Volume 19, Number 7________________________________________April & May 2001

Message from the President

Hello everyone,

Thanks to the help of Lisa Davis of Mennen Medical and Tim Benkovic of Welch Allyn, the March meeting was a success. I personally want to thank these two for giving a very informative meeting and taking the time to host the meeting for the BMETS.

There are only two meetings left to finish the year. This does not leave us much time to find new officers. Brian Zelubowski made an announcement at the March meeting that he would officially run for the office of Vice President. Any member who is willing to take an office, can contact any officer at the meetings, or send an email stating which position you are interested in. The list of candidates will be stated at the May meeting and voted on that night.

This year the BMETS calendar is extended into June. Don't forget the AAMI conference June 9-12th. Shirley Nicum dropped by the March meeting to give us an update on the conference. Anyone interested in helping out, please contact Candace. She will be keeping in touch with Shirley on the schedules for the conference. Early bird deadline is April 26, 2001.

Well, that's all I have for now. Enjoy life and find the time for a BMET meeting.

Letter from the Vice President

As you know B.M.E.T.S. is co-hosting the AAMI convention in Baltimore 2001. I am excited that we are able to get national recognition as well as being a part of AAMI convention advertisements. We will have an exhibit booth in the registration area. Posters and a video of greetings from several BMET departments and companies within the society will be shown. I would like to have a poster of members attending a BMETS meeting as well. Pictures will be taken at the April meeting, I hope you will be attending.

I am asking volunteers to have their pictures taken and to be video taped giving a greeting while in their department or while attending a BMETS meeting. Some of you have already volunteered, thank you. Shirley Nicum, from AAMI, informed me that we would get to pick which sessions we, as an organization, would like to be room monitor for. We have to get in line with the ACCE, NCBA and the VBA. Therefore, I am not sure of our place but I am hopeful that we will get first choice.

I will have sign up sheets at the April meeting. Supervisors, I encourage you to not only let your people off to attend the conference but also encourage your people to sign up and help our organization. I would like to hear from more of you. I can be contacted via web site www.BMETS.org, then click on E-mail the Vice President or call me direct 410-987-4001.

Remember BMETS members who are not AAMI members are able to get into the convention at the AAMI member price. If some of your colleagues are not BMETS members, encourage them to attend the next couple of meetings to sign up. It cost a lot less to sign up to be a BMETS member then to sign up for AAMI.

I look forward to hearing form you. See you in April.

Candace Keaton
Vice President, BMETS

SPECIAL DEPARTMENT MANAGERS MEETING

Last month Bill Rea of Anne Arundel Health System, Inc. expressed a desire to hold a Department Managers meeting in conjunction with April's BMETS meeting. This meeting will serve as a starting point to gather data for a local BMET job survey that will include job descriptions and salaries for our technicians. Bill is concerned, as many of you may be, that many hospital H.R. departments do not recognize what the lack of technicians, in an increasingly demanding market, is doing to pay scales. With information gathered from this meeting we may be better armed in our fight to keep quality employees and, in the hiring process, to be more equitable to our experienced BMETS.

Department Managers please bring to the April meeting a brief job description, education requirements, and salary ranges for positions at your facility.

Additional data will be gathered over the summer and placed in summary review in the BMETS newsletter. No hospital or shared service affiliation will be identified. We are not interested in facility names, just a fair pay scale for our BMETS.

Anyone who can not make the meeting can send the information to Bill Rea at brea@AAHS.org or 410.267.1157

ALL INFORMATION WILL BE HELD STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL