The Medical Equipment Specialist

During the 1970's and 80's there was a boom in hospital construction in the oil-rich countries of the Middle East. This was especially the case in Saudi Arabia, where modern healthcare services were to be brought to a population thinly scattered over a large area.

Local firms of architects and engineers were engaged as consultants to check the designs and supervise the work on behalf of clients, who were usually government agencies such as the Ministry of Health. In those early days, it was required that local Architectural and Engineering firms were to be in joint venture with international ones.

These local firms employed engineers and inspectors from the traditional trade disciplines (civil, electrical, mechanical etc.), and also a "Medical Equipment Specialist" to take care of the hospital equipment side of things.

The terms "Hospital Equipment Project Engineer" and "Equipment Inspector" are probably more accurate, but "Medical Equipment Specialist" prevailed. It is almost as much of a misnomer as "Biomedical Engineer"!

The following, taken from a job advertisement, gives a good idea of what it was all about:-

"Medical Equipment Specialist. A qualified engineer or equivalent who can supervise contractors and sub-contractors who will be installing all the medical equipment and services into a ... bed hospital in ... . Initially, the successful candidate will review the contractor's and sub-contractors' submittals including equipment specifications, redesigns and drawings. Later on the candidate will supervise installation and witness commissioning tests on behalf of the client at site".

Whatever he is called, such an engineer is part:-

Architect
Biomedical Engineer
Computer Programmer
Computer User
Designer
Electrical Engineer
Hospital Design Engineer
Inspector - all disciplines!
Mechanical Engineer
Medical Planner
Quantity Surveyor
Planning Engineer

A "Jack of all trades" perhaps, with "A little bit of knowledge ... "!!

Knowledge Needed

Kitchens (enough to be able to design {"lay-out" individual pieces of equipment} on 1:50 floor plan and calculate equipment sizes, capacities and quantities).

Laundries (enough to be able to design {"lay-out" individual pieces of equipment} on 1:50 floor plan and calculate equipment sizes, capacities and quantities).

Skills Needed

Drawing
Specification writing

Themes and Concepts

1) The Hospital as a System
2) ...

Work Carried Out

Reviews
Inspections