HCB News: How involved are you in capital equipment purchasing?
ES: At this I am still involved and sign off on capital purchases, but our department has grown and we have added a dedicated clinical engineer who is responsible for all of our demos and submits the required documents for purchasing equipment.

I am also still involved demos and provide feedback on equipment that is being considered.
HCB News: Are you satisfied with the data you are generating for asset management?
ES: We work closely with this team as well, and it has some pros and cons. The database that we use (Service Now) does a great job for inventory purpose, but the RTLS integration has some flaws. So mostly yes, I am satisfied.

HCB News: Generally speaking, how is your relationship with the OEMs? Are you able to obtain service training and manuals when you need them?
ES: I have a fairly good relationship with our OEMS service managers, but this a moving target with constant turnover with the OEM management. Getting service manuals can be challenging at times, if we have not had an engineer trained. Service training is not an issue.

HCB News: What advice do you give to newer clinical engineers who are just getting started?
ES: I would say they need to be ready for all of the new technology that they will experience over their career. Getting as much IT experience as possible would be very beneficial, as at some point all imaging and biomed devices will most likely touch the network in some capacity.

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