Focus on: Southern Baptist Hospital Biomedical Electronics Department

This paper describes the Biomedical Electronics Department at Southern Baptist Hospital, New Orleans, LA. The department, organized in January 1986, was established to replace an existing department which was operated under contractual agreement with a clinical equipment management company. The Biomedical Electronics Department is responsible for the preventive maintenance and repair of over 3,500 pieces of equipment, in areas ranging from dialysis to radiology and from communications to computers. The management and approval of all service contracts are handled by the department. Additional responsibilities include equipment inventory control, radio paging and nurse call system maintenance, and control of all time-and-materials services provided by biomedical equipment vendors.