Page 35 - GlobalCE 1st Special Issue

Garcia-Ibarra, Berrio, Trujillo-Toro, Salazar and Garcia: Regional Nodes of Colombian Clinical Engineers

ResUlts transference. As a result, every day, clinical engineers
Currently we have work leaders composed of 12 clini- are looking to be part of the network on behalf of their
cal engineers from 8 high-complexity hospitals, which are institutions and universities that provide academic and
recognized because they have national accreditation and methodological support to the network. Table 1 shows the
JCI accreditation, as well as successful experiences in MEM.
TABlE 1. Current Composition of the Regional Nodes
These 12 engineers are leading and maintaining 6
Region Clinical Engineers Hospitals Universities
Regional Nodes of Colombian clinical engineering (Figure
2): Center Node: Bogotá, Cundinamarca and departments Bogotá 60 40 2
of the center of the country; South West Node: Valle del
Antioquia 40 20 5
Cauca, Cauca, Nariño; Antioquia Node; Santanderes Node:
Santander and North of Santander; Caribean Coast Node: Southwest 55 35 2
Colombia
Atlántico, Bolívar, Cesar, Córdoba, La Guajira, Magdalena,
Sucre; and Coffee Triangle Area Node. Santanderes 25 10 2
Coffee 30 20 1
Triangle Area
Caribbean 30 15 1
Coast

current composition of the Regional Nodes in relation to
the number of clinical engineers, health care institutions,
and universities which are part of the network.
Strengthening of the Regional Nodes has resulted in a
positive impact on the MEM around the country, such as:
• Continuous training in Colombian regulations.
• Cooperation relationships among participants.

• Institutional referencing to improve processes.
• Positioning of clinical engineers as the main stake-
holders in MEM.

• Institutional strengthening of the MoHSP in health
care technologies field.

• Better health care for patients.
• Accessibility of MEM information.
• Improving efficiency of the MEM process in regional
and local hospitals.
• Collaboration with the MoHSP in the validation of
the Equipment Evaluation, Maintenance and Obso-
Figure 2. Colombian Nodes map. lescence Manual.

• Contribution on the development of a proposal for
Networking has proven to be an effective method to
“mandatory requirements for the medical equipment
optimize resources, create and strengthen communication management” for public and private hospitals and
channels, share MEM experiences, and facilitate knowledge clinics, blood banks, and public health laboratories.

35 J Global Clinical Engineering Special Issue 1: 33-36; 2018