Washington State Biomedical Association

New Document Offers Guidance on “First Call” Responsibilities
For Healthcare Networking Issues
New guidance is now available to help clinical engineering (CE) and information technology (IT) departments sort out service calls.
The CE-IT Community has published a guidance document designed to help healthcare facilities assign “first call” duties between CE and IT departments.
The CE-IT Community—a collaboration among members of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), the American College of Clinical Engineering (ACCE), and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)—was created in 2008 to develop resources, best practices and networking opportunities to address CE-IT convergence issues in healthcare.
Traditionally CE services medical devices while IT handles networks and personal computers (PC). But as medical devices become more computerized and integrated into networks, the lines of responsibility have blurred.
The new guidance document—entitled Best Practices For Assigning First Call Responsibilities For Healthcare Networking Issues—offers advice for creating a system of support.

CEIT_FirstCall_GuidanceDocument

Slainte’ Mhath, Sandy.

The WSBA’s Annual Symposium took place September 19 at North Seattle Community College. The two-day Symposium featured a “Meet and Great” Reception, five classes on topics such as ultrasound service basics, surgical table repair and LP 20 repair, and fantastic Italian dinner at the college.

In planning the event last spring, the WSBA officers entertained some very ambitious ideas.  However, the initial commitment for attendance that we received from members was not enough to support some of these goals.  For example, we weren’t able to offer a class on x-ray basics taught by the good folks at Ditech. Although they were willing to support us, we didn’t feel we could ask them to come all this way if we couldn’t guarantee a minimum turnout.  We’re open to ideas that will encourage more participation.
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Title: October Meeting
Location: Seattle Children’s
Host: TBD
Speaker: TBD
Topic: TBD
Start Time: 17:00
Date: 10-21-2009
End Time: 20:00

Please RSVP by emailing: secretary@bmet.org

Title: Joint WSBA/OBA Annual Symposium

Location: North Seattle Community College

Start Date: 09-18-2009

End Date: 09-19-2009

Please RSVP by emailing: secretary@bmet.org

I apologize that this post is late.  Ben’s Precision Instruments, in Fife, hosted our June meeting. As tradition dictates, the good folks at Ben’s put on the feed bag and warmly welcomed our members to their state-of-the-art facility. With several barbeques burning, they cooked up a whole lot of hamburgers, chicken and hot dogs with all the fixings, and side dishes of potato salad, potato chips, soft-drinks, and cold beer. If anyone went hungry, it was his own fault. They also held a drawing with prizes for categories such as Best Hawaiian Shirt!

BPI also allowed members wander around their spacious work area, asking questions of those directly involved in the myriad repairs and refurbishments that is their specialty.

Thanks BPI for once again making the WSBA feel so welcome and well-fed!

[caption id="attachment_653" align="alignleft" width="512" caption="Corrie picks the winners"][/caption][caption id="attachment_656" align="alignleft" width="384" caption="Winner!"][/caption]