What tips can you offer others to cope in this economy?
Here are some of the suggestions offered. You can submit your tip here.
."Now, more than ever, it is very important for biomed directors, managers, and supervisors to demonstrate the value their departments bring to the hospital in the form of controlling the portion of the cost-of-care called medical device quality assurance and quality control. We all know that U.S. Biomed Departments have the responsibility to draft and maintain the medical device management plan, including periodic inspections, testing, calibration, and repair based on their analysis of risk. Now is the time to prove the hospital should be investing in the test tools, training, and space-needs of biomed."
—Jerry Zion, Training Manager, Fluke Biomedical, OH
“Be ready to defend your budget and make the case for what will be the impact from potential budget reductions, and work with staff to reallocate tasks based on their priorities.”
—Yadin David, Founder, Biomedical Engineering Consultants, TX
“Now, more than ever, we need to demonstrate the total value of each of our programs and be more open-minded to providing services in different fashions that produce cost reductions for our clients. Now is not the time to be inflexible.”
—Dave Francoeur, VP of Clinical Technology Services, ARAMARK, NC
“Look for ways to streamline procedures, and cut out steps and/or supplies that are unnecessary without suffering a loss of quality. Here, in Sterile Processing, we eliminated tray covers prior to sterilization, and encouraged the use of disposable tray covers, which are chargeable items. Staggered scheduling can help with some personnel shortages, in addition to looking at benefit changes, including the amount of vacation time staff can take.”
—Catherine Ly, Educational Coordinator, Kettering Medical Center, OH
“Do more with less, increase productivity, SHOW VALUE, be resourceful, and be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem.”
—Douglas K. George, Manager of Clinical Engineering, Elkhart General Hospital, IL
“Maintain just-in-time inventories as much as possible. Delay costly repairs as much as possible without affecting service. Increase troubleshooting time enough to prevent full swap outs. Increase initiatives to expand to areas like DI to achieve greater savings and shared services to increase revenue. Charge back to internal customers to reduce avoidable damage to equipment and to maintain a close-to-zero base budget. Cut training and conference budgets and try to use funds from other sources (sponsored/with equipment acquisition).”
—Mike Capuano, Manager of Biomedical Technology, Hamilton Health Services, Canada
“Identify and understand what adds value, what is necessary, and what can be delayed. Every expenditure fits into one of these three buckets.”
—Jaspar Benke, Director of Alure Medical Inc., CA
“We have taken copier repairs into the in-house biomed departments. It’s saved us over $600,000 in the past 6 years. Administration and departments love having biomed support copiers. We hired a person just to do copiers. We have also taken most of X-ray repairs in-house, which will save us over $30,000 per month even after hiring a specialist.”
—Morgan Hall, Biomedical Engineer Manager, Marshall Medical Center, CA
“Look for ways you can cut things that are not totally necessary. Search for alternate vendors and money saving opportunities.”
—Samuel E. Mitchell, Biomedical Coordinator, Summit Medical Center, AR
“Think outside of the norm to accomplish the same goal. Creative thinking can make a difference in how you may be perceived by the company, as an asset or a cost. Embrace the changes. Supporting rather than resenting the company through these times is critical in their and your success.”
—Chris Anderson, Staff Scientist, Johnson and Johnson
“If administration comes to you and asks the department to do more, just say yes, never say no and brush up on your IT skills.”
—Joe Bartenbach, Supervisor, Department of Veterans Affairs, PA
“During the last "Asian financial crisis" in 1997, our then CEO expected us to reduce operating expenditures by about 10%. To meet this stipulation, a concerted effort was made by all departments that contract out services to send the same message to our contractors to be our partners in cost-containment. That set the tone for contract negotiations which yielded significant savings, especially with contractors who had been our service partners for a long time.”
—Cheong Thim Wan, Senior Manager of the Biomedical Engineering Department, Sinagpore General Hospital, Singapore.
“Prioritize services, reduced levels of customer support.”
—Craig Bakuzonis, Director of Clinical Engineering, Shands at the University of Florida, FL
“A tight budget both at work and home sounds like a good idea at the present time. Spend money only if you really need to spend it. If you lose your job, have a good network of friends you can count on to help you through these tough times. Try any job you can find. You may even like working at a fast food place. The economy will get better. We just don't know when.”
—Ken Click, Director of Acute Renal Therapy, Fresenius Medical Care, PA
Benchmark data is important. If you are doing something that is not a core 'biomed' function that is costing money, you must work this out of your budget somehow so that when benchmarks are compared, you end up in the higher quartile. A negative differential is dangerous because administrators/finance can hold areas accountable based on comparisons with other like-institutions.
—Mike Capuano, Manager of Biomedical Technology, Hamilton Health Services, Canada
“Help your employer by cutting back on overtime as much as possible. Limit your contracts to time and material only.”
—Jeff Morrell, Supervisor, CACI, CA
“Can we lower costs by having staggered start times so there is someone in-house for more of the day and thus lower overtime for on-call support? Would it make sense to handle preventive maintenance (PM) activities by department rather than by device type so that we don't spend so much time traveling to a variety of departments?”
—Christine Ruther, Engineer, C&R Engineering, Inc., CA
If your facility is able to offer an additional service to the area with the equipment you already have, promote it and generate revenue. For example: The Sterile Processing department at my hospital has two ETO sterilizers and aerators. We could feasibly do up to four loads a day, but normally only have one. We've advertised our sterilization services to other area facilities, including outpatient clinics and doctor's offices, for a fee. The fee is small enough to not change the hospital's non-profit status.
—Catherine Ly, Educational Coordinator, Kettering Medical Center, OH
“I recommend looking for ways to add value to your current position or offerings. This may actually be a period where equipment is repaired as opposed to replaced resulting in more opportunities for biomeds and service techs.”
—Eric Robinson, Operations Manager, Claflin Medical Equipment, RI