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From heart-rate monitors to defibrillators, modern medicine relies on technology to save lives.
This is no less true even in the deployed environment, where medics and doctors at the 332nd Expeditionary Medical Group still operate in a mobile tent unit in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.
Staff Sgt. Ryan McGinnis, the sole biomedical equipment technician here, is charged with the maintenance and calibration of all the equipment doctors and medics rely on. He holds responsibility for everything from lab equipment and refrigerators to life-saving equipment such as defibrillators and infusion pumps.
McGinnis is also responsible for the maintenance and safety of the Expeditionary Medical Support System, which currently houses the Air Force medical staff until the construction of a new facility planned later this year.
“He is the one who maintains all our medical equipment and our facility as a whole,” said Tech. Sgt. Michael McEwan, NCO in charge of medical logistics with the 332 EMDG, who works hand-in-hand with McGinnis to ensure providers get the right equipment or replacement parts. “Especially with us being in the tents in a deployed environment, we deal with power outages and other issues – and he’s the one we rely on to make sure we get back up and running quickly.”
No matter the kind of equipment, McGinniss has serviced or checked on it according to a systematic schedule of recurring calibration and maintenance. Running electrical tests, checking temperatures and liquid volumes, the technician demands accuracy so others can rely on gear to work on-demand.
“My job is all about patient safety,” McGinnis said. “We want to make sure patients are getting treated correctly with the equipment. If our equipment doesn’t function right, patients can receive inaccurate doses or an inaccurate shock from an AED, for instance, and could possibly die.”
When he can’t find the solution to a problem himself, McGinnis consults manuals or calls manufacturers to trouble shoot directly with technicians per phone or web half a world away.
“I enjoy learning knew things,” McGinnis said. “No (biomedical equipment technician) knows every piece of equipment. We have a baseline from school, but each make and model is different. So you have to learn on the spot.”
This ability to learn quickly also allows McGinnis to get to the heart of a problem that is not easily found, as with a blood analyzer that mysteriously kept returning clearly flawed results. After checking the machine’s batteries, circuitry and internal mechanics without finding the culprit, McGinnis stepped out of his area of expertise and researched the machine on his own. Scouring websites and manufacturer information, he realized that the mistake was likely due to minor user error in the delicate procedure. He then was able to teach medical staff on the proper techniques for preparing samples to avoid future issues.
McGinnis himself is always on call – sometimes even from a computer system that alerts him remotely should the temperature in crucial refrigerator housing medication and immunizations fall below a set threshold. In an environment where outside temperature regularly exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit, even minor malfunctions could destroy valuable medical resources.
To learn about all the different equipment that falls under his purview, McGinnis’ technical school was nearly a year long, one of the longest in the Air Force, and encompassed a variety of classwork – from electrical schematics to mechanical know-how. The last weeks of training are reserved for a field training exercise – directly preparing McGinnis and his wingmen for deployed EMEDS operations.
“You have to be mechanically and electrically inclined,” McGinnis said. “I consider us mechanics for medical equipment. We have to be good at seeing how things work to put the puzzle pieces together. The most rewarding moments are when my (teammates) are happy that I fixed something and let me know I did a good job for them.”
While McGinniss is known among his teammates for his shy nature and humble approach to his duty day, his inventiveness has earned him the complimenting nickname “McGyver,” after the improvising action hero of the 1990s hit series of the same name.
“He’s is an important member of the team,” McEwan said. “You give him a task that’s not even in his job scope and he’ll figure it out. We definitely need him here and appreciate his work each and every day.”
| Date Taken: | 05.14.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 05.15.2017 07:44 |
| Story ID: | 233835 |
| Location: | (UNDISCLOSED LOCATION) |
| Hometown: | SAN ANTONIO, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 37 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Red Tails Spotlight: Biomedical equipment tech repairs, replaces vital deployed medical gear, by MSgt Alexander Riedel, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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