Paul Blackett

The Role of Clinical Engineers in Hospitals

The appropriate deployment of technology contributes to the improvement in the quality of healthcare, the containment of cost, and to increased access to services. The traditional role of the clinical engineer repairing and maintaining devices has evolved to now include the equally important role of supporting and optimizing the use of healthcare technology. This chapter is an overview of the activities undertaken by clinical engineers. These activities are grouped under two headings: supporting and advancing care, and healthcare technology management. Clinical engineering activity within hospitals should be balanced to include both the management of the healthcare technology itself and also the support for the clinicians who use the technology in clinical practice. The supporting and advancing care and healthcare technology management roles can be considered the pillars of any clinical engineering service. However, it is important to recognize and acknowledge at all times that these roles are complementary and are tightly integrated in practice. With knowledge of the engineering, physics, and system science underpinning electro-medical devices and systems, and experience gained in working collaboratively in the clinical environment, clinical engineers play an important role in ensuring positive outcomes for patients arising from the use of technology and reducing negative ones.

Health Technology Management

The complete range of electromedical devices and systems bought by a hospital constitutes a valuable financial asset with capital and revenue resourcing requirements. Their selection, procurement, upkeep, and life cycle needs to be carefully managed to ensure they are cost effective, up to date, and continue to support the corporate objectives of the hospital. Managing healthcare technology and the risks involved should be governed by a strategic, organization-wide policy that informs and guides those who use and manage the technology. The term healthcare technology management (HTM) describes the scientific and technical support of electromedical devices and clinical information technologies, and financial stewardship. In this chapter the HTM program is described as well as how clinical engineers manage the medical devices, ensure they are maintained in a satisfactory condition, and are kept available for use. This includes a discussion of how to develop device-specific equipment support plans and how to deal with the challenges of assigning often limited resources to execute these plans. The importance of delivering a health technology management program within a quality cycle is emphasised.