CME Insider's Blog Posts

CME Corp has been a member of the Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA) for 40+ years and HIDA has been a great partner for us. HIDA is the national trade association for healthcare distributors. Nearly 100% of patient procedures and patient diagnoses involve medical products bought from a distributor. The members operate 500+ distribution centers, delivering medical supplies and equipment the last mile to hospitals, physician offices, nursing homes, laboratories, and home health agencies. HIDA supports and promotes distributors to be the best they can. Here are three ways HIDA has helped through the years.

Let us review the logistics necessary to complete a procedure or operation in the healthcare setting whether it is in the hospital or in an outpatient setting. The patient is prepped in one room, on a stretcher. The patient is moved to the OR and transferred to a surgery table. After the procedure, the patient is transferred to another stretcher or recliner for the recovery period. This process requires at least two patient transfers, lifting of the patient, and multiple healthcare workers to accomplish. Using a TransMotion (TMM) Stretcher-Chair can save a facility time and money. The stretcher-chair is a transfer stretcher, surgery/procedure table, and recovery recliner all-in-one that creates a no-lift, no-transfer, safe, clean, and very efficient operating room (OR).

Acute Care facilities require their medical devices to provide certain benefits and features, and scales are no exception. Hospitals are always looking for products that improve workflow, are easy to use, keep patients and caregivers safe, and are cost-effective. When deciding on medical scales, hospitals need to take all these patient variables into consideration.

Of all the vital signs, blood pressure (BP) measurement has perhaps the strongest connection to point of care diagnosis, patient risk stratification and medication dosing. These critical factors of care management are essential to precise decision-making tied to better patient outcomes. Because of its centrality in care and clinical outcomes, it is essential for BP measurement to be accurate, consistent and repeatable.

In honor of Military Appreciation month, we'd like to introduce you to John Waller; one of our Regional Services Managers out of our Warwick, RI Headquarters.John is currently serving in the United States Air Force and has been for the past seven years. He’s been deployed internationally to Peacetime and Wartime missions with his last being Senegal, Africa in 2021. He was deployed here to assist in COVID-19 efforts, biomedical engineering operations as well as surgery and emergency room operations.

Physical Therapy (PT) can be used for many health issues including pain management, improved mobility, and rehabilitation to name a few. When building a new PT clinic, it is important to know which conditions will be diagnosed and treated as well as having a checklist of all equipment available for those conditions. Dynatronics and Hausmann, leaders in high-quality restorative products, developed a comprehensive checklist to outfit your new PT clinic.

Blood is central to life. And since blood cannot be manufactured or produced, donors are fully relied upon to supply and sustain blood reserves. But once blood is acquired, how is it stored? This core question is being re-examined in the medical world as questions surface surrounding the safety and preservation ability of blood storage equipment. Blood storage certainly deserves a closer look.

Opening a new medical facility on-time is always challenging. An MCD (Medical Construction & Design) survey in 2018 said that less than 50% of all projects open on time. If we did that poll today, it would even be less, given all the supply chain delays. One common problem when opening any healthcare facility is completing all the biomedical asset-tagging and ESIs (Electrical Safety Inspections) required in a timely fashion. These biomedical check-ins cannot happen until items are delivered and installed in rooms, which is typically near the end of the project. New healthcare facilities have anywhere from 1,000-4,000 pieces of new equipment that require biomedical attention.

Let’s talk about rust, your silent threat to infection control. Rust can wreak havoc on hospital’s moveable medical equipment, surgical instruments and other equipment that is often wiped down with tough healthcare cleaners. The Joint Commission and Center for Medicare and Medicaid services are now on the lookout for rust in your facility, which makes it crucial to prevent and address rust on your medical surfaces.