Biomed Shortage Persists, Takes Toll on Facilities
The last time that Miami Children’s Hospital needed to fill a position in the clinical engineering department, the four-month search ended when a qualified candidate from New Jersey decided to relocate to take the position. This time around, the hospital has had an even harder time recruiting an experienced biomed technician.
“We started recruiting for this position last February and have had no success,” says Frank Magnarelli, the hospital’s clinical engineering director.
Across the country, other employers and recruiters report similar experiences, as it takes some facilities six months or longer to fill positions with fully qualified candidates.
Entry level BMET positions are “easy to fill,” according to Kevin Jensen, clinical engineering manager for VA Connecticut Healthcare System. But, says Jensen, “Finding someone with well-rounded, effective experience is hard.” The problem, he adds, may have as much to do with management expectations as it does with the pool of applicants: “Upper management is not clear about the skill levels desired, as the historic requirements have changed rapidly.”
The inability to fill a vacant position impacts health care providers in any number of ways — including the bottom line. According to Jensen, the demand for qualified biomeds at his facility means that, “Salary has risen to be competitive.”
For Magnarelli and Miami Children’s Hospital, the unfilled tech position translates into a “slight increase in overtime.” But, more importantly, the situation has had an impact on how ambitious the clinical engineering department can be: “Our inability to find qualified technicians means that we have been unable to start new programs.”
With a lack of qualified technicians, employers such as Magnarelli are more likely now to look further afield to fill their positions — and to adjust salaries offered to be more competitive in the national marketplace.
“We feel that since few technicians are available in our local market, we must recruit nationally,” says Magnarelli. “This has caused us to rethink our salary structure. Previously we compared against the South Florida labor market, but since Florida salaries are generally lower, we may need to readjust upward.”
According to Certified Employment Consultant Roger Springer, owner of EMCON CMA, Inc. in Fairfax, VA, this situation isn’t unique to South Florida. “How can a local hospital contact potential candidates outside of their geographical area effectively?” Springer asks. “Many times they don’t. Then, what happens is they either hire a trainee who may or may not be well-versed in biomedical and hope they can ‘train them up,’ or they hire someone with a lower skill set than they need. Neither of these options makes or saves the hospital money,” he says.
Candidates with a specialty in imaging are in particular demand, according to recruiters, and can expect higher salaries than nonspecialists. Finding a “BMET with an imaging background is just really, really hard,” says Jensen. This development isn’t new; a 2003 AAMI salary survey reported that biomedical equipment technicians and clinical engineers who specialized in radiology, laboratory, or technology management earned higher salaries — as much as 26% higher — than biomedical generalists.
Springer, however, worries that this income statistic can be misleading. As Springer puts it, “The actual statement should be that certain specialties for certain manufacturers can expect higher salaries.” But, he adds, “The generalist is actually in great demand, because health care reform created a generalist market: In most cases the hospitals could no longer afford the OEM [original equipment manufacturer] specialist for anything other than major issues. A generalist in the work force today can normally fix 70–90% of the problems, and when they can’t fix it — they call in the specialist.”
When it comes to hiring, it’s not only qualified technicians who are proving difficult to replace; management positions can be difficult to fill, as well.
“The demand continues to grow for talented professionals in the clinical and regulatory field,” says Roger Brooks, founder of Leading Edge Medical Search in Boulder, CO, and a specialist in executive recruitment. “Some companies are finding it difficult to fill directors/vice presidents of clinical and regulatory affairs on their own and are seeking outside search assistance from firms such as ours.”
Why the pinch? Many employers have lamented the loss of potential biomedical students to information technology programs — at the same time that new technologies have redefined the medical device landscape.
“I think that we have undergone a period where technically oriented students may have opted to train for the computer field rather than biomedical equipment,” says Magnarelli. “In the Miami area, for example, we even had a school drop its BMET training program because of a lack of student interest. This may have resulted in a shortage of trained people in the pipeline.”
With “only a handful” of BMET programs across the country and only one established four-year program, it’s no wonder that qualified candidates are in short supply, according to Barbara Christe of the IUPUI–Purdue School of Engineering. “If you have struggled to find qualified BMET candidates, you might be surprised to learn that educators are not clamoring to offer graduates to meet your needs,” Christe adds.
Schools that closed their BMET programs produced graduates who competed against one another for a limited number of local jobs, according to Springer. “Students were upset because there were no jobs in their immediate area, and the school unfortunately had led them to believe there was no problem finding a job in the biomedical field. When the word got out into the community — no one would sign up for the courses,” he explains.
Just as important, professionals in the field don’t tend to move, which puts experienced candidates in short supply and makes retention a vital issue. “Medical device professionals are overwhelmingly satisfied with and secure in their jobs,” concluded Erik Swain in a summary of the 2003 Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry salary survey. Some 66% of MDDI survey respondents said they were not considering looking for a new job.
“In general, experienced, competent BMETs tend to be happy in their work,” agrees Magnarelli. “They’re not usually anxious to make a change unless there are changes in their workplace that interfere with their level of satisfaction.”
Source: AAMI News: Vol. 39, No. 9, October 2004