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Biomedical equipment technician

Ryan Farrell | August 2024

Maggie Berkey

What’s your job title?

I’m a senior biomedical equipment technician, or BMET. The umbrella term you might hear for workers in my field is “healthcare technology management professional.”

What do you do?

I install, maintain, and repair medical equipment in a hospital. In a nutshell, I’m a medical equipment “doctor.” I am responsible for all equipment that touches a patient.

Some BMETs specialize in a type of equipment, such as ventilators or infusion pumps, and focus solely on repairing and completing preventive maintenance activities, or PMs, on those machines. But I’m the only BMET at our hospital, and I’m responsible for over 1,000 pieces of equipment.

I typically inspect each piece of equipment every 12 months, or at some other set interval, and test it using a simulator to give known values. If any incorrect values come back, the machine may need to be recalibrated, have a part replaced, or have the entire machine replaced.

What does a typical day look like?

I’m not sure about “typical,” because I’ve never had two days that were the same, but I can usually sketch out a general plan for the day.

For example, I have a set number of PMs that must be done each month. Some PMs might take only 5 minutes and be primarily a visual inspection. More complex equipment, such as radiology machines, might take all day. If I have 100 PMs to complete this month, with 25 working days in the month, I know I need to get a certain number completed each day.

I have to balance PMs with repairs that come up. Every time we get new equipment—whether it’s a rental, a loaner, or something that the hospital purchased—I do a safety check, add it to our system and inventory, and determine how often it needs to be tested moving forward.

I check in with other departments and work to establish a rapport with them, which helps me get more usable information when equipment fails. I’ll also use this time to visually inspect equipment and complete followup validation testing on recently repaired equipment.

Describe some of your other tasks.

I wear a lot of hats.

Documentation is a huge part of our work. It’s not just changing the light bulb of a machine; it’s also documenting the light-bulb change.

I also have to find ways to appropriately dispose of equipment, because it’s considered medical waste. It can’t be thrown in a dumpster.

I may assist with training nursing staff on the use of equipment. This could be either new equipment or refresher training if we’ve seen a trend of equipment failures.

Finally, I sit on a few committees at our hospital. I’m on the safety, the environmental care, and the capital planning committees.

How did you learn about this career?

I originally went to school for laser technology and learned about the BMET program while completing my associate’s degree in laser technology. I worked in laser technology for a few years but ended up transitioning to nursing and working as a CNA [clinical nursing assistant] as laser technology work became limited.

I liked working in healthcare and helping people as a CNA, but I really didn’t have any desire to work as a nurse. Fixing or healing people is really hard. A nurse could give two patients the same medication and get two very different results, whereas a BMET can fix any equipment if we have the right tools, parts, and instructions. I ended up going back to school and completing the associate’s degree program for biomedical equipment technicians.

Tell me more about your career path.

My first job after getting my BMET degree was at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, where I was 1 of 10 BMETs at the hospital. It was a huge facility, and it was a great introduction to a variety of medical equipment.

After that, I was more of a working manager at a critical access hospital. I worked with one other BMET and was responsible for all the PMs and had some other administrative responsibilities.

I then went into education and taught students in the BMET program at a community college. After a few years in education, I decided to go back into the field, and I’m now back at a critical access hospital.

I’ve always worked for hospitals or independent service organizations, but some BMETs work for manufacturers. They become experts on one or two pieces of equipment. I’m more of a jack-of-all-trades.

What skills or qualities do you need to be successful in this line of work?

Mechanical skills are helpful, as we’re fixing machines or equipment. Time management: We have to balance those repairs with our PMs.

Communication skills are huge. We don’t talk tech to a customer, but we have to make sure they know enough about a problem to get to a resolution.

Curiosity and problem-solving, or you should like to tinker. Sometimes you’ve never seen a certain kind of machine before, and now you’ve got to fix it.

What advice would you give to someone interested in this occupation?

Just go for it. This field is such a hidden gem. I have the coolest job ever, hands down, but many people don’t know about it. Getting into it really is the best thing that ever happened to me. There’s not a lot of school required, and paid apprenticeships exist. In my opinion, it pays well.

Schedule- and challenge-wise, there really is something for everyone. If someone wants to work nights, a job exists for them; there’s also on-call work. Working for a manufacturer might give someone more similar day-to-day tasks, while work in a hospital provides new challenges every day.

Speaking of challenges, what are some of the biggest you see in your work?

As I noted previously, sometimes you have to fix a machine you’ve never seen before. When that happens, I’ll observe how the nurses use it and ask questions about how the machine fails or what mode it goes into when they turn it on.

Sometimes I deal with equipment that’s really hard to fix. The good news is that I have other resources I can turn to. I’ve got the manufacturer to help me. I’ve got the service manual. Other technicians. So I’m never really on my own.

What do you like best?

Being able to help people. I feel as though I’m a meaningful part of society. The adventurous part of me also loves that no two days are the same.

It’s also huge to me that this field is new enough that those of us in it today are helping to shape what it will look like tomorrow. Things like AI [artificial intelligence], cybersecurity, alarm management—they’re changing the framework of biomedical technology. And we’re just getting started.