Those FTE values are in next page in our excel
spreadsheet which shows the different regional
facilities in our area, total # of devices within our
inventory, total FTEs assigned, and the ratio of #
device to #FTEs currently assigned to the shop (See
Chart 1).
THIS YEAR'S PROPOSAL
Staffing
An additional specialist FTE to handle basic
Radiology/Ultrasound
and
two
Biomedical
Equipment II would help offset the additional
workload and continued maintaining federal, state,
and local compliance standards.
Maintenance Costs
We recommend moving toward eliminating fullservice contracts and establishing “first-look”
contracts to be utilized for performing in-house
maintenance on diagnostic Radiology and
Ultrasound equipment. This contract type will enable
us to cancel or to allow the warranties to expire for
all our full-service contracts and smoothly transition
to in-house maintenance services. Hospital XYZ will
reimburse the work performed by the clinical
engineering department and cutting overall costs by
50%. This would allow us to fund an additional
qualified biomedical technicians as stated in
“Staffing” and next assume responsibility for the inhouse maintenance while technicians acquire
experience and instill customer confidence. This
alternative would allow the facility to function in a
more self-reliant manner since time and materials is
a very high risk on Radiology and Ultrasound
equipment and can fluctuate up or down by as much
as 30%.
NEXT YEAR'S PROPOSAL
Staffing
A new FTE to absorb workload from increased
workload and expansion to a dedicated x-ray
imaging specialist for MRI, CT, Ultrasound, and
Mammography units. Additional 400 hours, possibly
could also handle bone density scanner with
maintenance in-house.
Maintenance Costs
No changes
Training Costs
School for CT that will have to be funded since per
diem is already included in the discounted training
price which will help cancel our local contracts.
SUMMARY OF PROPOSALS
The clinical engineering department is a value
added, multifaceted, very-talented group. We are
dedicated to providing a safe clinical environment
with high customer service at the low cost on the
planet. The main weakness we have is our lack of
resources to include but is not limited to manpower
and a separate training budget from the rest of the
cost centers.
An additional FTE would save money and keep us in
federal, state, and Joint Commission compliance.
Our main strengths are our technical abilities, our
desire to take on new challenges and to successfully
and safely accomplish the organizations mission.
This has been evident in our obtaining schooling on
MRI/CT and we are ready to begin providing
superior maintenance on these devices in-house.
Only Hospital A as compared to ours which is
Hospital D have similar modalities to our facility as
The second benefit is that all maintenance costs are well as the number of like devices and they are
then centrally located into one budget and managed successfully compliant in all areas of clinical
by our clinical engineering and the healthcare engineering management and patient safety
practices.
organization.
Cost of maintaining equipment will increase
Training Costs:
Schools for X-ray and Biomed in order to eliminate dramatically over the next five years as devices
become more sophisticated. Our approach in
and transition contract services.
obtaining training and maintaining these devices inhouse will save the facility between $550,000 $750,000 over the next five years.