Our Experts

A successful alternative equipment maintenance (AEM) program at any healthcare facility has to balance two realities at the same time, according to Matt Baretich, PE, PhD, president of Fort Collins, Colo.-based Baretich Engineering. These two realities must prioritize patient safety and the need to make the best use of the members of the HTM team, he says.

“We all want to make sure the medical device is safe, but we also need to do it economically and reduce the amount of time spent by techs on maintenance,” Baretich says. “That means we save money and techs can save time.”

Blake Collins, director of clinical engineering at Wilmington, Del.-based ChristianaCare, agrees. He says biomed leaders must face the reality that they have a limited number of employees on their team, which is one reason creating an AEM program is worthwhile.

Cultivating a Culture of Collaboration
For the third consecutive year, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives has named Wilmington, Del.-based Christiana Care Health System a “Most Wired” facility—an honor, hospital officials say, that recognizes Christiana Care for its adoption, implementation, and use of health information technology. Below, Blake Collins, Christiana Care Health System’s director of clinical engineering, discusses what this award means from an HTM perspective and how the department collaborates with IT to improve patient outcomes.

24×7 Magazine: Can you please tell us a little bit about your department and the equipment you maintain?

Blake Collins: Christiana Care Health System’s clinical engineering team is comprised of 33 members, [making it] one of the largest clinical engineering teams in the nation. Our clinical engineers are tasked with managing all the medical devices used at Christiana Care’s two hospitals—Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del.; and Wilmington Hospital—as well as the freestanding Middletown Emergency Department.