Biomedical equipment technicians and clinical engineers have always been on the front lines of patient safety in hospitals. From the electrical safety scares of the early 1970s to today's focus on reducing medical errors, medical equipment professionals are called on to ensure that medical technologies in the healthcare environment are safe to use.
Here, BI&T presents four stories of equipment professionals who went above and beyond to guarantee patient safety in their hospitals. One story springs from a disaster response; two focus on adverse event investigations; and one began with device damage noticed during routine preventive maintenance checks. In each story, equipment professionals brought their unique combination of engineering and clinical skills to the task.
Our four experts also share their opinions about what the role of clinical engineers and biomedical equipment technicians should be in today's patient safety-centered healthcare environment. Medical equipment professionals must play a major role in patient safety, they say. Key advice:
Speak up and be available to participate in your hospital's patient safety program, including technology assessment teams and incident investigation teams.
Learn about the risk management process, including incident investigations, root cause analysis, and failure mode and effects analysis.
Use medical equipment databases to identify trends that affect patient safety.
Become a member or subscribe to organizations that offer the information needed to stay current with patient safety.
Branch out into nonequipment areas.
Strengthen partnerships with clinical staff and leverage relationships to improve patient safety.
Take advantage of any opportunities to become involved in patient safety.
Work with manufacturers to improve device safety.
As Bryanne Patail of the VA's National Center for Patient Safety says, “If your department's mission statement says that it is your job to ensure the cost-effective, safe application of medical devices, then just repairing equipment is not enough.”
