so complex that often, while troubleshooting, you can spend hours just getting into the ballpark. This is not helped by the poor service documentation provided by many manufacturers, particularly on older foreign equipment. Siemens uses schematic symbols and notation unique to Germany and often the text is in German. Philips documentation often uses a poor translation from Dutch to English that their service reps call "Denglish". And if you have any old CGR equipment - learn some French, because that often how they annotate the schematics.

 Servicing Imaging Equipment can be intense, and is definitely challenging, but is not for the feint hearted. If you are still interested, keep reading these articles, and look into getting some training. Ditec Inc, which is a VBA member, provides general training on Imaging Equipment in four phases. The founder, Manny Roman, is an excellent instructor and is very popular with his students. RSTI also provides similar training. After the general training and getting some hands-on experience, you should  consider taking the manufacturers training classes on the specific equipment in your Radiology Department.

 Mark Freeman, CBET, Imaging Specialist

Virginia Beach General Hospital

 SBET/AAMI Update

 As many of you may be aware, there has been an ongoing conflict between AAMI and SBET. This has recently resulted in the resignation of the SBET president. Steve Haupt, as vice president, has since become president of SBET. I asked Steve if he could update us on the situation. He replied with the following e-mail:

 Subj: Re: SBET/AAMI

Date: 96-03-12 21:23:36 EST

From: HOP1959 To: FreeMar86

 Yes I Can

 John Koberstein and myself met with the executive board members of aami to discuss future organizational structures of SBET. no certain agenda was followed, but the bottom line to the meeting is reorganizational issues and how we need to move forward interesting enough we also discussed issues pertaining to the past president of SBET and what legal restraints we as chapter members of SBET have.

 What was reviewed is the common sense approach to communicating

the needs of biomedical engineering in a more diplomatic approach. I hope to give more detail on this issue in the future not only for the sake of AAMI and SBET, but VBA as well, we definitely need to

be aware of any legal ramifications speaking or communicating for

an organization. restructure of sbet will take place in the near future, but certain members of aami and sbet need to approve initial developement then hopefully some type of member formed committees will take off on the idea. again no formal anouncement has taken place due to our wait from the president of aami (mike miller) - he is reviewing notes and minutes before moving forward with the next move.

 It seems exciting but we will have to wait and see what goes on. i do want to communicate that none of this will effect the VBA in any shape, form or fashion, i feel with my involvement as well as mary's and mike carlton's with sbet we will be very informed with all plans i hope this will help in informing the sbet movement and please read aami news letter sbet news for more info. i will be writing more articles for that piece as well as recieving articles from other members on these and other issues. forgive all misspelling due to no spell check i am useless

 later

steve haupt

hop1959@aol.com

 VBA On-Line Directory

 Name E-Mail Address Employer

Buckner, Mark Bigdadd985@aol.com Va Beach General Hosp

Burnette, Bob DBurn95@aol.com Marquette Electronics

Clark, Ben Ben.Clark@centrahealth.com Centra Health

Clark, Ben BWClark@msn.com Centra Health

Coker, Mary Maroyc@aol.com Riverside Medical Ctr

Davis, Rick RADavisIII@aol.com Sentara Leigh Hosp

Freeman, Mark Freemar86@aol.com Va Beach General hosp

Haupt, Steve HOP1959@aol.com Roanoke Memorial Hosp

Hecht, Mike mike_hecht@hpatc1.hp.com Hewlett Packard

Hedge, Gene ghedge@intrlink.com Ohmeda

Jones, Bruce BJ62450@aol.com Shenandoah Shared Services Kalweit, George merco@ix.netcom.com Merco

Lunow, Gerard Newbully@aol.com Sentara Norfolk General Hosp

Patel, Sam Sammy12939@aol.com Riverside Medical Center

Smoot, Virgil VRS4168@chkd-7.evms.edu Childrens Hosp CHKD

Steinberg, Steve SSTEINB977@gnn.com Va Beach General

Sykes, Jack JackS1962@aol.com Va Beach General Hosp

 This Directory is published in order to help VBA members communicate on-line. To have your e-mail address included, send an e-mail to Mark Freeman at FreeMar86@aol.com