AAMI

professionals who burned the midnight oil to quickly set up desperately needed ventilators, prepare (and sometimes 3D-print) new personal protection equipment (PPE) for caregivers, and maintain extensively used emergency devices. “A truly heartfelt thank-you to the HTM professionals on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Your hard work, courage, diligence, and commitment to healthcare institutions and the patients they serve has been nothing short of heroic,” said Danielle McGeary, AAMI’s vice president of HTM, during the Association’s recent AAMI eXchange – a showcase, learning, and networking event aimed at HTM professionals. Building a Frontline Pipeline There’s little doubt that these are essential workers. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are an estimated 53,900 positions for medical equipment repairers, also known as biomedical equipment technicians (BMETs), in the United States alone, which fall under the HTM umbrella. In the next 10 years, employment of BMETs is projected to grow five percent, faster than the average for all U.S. occupations. And yet, many HTM departments faced this public health crisis with a shortage of personnel. AAMI’s 2020 survey of 71 healthcare organizations and a sampling of more than 7,000 HTM professionals revealed that HTM departments across the U.S. are 8.5% understaffed (open vacancies) on average. Explaining for vacancies, one-third of those organizations reported that it takes two to four months to fill a position while another 30% reported that it takes longer than four months to fill a position. What’s more, nearly half the HTM staff currently employed will soon to retire, and a worrying Crothall anesthesia service engineer Carlo Bracci, Jr., teaches the clinical anesthesia teams at each facility how to convert the units into ventilators. CURE Biomedical employees in Sunnyvale, CA, get hundreds of vital ventilators tested and ready for use. AAMI Members Ryan Garrity, BMET, (left) and Aaron Naraine, anesthesia and ventilator specialist, at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, CA, pulled a double shift to work on the anesthesia fleet.