Our end-user training is provided in several ways, manufacturer provided end-user training, negotiated at time of purchase one-on-one interactions with our staff,” Barrionuevo says. “Ba圜are’s quality model emphasizes education and training as well as continuous improvement. Part of keeping devices operating smoothly is to make certain that clinical colleagues are fully trained on proper usage. “If they are down, the hospital would have to divert services and/or the cost liability related to the replacement parts and assemblies within the image chain is too great.” Full-service coverage is applied to assets that are considered mission critical,” he says. “Only a few of our systems have full-service contracts coverage. Barrionuevo says that all imaging devices are serviced directly or triaged by his team.
The imaging service team attempts to keep as much of the work in-house as possible. Other services are managed directly by our imaging staff with the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) or third-party vendor,” says Walter Barrionuevo, director of clinical engineering/medical device integration and security and end-user and infrastructure services (EIS) for Ba圜are Health System. “All modalities within imaging are either serviced directly or have shared service responsibility. They also support 157 mobile X-ray systems across all Ba圜are facilities, including 86 C-arms and mobile extremity units, 56 mobile X-ray units, 12 specimen units and five dental systems. They support 314 different fixed imaging modalities. The imaging team is responsible for 28 MRIs, 45 CT scanners, 33 digital mammography systems and eight linear accelerators. The team’s field imaging service specialists are a component of the larger 97-member clinical engineering department. Servicing and maintaining the imaging equipment in those imaging centers, and all the other facilities, falls to Ba圜are’s 11-member imaging services team, which handles all imaging modalities along with ultrasound and radiation therapy. The system includes 14 hospitals, four outpatient surgery centers, 14 urgent care centers and 27 outpatient imaging centers, with 3,511 hospital beds in total. Based in Clearwater, Florida, Ba圜are Health System has been serving the Tampa Bay and central Florida region’s health needs since 1997.