Finding an Upside In System Downtime
Jill Schlabig Williams · Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology · 2012
Columns and DepartmentsEllen Pitcher, chief nursing office for the Baylor Regional Medical Center in Plano, TX, knows how important nurse call systems are to patient safety."We're all about the patient," she says.So, when she heard that a nurse call system in her facility slated for replacement went down twice in two weeks and she hadn't even known about it, she started to worry.The healthcare technology management professionals at the facility likewise understand the safety implications of nurse call system downtime, and were focusing on fixing problems as rapidly as possible."We knew that the nurse call system was obsolete and barely limping along, so we warned everyone that they should be prepared for the possibility of downtime," says Carol Wyatt, manager of Biomedical Technology Services at the facility.She also put one of her best technicians, Dennis Duck, in charge of repairing the system.A supportive chief executive and a responsive repair team were both in place to address problems, but one key element was missing: communication.When the Biomedical Technology Services team would respond to a system outage, they communicated with the clinical staff within the unit, but not with