Clinical Engineering Vital to Patient Care, says Thomas Health System COO

Have you ever wondered how important clinical engineering is to the real end-users–the hospital patients? Dan Lauffer of Thomas Health System belives it is vital. He approaches his work as Chief Operating Officer of Thomas Health System through the perspective of two of his earlier careers—clinical engineering and direct patient care.

Mr. Lauffer values the human side of biomedical equipment management.“Being a physician’s assistant and a clinician has helped me understand exactly why administrators should value clinical engineering,” said Mr. Lauffer. “I was in the operating room when a flood of technology came through, and I started seeing fiber optic cables and light sources and high resolution TVs.” He realized that the innovative technology in the clinical setting also needs competent care.“The bar is continually being raised in terms of our ability to have a safe environment for the patients that we care for,” he explained.

ISS Solutions works with Mr. Lauffer and other Thomas administrators and staff members to keep everything running as safely and smoothly as possible.

Because of the frontline impact that all hospital staff members have on patient experience, a compassionate clinical engineering team is a high priority for Mr. Lauffer. “The interesting thing about customer service in the hospital setting is that you don’t need to be a direct caregiver to impact patient experiences,” said Mr. Lauffer. “Many, many times, patients will have an issue with the care that they are receiving, and when they express a desire or a complaint, often it’s to the wrong person. If it’s a care issue, many times it’s not to the nurse; it might be to housekeeping, it might to the clinical engineering technician that happens to be in the room.”

Thomas Health System appreciated ISS Solutions’ caring technicians, who don’t just use mechanical or practical knowledge, but also bring out the healing, human side of clinical engineering equipment management—which is exactly what Mr. Lauffer does as Thomas’ Chief Operating Officer.