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When medical equipment needs fine-tuning, an update or a repair, Osler’s Biomedical Engineering team is only a phone call away. Working exclusively behind the scenes, the team is extensively trained to ensure every piece of medical technology that enters our hospitals is working at its best.
We spoke to Aakashdeep Dhillon, Biomedical Technologist at Brampton Civic, about his role and its direct impact on patient care.
Tell us about your role.
With anything involving medical devices within the hospital, we are the first line of defense for front line staff. We’re responsible for the repairs and preventative maintenance for all medical devices in our hospitals. This includes in-service education with front line staff and also ensuring all devices are meeting quality and risk standards, according to our policies, provincial and Health Canada’s standards.
We make sure to stay on top of warranties and are not only trained internally, but also by the vendors who make the devices. We are present through every step of a medical device’s life at Osler and are always available for staff to reach out if they have any questions or concerns.
What kind of medical devices do you work with?
Every piece of medical equipment coming through our doors is checked by our team to ensure they meet our standards for quality and safety. These devices can range enormously in size, cost and function.
From pule oximeters to ventilators to ultrasound units, we use our expertise to manage the installation and maintenance.
How does your team work together?
14 of us (12 biomedical technologists plus our manager and director) span across all three of our sites. We have a 24/7 on-call schedule, so one of us is available any time of day to assist if needed. We want our clinical staff to be as comfortable as possible with the equipment and not let the equipment make their jobs more difficult.
The support we provide for clinical staff, and indirectly for patients, is incredibly important to our team. We try our best to be as helpful as possible and always be present when they need us. I have to mention that our management does the same for our team and they always facilitate such a positive team environment.
When there is a problem, what steps do you take to fix it?
First thing’s first, we speak with the team about the issue they are experiencing and then head to the unit.
Once we’ve identified the problem, we get to work to fix it. Sometimes we will get in touch with the vendors who come into the hospital to help resolve the problem. We are present throughout their visit for any troubleshooting and we’ll get the service report from them regarding what was done, or what needs to be done to fix it. We keep track of everything and follow up with the team once the problems have been resolved.
How important is your relationship with staff?
We work very hard to build a positive rapport with clinical staff. We build those relationships right off the bat because we want them to feel comfortable and know we will get them the help they need without judgement.
Knowing we do our best every day to ensure they can do theirs is very rewarding.
How would you say you impact patient care?
We often joke that the machines are our patients. But it goes much deeper than that. Keeping the machines functioning perfectly means ensuring the patients using them are receiving the best possible treatment they can.
We don’t take this lightly - by keeping the machines running well, we are keeping them safe. The buck starts and stops at patient safety.
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