Bruce H. Barkalow, Ph.D., PE, CCE
490 Quarterline SE
Newaygo, MI 49337-9201
Tel: (231) 652-2228
Fax: (231) 652-7912

Email: bhbi@riverview.net 
Web page: www.bhbi.com
 

Consultation for Healthcare Organizations is primarily Clinical Engineering support for Administration and Designated Departments.

BIOMEDICAL QUALITY ASSURANCE:

Example: See Closed Cases, BME QA

Independent Review of Biomedical or Clinical Engineering:
  • In-house, Shared Service, Vendor, or other third party medical device support.  The review typically consists of an analysis of the hospital medical technology profile, identification of problem areas, defining existing support resources, compliance with JCAHO medical device related standards, identification of inordinate medical technology risk exposure, and recommendations for short and long term improvement of medical technology support.
  • Staff job descriptions and performance review criteria.
  • JCAHO medical device related compliance.
  • Cost effectiveness and recommendations for improvement.
MEDICAL EQUIPMENT REVIEW AND ACQUISITION:  Consultation for Administration or Selected Departments: 
  • Medical Equipment Capital Budget Planning.
  • Long Range Medical Technology Planning.
  • Independent review of expressed medical technology needs to determine underlying clinical requirements.
  • Translation of clinical requirements into a set of equipment or technology specifications.
  • Translating technology specifications to form the basis of a Request for Proposal against which medical device manufacturers may bid.
  • Review of the various responses to determine the advantages and disadvantages of the various choices.
  • Once a manufacturer has been selected, independent monitoring of the purchase, delivery, installation, user training, and follow-up service.
INCIDENT AND ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION:  Consultation for Administration and/or Risk Management:
  • Working in cooperation with Risk Management, physicians, in-house biomedical staff, and regulatory agencies, perform independent investigation and confidential reporting for medical device related incidents or accidents.
  • Assistance can be provided for proper reporting of the incident according to State and Federal requirements.
  • Quality Control follow up procedures to address the causes of and future prevention of similar or related incidents.
RISK ASSESSMENT RELATED TO MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY: Consultation for Administration and/or Risk Management:
  • Perform a survey of overall hospital technology, concentrating on areas of known high risk and areas where the hospital has experienced inordinate problems.
  • Confidential reporting of the findings to Administration of Risk Management.
  • Confidential assistance to implement corrective measures to eliminate medical technology risk.  This may include:
    • Targeted physician, nurse, or other healthcare professional training related to the subject technology.
    • Revision or upgrade of the targeted medical technology.
    • Enhanced biomedical support.

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