From the coast of Kuwait...military BMETs face daunting tasks.

Abstract

Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology 235 Chief Hospital Corpsman Frank Cabrera is head of biomedical engineering aboard the U.S. Naval Ship, Comfort T-AH 20, a highly-mobile, 1,000-bed surgical platform stationed off the coast of Kuwait. During the recent U.S. military mission in Iraq, Cabrera and his crew were responsible for scheduled and unscheduled maintenance on 3,600 pieces of medical equipment with net assets valued at $4.5 million. Talk about a logistical challenge. Although U.S. ships and soldiers in the field maintained support units in nearby cities or countries, those units were only as good as the supplies that were available. “You can’t just pick up the phone and call for a repair part to be flown out to your location,” said Cabrera, a certified biomedical equipment technician (CBET) and certified radiology equipment specialist (CRES). For BMETs serving in the military, the pressures to perform quick and precise maintenance on medical equipment are magnified by the intensity and unforgiving nature of a wartime setting. And the stakes are high. On the USNS Comfort, for example, 166 coalition casualties, 120 enemy prisoners of war, and 138 civilian casualties were treated, so the ability to restock supplies was vital to everyone involved in the war effort. It normally takes 2 to 3 weeks for a package to be delivered to the ship. Even when an order is placed with the highest priority on the military logistics chain, materials take about 7 days for delivery. So to compensate for shipping delays, Cabrera said the availability of an extensive repair parts inventory was crucial—for both high and low mortality equipment. Cabrera’s advice is to be properly prepared, and prioritize repair-part inventory according to criticality. His inventory aboard the USNS Comfort is vast. It ranges from a GE Pro-speed Computerized Tomography Unit and 4 GE Advantx Legacy Digital X-ray rooms to 2 Philips C-arms and 5 AMX-4 portable X-ray units. He also has 2 Acuson ultrasound machines; Johnson and Johnson Vitros 950 and 250 chemistry analyzer; Coulter ACT DIFF2 coagulation analyzer; 8 blood freezers; and complete surgical services for 14 operating rooms. From the Coast of Kuwait . . .