With a passion for excellence and integrity, Terry is a biomedical engineer at the University of Maryland Medical System. Most people may not realize his role requires great integrity when ensuring medical devices work efficiently in the hospital. Terry says he works behind the scenes maintaining the devices but still positively impacts a patient’s care.
What does a biomedical engineer do in a hospital?
Terry says, “We are biomedical engineering. Our job is to maintain all of the medical devices. I say medical devices, are any devices used to provide care for a patient when they come to the front door. We ensure that the machinery works. So we actually go out. We maintain all these devices on a monthly basis.”
Can you share how your role is very hands-on?
“For instance, this month, we have 400 different pieces that we’re responsible for maintaining and updating all the records. That’s what you see me doing now. And we put approval stickers on there and we sign off on.”
If you ever have to go into the emergency room and you see a piece of equipment in there that you’re attached to—might be a vital signs monitor—you can look on the side. And if you see T.V.A. you know, Terry worked on it. It’s a lot of responsibility, but it’s an enjoyable process for me.”
Can you tell us what it means to have integrity in your everyday responsibilities?
“Nobody walks around with me and watches what I do. When we work on this equipment, we could literally walk in there and just put a sticker on it and walk on out. So the integrity portion of it is where we are not being watched—but we are the watchers. We’re here to ensure that when a doctor, or a nurse, or any other technician uses a piece of equipment, it’s in proper state. So any failure, of course, could cost somebody their life, so that’s where integrity plays a major part in that.”
Can you tell us about the memorable time your son visited the hospital emergency department and saw your name?
“I’ve had to bring my own family into the emergency room. My son (our youngest), I had to bring in one day and the nurse who knew me came and she waited on him and then she went out to get the doctor and I was sitting there talking to my son. I said, ‘So what do you see up there on that monitor, the vital signs, monitor that he was connected to?’
He said, ‘I see the yellow stick up there from biomed engineering.’
I said, ‘Exactly. What else do you see?’
He said, ‘I see your initials.’
I said, ‘Exactly. I make sure everything works because I never know whether I have to bring my own family in here.’
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