Hospital engineers are professionals who are not very well known by the general public and, sometimes, even by healthcare staff themselves. Part of the widespread lack of understanding of what hospital engineering is is due to the fact that, until before the COVID-19 pandemic and the shortage of certain equipment, people unfamiliar with clinical practice still held the idea of a doctor who was expected to diagnose and cure with little more than the help of a stethoscope, some X-rays, and a laboratory for samples.
On the other hand, the fact that the tasks of resource management and handling of software used in clinical centers fell to different professionals—such as industrial engineers or computer programmers—who received additional training to be able to carry out their work in the hospital setting did not help the profession become well known either, because where is it studied?
Contenidos
What is hospital engineering?
The COVID-19 pandemic opened many people’s eyes: without diagnostic or life-support machines, such as artificial ventilators, a patient’s life can slip away before the eyes of a doctor who is perfectly trained to perform their duties but depends on that equipment. Who makes these devices? Engineers specialized in medical equipment design the devices and oversee their production at manufacturing plants, as well as their transportation.
On the other hand, within hospitals or healthcare centers, other healthcare engineers optimize the distribution of available resources as if it were an industrial plant, trying to provide solutions to problems in the hospital environment: rapid response in the event of an accident, multichannel communication in patient–nurse calls, and smooth operation across all aspects of healthcare communication.
Advantages of hospital engineering
A healthcare facility that has experts in hospital engineering is more efficient in patient care, while also supporting healthcare professionals in the performance of their work. Waiting lists are reduced, and hospital stays become more humane for patients and their companions.
It is not just about a more striking design or better use of space, nor is it simply about having the most modern equipment when the existing one has not reached the end of its useful life or when there are no trained professionals to operate it: that is not engineering, because it is not enough to solve real problems.
Hospital engineering is a healthcare discipline that professionals from different backgrounds can enter, most of them coming from various engineering fields. Their work includes ensuring proper climate control and water flow, correct ventilation, and that sterilization processes do not fail, as well as carrying out inspections and maintenance of both software and hardware present in a healthcare facility—from electricity to gas flow, such as oxygen-enriched air for patients who are unable to breathe on their own.
In the same way that medicine has become so specialized that it is now humanly impossible for a single doctor to have trained in all specialties—and cooperation between different professionals and departments is therefore necessary—the same applies to hospital engineering. In addition, hospital engineers need to be familiar with medical jargon and the way a hospital operates, which can vary from one center to another. Just as with diseases and patients, each case—each hospital—must be studied individually: available investment resources, the human staff on hand, training of healthcare professionals in the use of new diagnostic instruments and medical devices that may appear with different designs, and even each center’s priorities.
The patient profile in a university hospital is different, for example, from that of a healthcare residence for elderly people. The demographic characteristics of a population may make a reassignment of resources advisable in order to achieve a more agile hospital. Nor should we overlook the legal and ethical aspects that arise when a new device or a new technique is introduced.
Limiting oneself, as was done in the past, to ensuring the proper use of a hospital’s facilities and equipment is a practice that has become obsolete. On top of that, some hospitals have adapted better than others to this new reality, or are better prepared to deal with unforeseen events today. However, the quality of healthcare cannot be a matter of chance in which the lucky patient ends up in the best-adapted hospital; all healthcare centers must be brought up to date.
Some will require more work and greater investment than others. Some may already have certain tasks well covered—for example, because they were built recently—while others may become overwhelmed by current and future demographic shifts.
Now that you know what hospital engineering is, we can say that it is such a multidisciplinary field that it has not yet been possible to offer a specific university degree, because it requires many professionals from independent areas who are trained to work as a team. An engineer can think of it as analogous to assembling and commissioning an industrial plant. For a hospital director, it may be more difficult to anticipate the problems that need to be taken into account until it is too late and they have already arisen.
If you need guidance on the status of a healthcare center from the perspective of hospital engineering, or if you are aware of the need for improvements in healthcare communication, contact us so we can explain the options available to you and advise you when choosing the best hospital engineering teams.
