Frank Magnarelli - TechNation

My first AAMI Meeting*

TechNation Magazine — Tue, 23 Feb 2016 14:00:09 +0000

I first heard of AAMI in 1965 when I was working for medical device company in the Greater Boston Area. The sales manager for our company had distributed a brochure for this new association whose goal was to develop a unified organization that would bring together physicians, manufacturers and designers of medical devices.

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How Many Consultants Does It Take To Change A Light Bulb?

TechNation Magazine — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 13:51:19 +0000

Philips recently announced a half billion-dollar fifteen-year contract with a seven-hospital WMC Health system in Valhalla, New York. The agreement aims to improve healthcare delivery services in radiology, cardiology, neurology, oncology and pediatrics. Philips will achieve these improvements by providing on-site clinical and business consulting services.

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Do Your Customers Vote With Their Feet?

Frank Magnarelli — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 16:09:01 +0000

Customers vote with their feet when they stop using a product or a company’s services. By doing this, they send a strong message that they are unhappy. Hospital department heads sometimes vote with their feet when they refuse to use our biomedical engineering services. When they do this, they may be sending us a strong signal that we need to change. We need to spend more time listening to them and focusing on their needs.

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Did AAMI Miss The Target?

TechNation Magazine — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 19:45:36 +0000

The AAMI Foundation has announced that they are “spearheading efforts to provide nurses and other healthcare staff with device training to ensure proper use of healthcare technology.” While they also concluded that new devices should be more intuitive and easier to use, they will focus on re-designing training methods to assure that nurses are better equipped to cope with the changes in technologies.

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Poor Managers = Poor Departments

Frank Magnarelli — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 18:06:33 +0000

We are fortunate in the United States to have a large number of well-trained and highly dedicated BMETs who love what they do and enjoy being challenged every day. Despite the presence of so many highly qualified dedicated BMETs, there are many hospitals where senior executives are dissatisfied with their biomedical engineering programs.

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CMMS Improvements I Would Like to See

Frank Magnarelli — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 19:19:33 +0000

Starting in the early 1980s, I began using and reviewing various types of medical equipment management software and have found that most of the designs lacked the kinds of features that I thought were useful to me as a manager of “in house” biomedical programs. Although all of the software was better than the paperwork and file based systems we used in the 1970s, none of the products seemed to focus specifically on our needs.

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New Years Resolutions for Biomedical Department Managers

Frank Magnarelli — Tue, 12 Jan 2016 14:00:33 +0000

It is that time of year again when we decide what we will do to improve our lives and the lives of others. As people who manage biomedical programs, whether we hold the title of supervisor, director, or manager, we have a responsibility to our staff, our department, and ourselves to make every effort to be the best we can be at our job.

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An Open Letter to New BMETs … Part 3

Frank Magnarelli — Tue, 05 Jan 2016 14:00:25 +0000

Effective BMETs make an effort to learn as much as possible about hospital operations. This makes them more effective and better able to integrate their work with the other hospital departments. Along with developing an understanding of the clinical applications of medical devices, it is also helpful to learn more about some of the departments that you rely on for support.

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An Open Letter to New BMETs….Part 2

Frank Magnarelli — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 14:00:24 +0000

Dear BMET, Last week we talked about your profession and the kind of department where you might want to work. After you have started working, you will have to learn your way around the hospital. You will also begin learning the idiosyncrasies of the various medical devices that your department maintains. If you want to [...]

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An Open Letter to New BMETs

Frank Magnarelli — Tue, 22 Dec 2015 14:00:42 +0000

Dear BMET, Congratulations, you have chosen the most rewarding career a person could possibly imagine. Your career will expose you to a wide variety of devices like lasers, X-ray, MRI, infusion pumps, electrosurgical generators, defibrillators, cardiac monitors and many others. Staying abreast of new developments and devices in your field will keep you challenged throughout [...]

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