Department Spotlight: Fairview Health Services Imaging Engineering Services

By K. Richard Douglas

For 113 years, Fairview Health Services has been providing the resources of hospitals and clinics to the people of Minnesota. The nonprofit health care system has partnered with the University of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota Physicians since 1997.

Fairview is a large system with more than 34,000 employees, 5,000 plus providers and 2,071 staffed beds. There are also 56 primary care clinics. Their providers performed 90,411 surgeries and delivered 13,699 babies in 2018.

With all of those big numbers, it is safe to assume that a lot of imaging equipment is utilized and requires service.

“Our install base currently consists of 31 CT scanners, 25 MRI scanners, 40 CV/IR suites, 310 X-ray and R/F rooms, 546 ultrasound machines, 24 nuc med cameras and 29 portable X-ray machines,” says Patrick McCurry, BSRT(R)(CT)(MRI), system manager of laboratory and imaging engineering services at Fairview.

To handle all of that equipment takes a dedicated free-standing imaging team. The Fairview Health Services Imaging Engineering Services team is expanding as it takes on new duties. “I currently manage 12 imaging technicians and three phone dispatchers dedicated solely to imaging, covering approximately 1,300 imaging devices. I also am in the process of developing a lab service team, similar to what we have on the imaging side, and I currently have two technicians on the lab services team,” McCurry says.

He says that within the umbrella of clinical engineering, there are two biomed managers overseeing 20-25 biomed techs. Biomed, imaging and lab share two business/database analysts.

“Imaging engineering services, and now lab services, are separate, free-standing entities from biomedical engineering at Fairview, but all fall under clinical engineering,” McCurry says.

The group currently services ultrasound, X-ray, R/F rooms, CR/DR units, CT, nuc med, and CV IR rooms.

McCurry says that training helps them keep pace with new equipment.

“We are very active in training. Whenever enough new pieces of any given model have been purchased in the system to justify the training dollars, we send one or more technicians to training,” McCurry says.

On the other hand, there is some equipment the team maintains via service contracts.

“Linear accelerators and MRI; both are very expensive and have extensive training. Also, our vendors have been very competitive with service contracts in these areas, making spending the training dollars not as valuable as it could be otherwise,” McCurry says.

The imaging service team also provides some valuable input into the purchasing process so that the numbers make sense.

“We are usually consulted in purchases from a total cost of ownership standpoint. If a department is insistent on acquiring a ‘one-off’ type of machine, that I’m not going to acquire training on, I provide the figures for the service contract they will need to take into consideration during the planning and purchase process,” McCurry says.

“I am normally included in the conversation regarding point-of-sale service contracts, and along with my partner in supply chain contracting, I am one of the primary participants in renegotiating imaging contracts,” he adds.

There When You Need Them

Updating equipment has required the expertise of the team. In addition to maintenance, calibration and repairs, the team tackled a systemwide replacement project.

“Imaging engineering recently participated in a systemwide initiative to replace legacy CR devices with DR units throughout 2018. Due to the changing reimbursement climate between computed and digital radiography, the Fairview imaging service line converted a majority of their legacy CR devices to DR units. Imaging engineering helped with site/vendor coordination, removal and transport of old equipment, and helping the vendor set each new DR system up,” McCurry says.

The team has acted as problem solvers by making themselves available to customers as well as providing equipment maintenance knowledge. “Members of my team regularly go above and beyond in their duties. They come in on weekends when they are not on call to work on a machine or install parts so patient care on Monday morning will not be affected adversely. We also had some issues with cleaners being used to clean imaging equipment, as the structural integrity of plastic and rubber components were being compromised. We found a cleaner that appeared to be less detrimental to equipment while still fulfilling the requirement of infection prevention and are working on implementing its use systemwide,” McCurry says.

Away from the workplace, the imaging service team keeps involved in the imaging service community and keeps its knowledge current.

“Many techs are members in AAMI and NCBA (North Central Biomedical Association), and we routinely send half the team to NCBA each year, as it’s invaluable education and networking,” McCurry says.

The team had to prove its merit early on.

“The imaging engineering services team faced an early up-hill battle gaining the trust and confidence of end users within the system when it first came into existence,” McCurry says.

“End-user perceptions can be very difficult to overcome, but through extensive training, timely attention to issues, and a special emphasis to customer service, Fairview imaging engineering has become a valued and trusted partner in the management and service of imaging equipment across the system,” McCurry adds.

With 1,300 imaging devices to repair and maintain, it takes a skilled team to keep everything working. Among those 34,000 employees, Fairview Health Services has a dozen imaging service professionals who keep the workflows for diagnostic imaging flowing smoothly.