V.B.A. NEWS - October 1999

”Beyond Year 2000 and Beyond Our Expectations”

The Virginia Biomedical Association's 6th annual meeting “Beyond Year 2000” was held in Williamsburg, VA on September 8-10th with over 100 in attendance each day. Anyone that attended will agree the VBA put on one heck of a show as the 15% increase in attendance would reflect. There were not one but two keynote addresses, two half day classes, three all day classes, two manager’s roundtable discussions, 30 exhibitors, a golf tournament and Elvis in person. Keynotes Ode Keil (Safety Management Services) and Joe McClain (Walter Reed Army Medical Ctr) set the tone each day with thoughtful and enlightening remarks. Many thanks go to class sponsors DITEC, ERBE, Hewlett-Packard, and Marquette who spent time and resources to provide top notch instructors from around the United States. One of the many highlights was the IS/Biomed Relationship roundtable discussion that featured three hospital IS directors debating the delineation of IS and Biomed roles.

More great events are planned. The VBA's newly formatted Winter Meeting focusing on management classes in asset allocation, human resources, financial budgeting, and leadership will take place in Richmond, VA in March 2000. Then, the VBA convenes in Hot Springs, VA at The Homestead Resort September 20-22, 2000 for its 7th Annual Meeting.

If you are in the area during any of these dates, please come join us.
Al Strickler, President

VBA - 2000 Board of Directors

Five positions of the Board of Directors were up for election at the annual meeting. Re-elected were Brian Blackwell, Centra Health - Lynchburg, Andy Holden, Mary Washington - Fredricksburg and Al Strickler, Strickler Medical - Richmond.

We would like to welcome to the board new first time board members Jerry Burks, Carillion Community Hosp - Roanoke and John Tarr, NMD/Henrico Doctors Hospital - Richmond.

We would also like to extend our Thanks and appreciation for retiring members Michael Reichenbach, past President and Lee Gilley, Newsletter Editor.

EDCOMM 1999
Education and Communication for Members

EDUCATION

Development of local classes/speakers Tidewater/Central/West
Goal- 3 classes total per year
RESULTS- One class (Medex Syringe Pump) held in Tidewater in April, one class scheduled in November for Lynchburg area.

Certification Classes- geared toward techs for passing of certification examine. Provide test preparation.
Goal- 1 class per year
RESULTS- Co-promoted April certification class with NCBA in NC.

Management Workshop- provide a full or half day seminar for managers with focus on business strategy, planning, management, budgeting, human resources, cost analysis, asset management, etc. Possible alliance with a university (ODU,VCU, etc.)
Goal- 1 workshop per year
RESULTS- Changing focus of Winter Meeting to meet this goal

COMMUNICATIONS-

Newsletter- mandatory article contributed by board members once per year, printing frequency 4x per year, member news (promos, school credentials, degrees earned, awards), jobs available, new members mentioned, track quantitative goals, etc.
Goal- printing 4x per year
RESULTS- Three newsletters published to date

Other communication tools- Training tapes, Press releases- 24x7, local papers, hospital newsletters, Policy manual describing officer’s systems and processes, Lapel pins Goal- increase VBA presence and image

MEMBERSHIP-

Target third party and large in-house accounts
Bring a friend to a class or meeting. Inducement or incentive?
Include skill specialty in the database
Target West Virginia biomeds
Membership survey in 2000
Goal- double membership by Annual meeting 2000
RESULTS- 145 members as of 7/99, up from 123 in 1/99

Keynote Dr. Joseph McClain Kicks Off Friday Session

Dr. Joseph McClain, Director of Clinical Engineering at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, kicked off the Virginia Biomedical Association¹s Friday session with enthusiasm and vigor addressing the theme of “Beyond Year 2000”, the 21st Century and CHANGE. The only thing certain is that the future will bring change.

To learn about future opportunities, we must look at history and learn from change. Change will allow us to take advantage of opportunities in the future. CHANGE is, C= communication needed to change, H= get help in changing, A= have the ability to change, N= have the need to change, G= set goals, E= overcome emotion to change. One of the largest sectors of future market growth is health services. The factors driving this sector will be technology transfer and the aging population. Developments like ecommerce, digital commerce, video, filmless x-ray, telemedicine for home health, and genome advancement will create challenges and opportunities for Biomeds in the 21st century.

McClain advocates hospitals developing technology assessment teams which will allow planning for the future.

IS and CE To Merge!

The question was on everybody’s mind at the VBA annual meeting. The Manager’s Roundtable discussion “Information Services/Biomed Relationships” was moderated by Steve Haupt, Carilion, Roanoke and began with opening comments from panel members;

LaDonna Shedor, CIO of Centra Health stated the integration of technology was forcing IS and CE to work closely. The combined knowledge of the two departments should be leveraged to save dollars.

Chris Riha, IS Project Coordinator for Rockingham Medical Center (a BMET for 18 years before crossing the IS line) stated IS was the manager of the information highway while BMET’s are the vehicles running the highway.

Debra Flowers, IS Director for Children’s Hospital of the Kings Daughters Hospital believes if IS and CE are not married, then we’re going to live and work together. Y2K showed there is his, hers and ours. All hospitals are working towards an Electronic Medical Record that will require departments to work and plan together.

Dr. Joe McClain, Director of Clinical Engineering, Walter Reed Medical Center felt some combined maintenance was to be expected but that IS will not want to service hospital equipment and management of PC’s for instance may move from CE to IS and back to CE. Issues such as EMI and telemetry frequency assignments are unique issues to CE departments.

Virgil Smoot, Manager, Biomed Department, Children’s Hospital of the Kings Daughters Hospital stated CE departments have experience not yet found in IS (such as leaving notes when completing work) and CE works as the liaison between Clinical systems and Information Systems

After opening comments Steve lead a sometimes spirited 2 hours of panel and participant discussion. Points addressed were:

· IT standards have helped bring order to the CE world.
· New equipment acquisitions almost always require CE and IS to work together.
· Who maintains the first response for service is different between hospitals and changing.
· Vendors may not want CE and IS to work together since it forces decisions on a corporate level
· CE experience with Nursing is something IS service could learn
· CE departments may operate through IS better than other departments such as Plant Engineering

“The times they are a changing”

Mark Freeman - “BMET of the YEAR”

Spacelabs Medical once again sponsored the award. Mark Freeman, Imaging Specialist at Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital received the plaque and $100.00 check at the Friday luncheon. Nominated for his unselfish dedication to the VBA and for creating the VBA Web Page. Excellent job, Mark. Nominated by Rick Davis

Roundtable Discussion:
Alternative Servicing for Clinical Engineering
Moderator: Lee Gilley, Centra Health, Lynchburg

This roundtable was intended to present for discussion alternative areas for servicing that Clinical Engineering / Biomedical Shops could look into for expanding their services and utilizing their unique capabilities for the benefit of their organizations.

The discussion was initiated by the moderator giving some examples of things (equipment) not usually considered in the normal realm of biomedical equipment that are serviced by the Centra Health Clinical Engineering. Department. In almost every instance another shop (represented by one of the group) was doing similar work. As the discussion evolved it was obvious that not everyone could / nor wanted to do everything the others were doing. In some facilities the work was already being done by another department. In others it just wasn’t feasible to expand into some areas. It others the support of the customer department was available to make it work.

A fair amount of discussion went to the topic of RF Management particularly cell phone control. There were some definitive pros, cons and different ideas on this issue. Some facilities regulate them, some don’t.

A list of some of the alternative areas of servicing follows. You may have already been working in some of the areas so long you thought it was normal. Other shops don’t service those areas at all. See how many on the list you cover. If you have any questions about getting into any of the areas contact "lee.gilley@centrahealth.com" for how to contact those who are performing that particular service.

1. PC’s
2. Printers –Laser and Dot
3. Copiers
4. Faxes
5. Nurse Call
6. RF Management (incl. Coordinating FCC licenses, Plant, Security and Ambu lance radio systems, Telemetry Systems)
7. Pagers – inhouse owned radio paging systems
8. Overhead PA systems
9. Sterilyzers – large and small
10. Sports equipment – For rehab clinics &/or PT
11. TV’s, MATV & SATV Headend Systems
12. AV – All equipment related to AV
13. Office Equipment
14. Cabling (installing any type data or antenna cabling)
15. Surgical Instrument repair ( anything done by the mobile3rd party servicers.)

This is certainly not all that was discussed but it provided lots of brain activity for over 2 hours. The list is in no way indicative of a priority of any sort. The more of these items you service for your organization the more customer orientated you will be. Everything’s not for everybody but maybe you just hadn’t thought of looking into a particular area.

Golf Tournament

Congratulations go to all of the teams that participated in the Golf Tournament, held at the 6th Annual Virginia Biomedical Association Meeting. The match was held on September 8th, 1999 at a “Legends” golf course, “Stonehouse”.The course from the black tees has a “rating” of 73.3 and a “slope” of 136. Robert Bailey, Michael Reichenbach, Yogi Biggs and Kalan Smith shot a 9 under par to finish in first place, followed by 2nd place of 5 under and third place of 4 under.

The course seemed to be in better shape than last year and just as tough. There was a short rain delay when players were at about the halfway point, but it did not dampen the spirit of the contestants. “Closest to the Pin” awards were won by Jim Muehleisen and Kalan Smithand “Longest Drive” by Steve Atkinson. Thanks to all for participating in another successful VBA Golf Tournament.

1st Place Team - sponsored by Welch Allen
Robert Bailey
Michael Riechenbach
Yogi Biggs
Kalan Smith

2nd Place Team - sponsored by Medical Data Electronics
Marty Wexler
Betsy Atkinson
Steve Atkinson
Tom Wright

3rd Place Team - sponsored by Kendall
Wood Gyory
Brian McCarthy
Steve Berlew

sponsored by Medserv
Michael Schmidt
Jeff Clark

Don Trombatore
Chong Kim
Jerry Burks
Steve Haupt

sponsored by Hewlett Packard
Paul Nelson
John Reese
Mike Hecht
Mike Riley

sponsored by Precision Endoscopy of America
David McDougall
Jim Muehleisen
Randy Reagan
Charlie Unger

sponsored by Strickler Medical
Alfred B. Strickler III
Andy Holden
Brent Garrett
T J Yusavage