EBME Forums Forums Management Professional Issues Why Clinical technician?

“By the small things thou shalt know them”.

Biomedical Engineering – “biomeds” – as I have said many times before.

And perhaps it has all become a little too grand in the UK. The core of the job is fixing the kit (equipment repairs and maintenance) and providing an in-house technical service to the clinical user. People who think they are above working on the tools, should (in my humble opinion), get out of the way and go and make their contribution somewhere else.

What do you “no-repairs” guys actually do, then? Spend your days packing up kit and calling in the couriers? Sorry, Mates, but you don’t need a degree to do that (or, on second thoughts, maybe you do these days).

Forget about terminology from the Armed Forces, by the way. There are various “Servicing Sections” in the RAF system, and MDSS is used simply to continue that style. It was always ignored by the army (and quite rightly too!).

Techman,

I would like to know who those regulators are? Never heard of them? please enlighten us....

I have just bought tympanic thermometers with 5 years exchange warranty, they also give us a buffer stock... work it out for yourself...

There is no future for the REPAIRMAN. speak to you in 3 years time...

Our departments are very high cost and a lot of Trusts are keen on managed service and lease deals because they do not have to pay capital chrages.

alex

Sureley a lot of the repairs we carry out are caused by accidental damage and would not normally be covered under a warranty scheme without further, probably expensive, insurance.

Until all consideration of cost dissappears (??) there must always be a job for a handy individual who knows his way around a piece of kit.

Alex,
How much did your extended warranty cost? In my experience the only problems that cannot be sorted in house with the pc calibrator are damage issues such as chipped lenses which are NOT covered by a warranty. They didn't give you anything. I can guarentee that your buffer stock cost is built into your disposalables (where the real money is made), as is the extended warranty if that was "free" to.
The repairman / technician / whatever you wish to call them is here for the foreseeable future. We replace boards here but we will then repair boards in the workshop where possible. We also manufacturer for in house use. That alone saves hugh money. We used to manufacturer for other hospitals but CE killed that.
You will not get the expertise from one external service vendor that I have at my disposal in my department.

In reply to Geoffs post, I'm sure you didn't mean to be so dismissive by suggesting that armed forces terminology should be ignored by the audience of this forum. Particularly as that audience has a good proportion of members who are currently serving or ex forces (as I'm sure you know). It must be fair to say that some of that terminology must have made it through the main gate and into the outside world. However the point of my post was that for the majority of us "maintenance" at whatever level, is what we are involved in, apologies to those involved in the equipments operation. On further reflection I find it hard to conceive of a degree course which will turn out immediately useable maintenance technicians unless that course devotes a large proportion of its syllabus to hands on experience of the equipment the student is going to be working on. That's not a realistic educational scenario, principles can be taught all day long but the learning starts when you work on the equipment for real.

For my own information can anyone tell me what is being taught on the various clinical technology degree courses. I've looked at a couple of websites and the information is a bit sketchy as to the actual content.

And a final point MDSS (Medical and Dental Servicing Section)is a term currently used by the majority, if not all, departments in the Army employed on medical equipment maintenance.

Paul, Hope not to hot in desert. As for the Degree course I'm in the middle of the first year MSc at Cardiff which involves Maths,Stats(Int,Diff,Stats,complex No's etc,)Mech Eng(Stresses,Beam Bending,bending moments,shearing forces), Electronics(Digital,Analogue,PIC programming, boolean etc) and Clin eng(Risk Assess,Clin Gov and all the policy that goes with it) Next year gives the opportunity to specialise in Anaesth, Rehab, Dyalisis or general medical devices. Third year for project. Give me a bell if you want any more info, Daz maybe coming to see ya soon
Si

Sorry, Try this for more info.
http://www.engin.cf.ac.uk/admis/courses/mscclinical/

If there are to be no "repair departments", then who is going to replace the 10 way patient cable when the staff say the ECG recorder is broken ? And who's going to save the morning theatre list from oblivion by replacing the foot pedal on the diathermy when the surgeon complains that it won't cut ?

An extended warranty may be the answer for a lot of equipment - but it won't cover the "accessories" !

So whats all this Good News your going to tell Repairman in 3 years time then Alex ??? Or is it " Need to know " basis ???

No, Tony, you've misunderstood, Mate. Alex will be wanting to join us. Te, He.