Following the creation of the CIUSS West-Central Montreal, various newly merged internal services had to adopt a different multi-site vision. The Biomedical Engineering Department of the Jewish General Hospital, the only “Biomed” Biomedical Department of this new entity, received the mandate of providing services to the 22 sites of the group.
Immediately after the announcement of this reorganisation, the structure of the Biomed was modified to support all the facilities. To this end, a centralised and cross-functional multisite approach partnership, centered on the patient was established with the various resources in the community.
The CAVENDISH experience
Taking into consideration the available Biomed resources and the extensive geographic area, we could not deploy our services to the various sites. Instead, we reached a shared service agreement for first line services with the Material Resource Department of the Cavendish CSSS. Key employees working at each site were identified and received a first line training enabling them to diagnose and fix minor problems for most of their equipment. For more complicated issues, the equipment is sent by internal mail and the second line Biomed does the repair.
OTHER SITES
For sites without any key employees, a phone support is available 24/7 and, if needed, the equipment can be sent for repair by internal mail. We also created an e-mail address for the Biomed service (biomed.service.ccomtl@ssss.gouv.qc.ca ) to facilitate communication outside the JGH and centralise all service requests.
For emergencies, a Technician in Biomedical Engineering will go the facility. As well, for stationary, large or heavy equipment that cannot be sent by internal mail, Biomed made an agreement with the union to allow the technician to work outside of normal business hours.
FUTUR
We are progressively implementing this new vision, and are confident to be able to extend and adapt the Cavendish model to every other site. The next step will be to take over the preventive maintenance of all the CIUSSS equipment and to consolidate the management of the medical equipment, for which there is various CIUSSS West-Central Montreal programs.
We are also working on launching a web portal to help users follow-up on repair requests. This new computer-based tool (Tricolor) is already used in some Hospital departments.
And, let’s not forget about the Medical equipment replacement plan, which is well under way.
