VBA News - July 1998

Secondly, I would like the VBA to offer more educational opportunities to its membership. Among other things, we are researching tele-education, which will make use of present and future technology to provide continuing education in a more accessible manner. It would be helpful if members with strong educational programs in their facilities would share these strengths with the Association.

Primarily, I would like to stress increased member participation. This could be joining committees, recruiting new members, or sharing knowledge with other members. The more each member participates, the more the entire membership profits. Let's see everyone get involved in '98.

Michael P. Reichenbach

"Good things come in small packages " they say - that's how I think of the winter meeting. The attendance is traditionally lower than the annual meeting but it offers a lot to those that do attend.

Thursday offered some great classes - Hewlett Packard's " Project Management " class taught by Mike Rushing was a great introduction to some project management skills and made us see how these skills can be applied to our work. Often the concepts seem very easy but in our "hands-on" work group we could see that it takes practice. Those that attended the "Microscope Repair" class by Alpha & Omega came away with good solid information for all those physician office microscopes that are such a headache. John Ernst came all the way from Baltimore to teach the class and did a great job. Thursday was also the day for the Biomed competition. The attendance of a student team from ECPI this year added to the liveliness! Chuck Templeton was our "MC with No Rival " again this year adding more tough questions for our teams to match wits with. We hope Chuck will be back for more next year. That evening we had a wonderful cocktail " half-hour" ( it was ended abruptly half way through when someone came in and announced that there was ice on the mountain - that cleared the room)

Friday was started by not being able to get anywhere because of the ice. But for those that braved the elements there was a huge breakfast waiting and I didn't hear any complaints about that part of the morning. We had two great classes that morning. "Clinical Applications of Cardiac Output" taught by Andi Schick - Spacelabs and "Network Monitoring" taught by Roger Nelson - Spectralink. The meeting was brought to a close with hot chocolate, cider and cookies compliments of Spec-tralink.

Don't miss next years - Feb 10-12 , 1999. Mark your calendars now !

A motion by the Board of Directors to eliminate the membership class "Institutional Member" has been put forth. This will constitute a Bylaws change and will be voted upon at the Annual Meeting in Williamsburg in September.

The new members of the VBA Board of Directors were installed at the December meeting of the Board in Richmond. New Members are Brian Blackwell-Centra Health,Lee Gilley-Centra Health,Andy Holden-Mary Washington, Michael Reichenbach-Martha Jefferson and Jack Sykes-Virginia Beach General. The Board then elected Officers for 1998. They are; President-Michael Reichenbach-Martha Jefferson, Vice-President-Al Strickler-American IV Products, Recording Secretary-Bruce Jones-Premier, Inc., Membership Secretary-James Anderson-Mary Washington, Treasurer-Rick Davis-Riverside Regional Medical Center.

During the February Board meeting at Wintergreen, Bruce Jones was appointed to replace Mike Carlton (who resigned) on the Board of Directors. Several committees were also set up during the meeting at Wintergreen. The Education Committee -chaired by Al Strickler, the Finance committee -chaired by Rick Davis, the Membership Committee - chaired by James Anderson, and the Publications Committee - chaired by Lee Gilley. All of these folks need your support and input.

Please contact any or all of the Board of Directors anytime there is a question or issue they may be able to help with. Board members names, phone numbers and email addresses are on the cover.

Are you the lucky one (or part of the team) designated to come up with the answers for Y2K (as year 2000 is being generically referred to) problems and issues? There is lots of information out there (both good and bad) dealing with it. One of the most comprehensive articles we've seen is in the November 1997 issue of "Materials Management" magazine. The article is titled "CODE BLUE 2000" (pages 16-22). It defines the basic issue at hand and goes into some of the fixes and possible future complications. It contains a list of websites (some shown in the "Connections" column) and a compliance questionnaire sample.

Some new information for Y2K compliance can be found at the FDA website - "www.FDA.gov/cdrh/yr2000/year2000.html". Now that it's up and going it will probably be one of the foremost site to monitor for any/all new Y2K information. MEL's Place at "www.invisionet.com/MELLINK.html" and then tab/page down near the bottom of the webpage to get to the Y2K link. Better bookmark these websites if you're working with Y2K because you're going to go there a lot. Even if you're not on a team (or are the team) you should stay in tune this is the "buzzword" of the next couple of years.

Have you noticed the increasing frequency of articles and other media discussing the implementation of yet another network system? It seems that there may be a message here that hasn't been received by enough of us in the biomedical community-wake up call! Some of us, myself included, did not go to school to become a "computer guru" or programmer. I enjoy tackling problems that require tracking down some obnoxious component that has either retired or simply developed a bad attitude. Fortunately, neither of these labels (guru, computer 'whiz', etc.) truly applies to what is needed for Clinical Engineering/Biomedical groups to effectively participate or manage networking of patient care equipment or even PC's. This is not to say that specialized information is not needed and that anyone 'off the street' can slap a working network together. What is required is an investment of time, energy and perhaps some educational $$$ to learn current network technology and how to interface the myriad of equipment we deal with on a daily basis.

Many of us have monitoring networks now but bigger things are on the horizon-PACS are just one example but a good one to discuss. Imaging networking is probably one of the fastest-growing areas in the hospital/medical environment. My own organization is presently completing the installation of such a system that will permit viewing of selected imaging modalities in all critical care areas, physician offices and other areas in and outside of the hospital. Additionally, automated patient charting is becoming almost mandatory in the fast-paced health care facilities across the U.S. and beyond.

I have become more acutely aware of these emerging technologies while working on a Y2k compatibility project for my department over the past year. Here is the rub-do we get involved or do we "let" the information systems folks take over. The fact is they can probably put together a working system without us. I would argue that we know the patient care side better than a programmer and with our technical knowledge of the internal operations of the devices in question-we should be involved in a major way when networking of these devices becomes a reality. Note the phrase "WHEN".

This article isn't intended to scold but rather solicit thought and discussion. I am no expert on LANS, WANS, ETHERNET, TOKEN RINGS and all of the other forms of getting pieces of equipment to talk intelligently to each other. Are there any network experts among us? If so, please speak up and share your wisdom and insights. You might even get a free lunch. You'll certainly get a lot of "thank you's" from your fellow biomedical techs. One thing is a definite; someone will have to accomplish the monumental task of bringing the networked hospital to fruition-I vote that we should be a part of it instead of 'bystanding'.

How about some feedback?

Brian Blackwell
Brian.Blackwell@centrahealth.com

In looking around on the I'net and reading thru some of the journals I've come up on some interesting sites. Some of these you may have seen some not. Some are useable info and reference information and some are just for fun. If you have or know of any sites you think would be useable to others send them in to me and I'll list them in the future.

lee.gilley@centrahealth.com

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For those of you not already on it the "Biomedtalk" bulletin board provides some interesting discussions and contacts. First announced here back last fall the BB has grown from a couple of hundred subscribers to almost a 1000. The information only gets better as more folks join in. To sign on just send an email to "listserv@listserv.aol.com" and in the body of the message type "BIOMEDTALK-L subscribe" In about 24 hours you will get a return message confirming and a list of "rules of the board". It does not require Internet capability to be a part of it, just access to one of the email systems (several don't require internet to operate). SIGN ON-TUNE IN and see what you've been missing.

Check out the "FDA.gov" and "FCC.gov" sites. There's a world of information there and you don't have to deal with government phone systems and voice-mail jail.

A departing employee once told my superior that " Ben Clark is politically savvy but technically incompetent". How would you respond to a statement like that to your boss? My reaction is best left to your imagination. At least the language would be inappropriate for students reading this publication.

As I've reflected on that statement, my idea of Clinical Engineering Management has evolved along with thoughts on politics and competency. First, a disgruntled employee is not a creditable judge of political correctness or technical competence. Second, anyone that will use politics and competence in the same sentence probably should be selling instant water, just add water. Not working in the hospital environment. Success in Clinical Engineering demands a unique blend from the two dissimilar subjects: politics and competence. However, like the idea of Internal Affairs or Military Intelligence, Political Competence (PC) is an oxymoron drowning today's medical equipment service environment.

The JCAHO waded in, muddied the water, and smeared their idea of competency over hospitals and biomed shops. There is nothing technical in writing job competencies for non-clinical, equipment service personnel. It is simply political competence (PC) as seen through the eyes of a non-regulatory agency seeking public credibility.

What do you think of AAMI? An organization that medical equipment service people hold as the ordained keeper of knowledge and truth for our profession? Yet it takes months and months of negotiation and planning (after years of neglect by the way) for SBET to become little more than 4 letters strung together. Yes, we now have a board member at AAMI, and SBET was not thrown asunder. Why? Because BMET's and Clinical Engineer's are the largest member group, yet least supported. I'd say the AAMI leadership understands political competence (PC) pretty well.

Webster defines politics as "wisely discerning, shrewdly expedient" and competence as "qualified: capable, adequate for a specified purpose". These are qualities of good BMET's and Clinical Engineering Managers. It is not necessary to be either the wisest politician or the most competent individual at work. It is necessary to discern the political landscape of your organization and adequately perform required tasks. We do this by listening instead of talking, and learning by doing.

I'll take the hit for not always being savvy politically. That's why I have a boss to help. And I have no problem accepting technical incompetence. I cannot know everything. But I can work with people that have skills better than me and educate myself to improve competence daily. More important, I can know where to find the needed competency. However, I refuse to be trapped in the quagmire of political competence (PC).

I suggest reflection on your work today. What PC do you use most effectively? That's my thought, tell me yours.

Ben Clark
Ben.Clark@centrahealth.com