Clinical Equipment Management
The Clinical Equipment Management Department (CEM) at North Carolina Baptist Hospital, like most Biomedical Departments, was a direct descendent or outgrowth of the Hospital's Engineering Department. Throughout the decades of the 50's and 60's maintenance support of medical equipment was handled by a select group of hospital electricians with specialized training and skills. Not until the early 1970's would the specialized talents of this group be recognized and granted independent status. Adopting the name Clinical Engineering, the newly formed CE Support Service Group would undergo a number of transitional changes as it developed its own identity, and gained the trust and support of the departments they supported. Although Clinical Engineering now had its own name and assigned shop area, it still remained a support arm of the Engineering Department. This reporting relationship would remain in tact until 1992, at which time it would transfer to the Facility Services Department. From that day to the present, the CEM Department would continue to grow until reaching its present complement of 24.
In addition to the main department, there are two satellite shops. One is located in the Operating Suite and the other adjacent to the Respiratory Care Department. Technicians assigned to both areas have total responsibility for a vast array of specialty equipment such as Gas Anesthesia Machines, Heart-Lung Bypass Equipment, Lasers, Patient Ventilators and Pulmonary Function Therapy Systems. The department is subdivided into five teams and it is the responsibility of these teams to provide for the equipment support service needs of all patient care departments within the Medical Center. In May of 1999, the CEM Department expanded its scope of services to include all thirteen Aegis Family Practice Clinics affiliated with North Carolina Baptist Hospital and then in 2003 the Stokes Reynolds Memorial Hospital was added to the department’s scope.
On a financial note of interest, the CEM Department is classified as both an expense and revenue producer. Unlike most CE departments, four staff members are designated as Physiological Monitoring Technicians (PMT). Their responsibilities include the completion of daily charge tickets to capture the expense associated with the Physiological and Invasive Pressure Monitoring of all patients in critical and intensive care areas. Additionally, the PMT's are trained to handle first response calls for technical support of all patient monitoring systems and other ancillary equipment on which they have received training.
