Bearded Biomed

A No Filter Mantra With Healthcare

September 21, 2022 Chace Torres/ Jinesh Patel Season 2 Episode 11
Bearded Biomed
A No Filter Mantra With Healthcare
Show Notes Transcript

I am joined by CEO of Uptime Health Jinesh Patel and purveyor of the #NoFilterHealthcare  podcast hosted by Taylor & Tamara. We discuss the state of providing Biomeds services to all manner of medical facilities, challenges we face, right to repair, and more.


FDA Report: https://www.fda.gov/media/113431/download

I highly encourage you to check out their podcast below: 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJEYWjZ27ABdNIa1WAw2iyA

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5vgiDBhUYzJbhowX59tIHP?si=c5824213f6cf4818

Watch the video podcast on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLisOVWzYA0rq9UrYCz7fU7HNBjXgwc8DG

Chace Torres:

welcome back all my bearded guys and gals that listen to the show, appreciate you being here with us today. So I have someone that was kind enough to let me come on to their podcasts. And of course, you know, I'm sure he's more than willing to talk about it so we can get you over there listening to what they're putting out. But today I am joined by Jeannette Patel. I appreciate you being here, sir. It's I had a lot of fun during our conversation on your podcast. And I would love for you to just you know, let the listeners the watchers get an idea of what uptime health does the podcast and just kind of like the journey where you're at today.

Jinesh Patel:

I appreciate it. Chace, thanks for having me. Yeah, just some context, about uptime health, our company is trying to automate or turnkey how outpatient ambulatory facilities manage their medical equipment. We know they do a poor job of it today. So we want to provide them with the software to really help them understand what to do with their devices, who to call when it breaks down, and really just create a simpler process for him. As part of the company, and some of the promotion we do, we have a podcast called no filter healthcare. And we just bring on interesting people in the industry to talk about their perspectives, what they see loved having you on to you know, as a biomed, engineer myself, getting to talk to somebody else who lived and breathed some of the things that I did back before I helped the company that was always fun. So I appreciate you coming on.

Chace Torres:

It was a good combo, hit, we'd kind of got into a lot in a short amount of time. So to start off, your you came out guns blazing. So I would love to hear how medical devices aren't being taken, you know, managed properly, as you alluded to, would you mind going a little bit more depth with that?

Jinesh Patel:

Yeah, and I'm not trying to throw anyone under the bus, because I really believe people would do if they knew what to do for these devices in these settings. But one of the things I learned early, going to urgent cares, and even surgical centers and dental practices, optometry practices, all these places with medical equipment that provides patient care. A lot of them especially in these smaller arenas, they're just run and operated by doctors, nurses, assistants, staff members, you don't really see a biomed in that department structure, it might not make sense for them to even add on, right, they might only have 100 A piece. So I have a full time person that rely on these outpatient or valleys, like outsource vendors to do this work. And, you know, even then they don't really understand what's required of the machines. When technicians on site, ask him, Hey, have you done this to this machine yet? Or what kind of maintenance plan is actually on this device, and they don't have great answers. So I want them to be able to feel confident in how they manage the equipment. But every client that's come to us today hasn't really had much starting out. And I actually applaud them for trying to get better at it. The whole reason they're using us is because they understand they need to be better. So I applaud them for moving in that direction. But it's definitely kind of scary to see what's out there.

Chace Torres:

Yeah, you know, it's funny. With our company, we just recently we got reached out to buy a hospital, just out in the middle of nowhere. This is a very rural s l tap. And from what we gather is they don't have an actual inventory of what equipment they have. The inventory they sent us does not match what they say they do or don't do. And that tells me two things. One is what is the biomed doing? Because they have a full time bomb. And we'll get into that in a second. The second thing is they if you don't know what you have, how are you servicing that? How are you doing the preventive maintenance? How are you ensuring calibrations, batteries reporting all of that are where they need to be. And part of this goes into what I just alluded to is the biomed they have I don't think he's an act Roll biomed I think he's probably mechanic or maybe an electrician or something like that, that they're using to, you know, Band Aid things together when they need it to. The second thing is, when you're getting into medical device compliance, for instance, Texas, I would say we're probably one of the more heavier regulated states when it comes to like Joint Commission, DMV State Surveys, etc. This particular hospital is in Oklahoma. And as far as I'm aware, it's just state survey, you don't have to deal with all the compliance stuff, because most hospitals out there, they don't go after the accreditation, which that's a whole nother thing entirely. For the listener, or watcher may or may not know, you know, the accreditation comes with funding through Medicaid, Medicare services that really give another leg up and an edge to a hospital to facilitate better rounds and better levels of care for a patient. And that hasn't really been the case, from what I've came across in Oklahoma, because I was actually born there, I have family there, I'm very familiar with the medical infrastructure of Oklahoma. So I'm not just speaking out of my ass. But it's a little bit of the Wild West, when it comes to medical device regulation. And tying this back to what you were talking about is, you know, we can put all of this on top of the facility itself, not having the knowledge of how to manage medical devices. But this also goes to, for instance, the ISO companies, like the one I'm a part of, this is where you step in, and, you know, share your knowledge and obviously do the due diligence to do good by these facilities. A lot of these people, they don't even know what a biomed is, or what are responsibilities, what are, you know, at the end of the day, the biomed is used for taking care of medical equipment, helping with accreditation, and, you know, fixing stuff. Most of the time people just look as Okay, who do we call to fix this, but the accreditation and the reporting, is where people get into trouble a lot. And I'm assuming that's a big thing that you've run into a lot, too, is they don't know, you know, what are the inspection levels? Like what equipment has to be checked? You know, during the sink intervals? Is it an annual inspection? Is it semi? What, you know, how in depth? Is it? What's required? Because, you know, the servicing or like, let's say, an anesthesia unit is going to far surpass, like, a blood pressure monitor. Yeah, but I'm just curious, you know, what, what kind of do you have any particular things that you can, you know, recollect of what you've came across out there in the wilderness?

Jinesh Patel:

Now, it's, I mean, I go to the same, it's, you go into most of our clients, they honestly don't have even an accurate inventory roster. And like you mentioned, how do you manage what you don't know you even own? You can't have an accurate program at that level. But the biggest thing is some of some of them, you know, they, they believe they're doing the right thing. And when you try and tell them, you know, otherwise, it's a little bit of a friction moment. Because, one, you just told them, You haven't been doing it right for years before me. And it's like this moment of realization that, oh, my goodness, like I might have actually affect patient care poorly. And they don't want to admit that, you know, they want to kind of stand their ground saying, you know, we don't we don't have to be annual this, we don't have to do some who are

Chace Torres:

who are you to tell me I'm doing it wrong, right?

Jinesh Patel:

No, this practice, I know, health care, who are you, you know, kind of situation? That's exactly right. So I run into everything you just mentioned. And at the end of the day, the best thing we can tell them is, we're here to help you, we're not here to punish you. we're held to help you like level up and get you to that next sense of I'm here, like you mentioned, people have accreditation, people have other regulatory bodies, ensuring their quality of care and their standard of care is high. And those are the people that really take pride in and if they're trying to go for it, but at the same time, those who don't. Those are the people that we kind of run run up against and try and let them know you're just not doing things correctly. We would love for you to reduce the breakdowns, you can increase the patient volumes and increased service everything everybody wins at that level.

Chace Torres:

But you know, the number one hurdle that we come across time and time again, are two things, one, the stubbornness of the person that has been managing this whether you know, through ignorance or just, you know, blind not paying attention to it. And they just like you said, they can't accept that you have a different perspective or maybe a completely different take on how they're managing their medical device. It says, and sometimes people will take offense to that, or maybe it scares them or, you know, maybe a combination of both. But at the end of the day, that leads down to cost. And, you know, fret that hospital that brought up a minute ago, the cost of what they're using to do what they're doing now is pennies on the dollar compared to what it actually takes to maintain that level of service reporting, full full time technician, the the repairs the all of it. Yeah. And I believe when you start throwing quotes out there for what it's actually going to take to get them in, you know, respectable, regulatory compliance. That's when stuff gets tricky. And, you know, you have a company that has been doing this deals with the regulator's knows exactly what the expectations are. And as opposed to wanting to spend the money to get there, they'll go run after, you know, a mom and pop ISO service. And that's, we keep running into this time and time again, but you know, a lot of hospitals, we have closures, a lot of the critical access hospitals, l tax, the you know, because they're spread all throughout Texas, speaking specifically COVID really hurt people, medical facilities in, in general in these rural areas that I'm just talking about specifically. And those closures are a direct hindrance of they did not have the ability to bring in patients they did not have the funding from because they're not accredited. Or maybe they lost their accreditation, there's a whole plethora of stuff. It's kind of like a, it's been an interesting couple of years, especially when you just take all those factors in just kind of compile them and look back and like, wow, this is this is kind of changed the landscape a little bit.

Jinesh Patel:

Yeah, I think when you hit it, hit it on the head a little bit with the things we run into get run into when we talk to new people, it's this cost, but you never paid this much before we never even had a process. So why are we paying for it now? And getting over that hurdle? So the biggest way that we combat that is we go to their CFOs. And we go to their operators, we ask them the simple questions that to me, and you and most other people probably make sense, but maybe they never did this, you know, drawing the line directly to revenue. So, you know, we say you have an equipment, it fails, because maybe it wasn't maintained or managed properly, you put a lot of effort and energy behind it. Well, because that product has now failed in your patient care environment, you're re triaging the patient somewhere else or moving them that has cost time and energy, you are now maybe taking down a whole room for a period of time, which would be billing services on top of during that moment in time as well. But it is now unable to collect revenue for you. You now have nurses on staff who might have been managing that room or multiple rooms, and you might not need that overhead, but you're paying for it. So there's a lot of these things. And these aren't like costs that they're not creating in their head. Because they just see it as a direct cost. They're not seeing this revenue, the operational disruption, we think about physician and provider burnout, we're adding wrenches, we're throwing obstacles and dodgeballs out and now while they're still doing patient care, yeah. And when they start thinking about it in that macro level, the ROI is simple. It is there it is it is undeniably there, but they just see the pennies on the dollar, like you mentioned and saying, Well, now I'm paying, you know, 50 cents to the dollar, and I was paying pennies on the dollar. How do I make this make sense? So that's how we've talked to them. And to be honest, and again, to their credit, once you help them connect the dots, it's no longer What are you talking about? How's that much? It's more like, Huh, that's interesting, I have to think about that. It's a least a bonus consideration versus just absolute? No. But you're absolutely right. That is one of the

Chace Torres:

biggest things. I like that you you come at them from a ROI perspective, because, you know, one of the things we talk about within the biomed industry is lot is you know, we went from simply fixing and maintaining stuff to having to get into talk about distributing budgets and consolidating expenses, and you know, handling lifecycle management devices to where it makes sense to, you know, move from a contractual obligation to time and materials because of how much it's going to save the facility. And then that's where the biomed really comes into play. When it comes to one justify in our services, but also, you know, bringing value to all the medical facilities because at the end of the day, they have to manage within the constraints that we have in And fortunately, with the landscape of medical in general, you know, those, those constraints have kind of been a little bit constricted. And, you know, the, the landscape of medical, you know, medical care in general is this kind of like, it's, it's shifted from when I think about, like, you know, insurance plans and everything from like, when I was a kid, to what it is now. And it's kind of like, you know, everybody's is trying to see what the others does right now. We're in this space where a lot of facilities I see are getting bought up by like corporations, for instance. And then they get repackaged, retooled, put back out, they get their their ROI. And then it gets recycled, again, from the next buyer, and so forth. It's kind of been that way for the past at least five years from what we see, especially within our area, which makes it very hard when it comes to managing medical devices. Because for it's, it's like, when you think of like ers, for instance, this one has been prevalent in Texas, you'll have one system, they'll they'll sell another one picks it up, those devices end up getting acclimated and pulled into whatever because obviously they bought the devices with also the account then just gets recycled and recycled and recycled. And that's kind of the landscape we're in right now, which isn't necessarily beneficial to patients or the end user. It just makes stuff logistically a little bit more conflated and confusing.

Jinesh Patel:

There's so much confusion out there. I think. The other the other thing, you know, especially going back to the trying to convince people how to do this better make it make sense for them. I think the other thing that they don't understand and again, as a provider, they are seeing things from patient care is me, my nurses, my staff, and my patient in front of me, a lot of times they take for granted, the equipment that is working around them at all times, I think we talked a little bit about this on our podcast, which is care should be defined as patient plus provider plus medical device, there's hardly any care today, that gets provided just by a doctor or nurse looking at somebody, you know, or they're going to do this and check their blood pressure, it's you know, you'll least have some kind of cup some kind of moan or some kind of temperature gauge some kind of utility item that is helping you create diagnostics. And the fact that they take it for granted is is sad a little bit because it's Can we do it all the time in day to day world, right? We have commerce, every time I go into my car, I expect me to turn on the engine in that car start running, like I take that for granted sometimes, but I do know I have to change its oil, to put gas in it to make sure you know it is still able to run the next day. So when I do turn that ignition, you know at least 99 times out of 100 is going to crank and turn on. So I I sometimes get upset with you know, the providers who don't kind of factor in the equipment intellect in taking you for granted that it's always working, always up and running. But it's the people behind it. And all that management and understanding and the education you provide and bring to it that makes that and also showing like this is this is an important part of my patient care. And I think that's, that's that holistic part that sometimes gets missed by a lot of people.

Chace Torres:

I think, you know, it's not just obviously, there's, let's look at it from this, like there's a there's been a culture shift since from when I was a kid, you know, back in the 90s to where it is now. Technology has changed everything with the strides that we have made technologically I mean, if you just think of like what you brought up and then also cell phones a lot of people can't function nowadays without habit because everything is tied to your phone, your banking, your navigation, your emails, your you know, simple communication with family members, social media, looking up any kind of knowledge through through Google and Wikipedia, whatever. That same thing translates to medical devices, there is almost, you know, an idea or kind of like a back of the mindset that you know, it's there, it's a tool for us. And when you have something so easily accessible and usable to make your life easier, you lose appreciation of it. So at least until it goes down then you realize like how important it is. And this goes into you know, the general aspect of people not knowing what a biome it is. You don't realize like how important behind the scenes some of these Some of my colleagues out across the United States and in the world are having an impact on everyday people's lives. Everything that gets hooked up to test vitals to help treat injuries, or maybe diseases. Every one of those devices are managed, repaired, calibrated, and overall service by the biomed. And this goes back to where we started the conversation, you know, are you ensuring that all of those things are being provided for that medical device and all of your devices within your facility, because if you're not, you're not doing a service to your patients at the end of the day. And that's, that's what all of our services biomed, nurses, physicians, anesthesiologists radiologists, at the end of the day, that's our mission, that is our mantra to elevate patient care, optimize it, and ensure patient safety. If we're not doing that to the best of our ability, then somebody's either not caring, or is ignorant of the fact Yeah.

Jinesh Patel:

I personally have never been a biomed, that doesn't understand that, you know, they're not doing the job for the glory, they're doing it because they know it's a valued service. And they want if they were ever in the hospital, or family members or in the hospital, every product that's on them device, whatever it might be, is to the top quality in the best of their ability, because they want the same treatment when they when they might be in it.

Chace Torres:

Yeah, we're kind of civil servants in that fact. Yeah, one of one of the organizations that handles all of our accreditation, everything, Amy, the you know, they do a survey every year, over 70% of the people within our field would recommend our field because of how rewarding and how much at the end of the day, they go home feeling like they made a difference. And that translates to you know, you find a lot of biomed that are happy with where we are because, you know, we get a sense of, we're doing something and we're proud of it. And we take pride in what we do. And you know, we're going into the job day in and day out. Really coming home and film like, I love what I do. I'm ready to do it again tomorrow. I would think that I kind of present that considering I did an entire podcast tailored to my field. But yeah, it's, uh, I would agree, I think majority of my colleagues love what we do, and we take it very seriously. And sometimes it's frustrating as well, coming from a biometric perspective, speaking with somebody that's not managing their devices the way they should be. And, you know, at the end of day, we're passionate about getting it right. And sometimes it comes off like, people may not care. And that kind of that can rub me wrong, sometimes some days,

Jinesh Patel:

because you care so much. And it's like, how can somebody not care? And it's, it's like, I feel like from different sides of the spectrum, that everyone should be in pretty good alignment of what you guys do and what it means.

Chace Torres:

Well, yeah, I mean, the the medical industry is a trillion dollar, you know, industry, and then the medical device industry is quickly going up to the overall span of what the medical industry is costing. It's, it's growing every single year. And, you know, rightly so there's advancements and treatments and technology and just ways we're doing those treatments. And then, you know, the optimization, which is what happens when technology grows. But there's almost a stigma to where we have kind of like a back of the mind mentality, that medical device, servicing and just patient care in general is tied to the dollar. And I wish we could move away from that a little bit. Obviously, money is necessary, but it shouldn't be the driving force and patient care. That's what we need to get away from. And I think the US medical infrastructure is tied directly to, you know, cost versus benefit. Whereas you go to other countries that have universal medical care and everything and, you know, it's not tied to the dollar, it's tied to just providing care, you know, you go to another country as an American. And you're, you know, I see videos all the time, like, I didn't have to pay any just walk in, because it's not tied to that. I'm not I'm not trying to get political or anything with this. It's just it's, it's a mindset, and it's, it's something that cost is driving everything we do in medical care, it seems. So that's just kind of the way we weigh it is and it's

Jinesh Patel:

like the incentivization model, right? It's like it's a tried and true thing and something we talked about in all business books. Like you measure yourself on KPIs, you drive it The entire business that direction and you measure Yes, for the healthcare system here. I mean, again, not very political, but just in saying, like in generalities is, if you're incentivized to make money, which is what a for profit hospital does, and most hospitals are profit. You're incentivized to make money. And you're not incentivized to expand on cost. You're not expense device to buy the Ferraris of everything, you're incentivized to figure out where the margins are. And squeeze those down as humanly possible, while not evading any kind of, you know, fiduciary care to your shareholders, but also not not giving the service that you expect patients expect. So you're trying to balance a fine line, but you're not trying to go above the fine. And to mean you and to everyone who wants patient care, we want people to be operating way above that fine line, I'm not trying to get the standard minimum I'm trying to get, I'm trying to get the best possible result and care. And unless I'm gonna pay tons of dollars to go to that, you know, really expensive place out there. It's all about people with incentivization models that are driving to make certain decisions. And that's all it is. Yeah.

Chace Torres:

So, while I was on your podcast, which, you know, for get into my next topic, I would love to give you a chance to plug the podcasts, you know, for people who may not be aware of it, because I love you know, the mantra that you guys have, it's it's no filter, it's Come on, speak your piece, you know, share with share with us some information, foresight, and just kind of give your take that other people might not know about. So I would just love to hear just how the podcast started. You know, and just what your mission, what your vision is, for honestly,

Jinesh Patel:

it was started just to give a voice to those who might not have voices, or you have your podcast, which I respect, because I love what you do and what you do from home. But there's not a lot of those people in those avenues out there. Right at the end of the day, what I wanted to do is create a more generalized version of just nofilter healthcare for those who might not be providers themselves, but offer services into the healthcare ecosystem. Just come on here and talk about who you are what you do just want to get you out there. But to talk to me about something that you wish you were able to say out loud. And that might frustrate you, maybe it's not frustrating, but you just want to say it, and make sure people understand it. And for you and your message, obviously, the nofilter healthcare was beautiful. And that's, you really kind of absorbed that hashtag that we have. But at the end of the day, there's other people out there that are like, Okay, I tried to start a business in this industry in healthcare, and people are really resistant to change. And it sucks, because healthcare needs to change. And it's like, you know, saying that out loud, letting people absorb that and letting other people and other vendors and other service providers in these industries, sometimes feel like you're not alone. They feel the same way. They're running into the same obstacles, all screaming at the same wall. So at least you are side by side with someone screaming at the wall. It's not just you alone anymore. That's kind of the way

Chace Torres:

Yeah, it's us coming together with a shared, you know, initiative, because anybody that truly cares about elevating patient care, is going to have some sort of problem from their particular Avenue with the current system. And everyone's and the people say that there's nothing wrong with the health care system in general whatsoever. They're either not a part of it, they're not in it day to day, or they just haven't been paying attention to, you know, labor shortages and nurses walking out my field, having labor shortages, training, shortages, training opportunities, and then what I want to get into next is right to repair, which affects everybody, because it's not just the I can speak to the medical device, but it deals with cars, deals with cell phones, computers, at everything. And this has kind of been an ongoing challenge for probably over a decade, at least, you know, getting the Senate to recognize that. Let's look at it if you are a consumer, you should have the right the ability to have the resources made available to you to service repair. Whatever you need to do, what you own what you purchase. I mean, that's basically the standard thing. So let's look at it from our standpoint, from a hospital standpoint. Hospital buys any particular device and they own it. It's a part it's on their books. They have to claim it, they have to service it, they have to assure that it's regulated Didn't taken care of. So if a hospital has to abide by all of those principles, then they should also have some freedoms or, you know, abilities to work that in their favor as well. I mean, if it's if it's really, truly theirs, and where the Bomet perspective comes in that, you know, this has been an ongoing mission of mine and many other of my colleagues is, we're very hindered when it comes to supporting medical devices, just by not having service literature available, not being able to utilize tech support of the OEM, which we will reach out to if we're overheads or maybe have a question, not having accessibility to parts, and then not having accessibility to training to work on that equipment. And I read articles from multiple news outlets and pundits and legislators, and they have the same, I think we call it thud is, you know, disinformation almost, or maybe coming at it from a perspective that might not be 100% True. If a biomed, that is not completely affiliated with the OEM has access to service, repair, maintain their equipment, it's going to put patients at risk and will cause deaths. And I read that, and it offends me on a level. And I've talked to so many of my colleagues that will will read that, or we'll have that discussion through an interface. And at the end of the day, the biomed wants to do stuff by the book, we want to ensure that we're able to facilitate the same level of care for these medical devices that OEMs say we do not. So there's a there's a separation of, you know, two different talking points. And what the biomed is trying to do, which we recently had Justin from the better biomed channel and Dustin zoom in from the Avanti arts program, go speak to Congress in the beginning of July, to voice our concerns. And at the end of the day, the our goal is to have one seat at the table while the OEM has another seat at the table, and hey, let's, let's navigate what our issues with, you know, more so concerns with supporting each other can be, and let's find a solution. Whereas, you know, throwing more and more Fudd into the bucket and just pushing it down the line to eventually what I think is going to happen is the FDA is going to ultimately end up with the decision to figure out how we're going to regulate this. I would clearly long winded, I apologize for that. But you brought up a report during our conversation on your podcasts. And I just want to go through the main points of that report and just give people information so that they can make an informed decision.

Jinesh Patel:

That report is huge, because I know it's a lot of like you said, you feel offended as a biomed for some of the things that are said by the OEMs. But you both know that same OEM is going to call you to do the repair anyways, when they can't make it out there. So it's a little bit of they say one thing, but they do the other. And it's really because they're protecting their business there. They don't want. Yeah, they're their shareholders and their businesses, not about the patient. And at the end of the day, you know, they complain to Congress, they themself complained to the FDA saying look at all these biomed they're not certified, they're not beholden to the same regulations that we're beholden to. And like you even mentioned, there are ISOs out there that have 9001 certification, they they're doing what they're supposed to be doing to make sure that every

Chace Torres:

9001 13 485 We're going after and getting them because we want to go by the rules.

Jinesh Patel:

And that's the thing is like, no one's given you the pathway to say what do we need to prove to you to say that we're just as good. So, you know, back in 2018, when the FDA actually submitted this report publication, you know, was initially supposed to be a review of all the patient safety events that happen with medical devices, and maybe the contribution causes and they wanted to paint a picture that independence, were a bigger cause to patient safety, you know, because they're not preparing things, right. That's why machines are failing more, or there's quality issues. They don't know what they're doing. That was a picture they're trying to paint and the reason they push this report, the findings of the report were the exact opposite. Finally, the other report actually said there is no discrepancy that is noticeable between an independent biomed and a OEM biomed. And not only that, took it one step further to even say in the report on their findings, that independent biomes are absolutely necessary for this ecosystem to even exist, they need to be there, we need that extra support, because there's not enough biomass out there. So we're trying to shut down half the market. We can't do that. So the FDA actually not only talked about how the independence of the world are doing a good job, or just as good of a job as the OEMs, and that they're absolutely necessary to exist and survive, and we need to prop them up. That to me is like the totem pole, I would go down to Congress with and say, Look, if you're going to let the FDA make this decision, let them make it looks like they already have their minds made up, though. We're not harming patient care, we are absolutely benefiting the ecosystem at large. And that's what I think everyone knows, everyone believes even the OEM technicians believe in No, they're just not allowed to say, because that's not what their company is allowing them to say.

Chace Torres:

Well, I've spoken from several people within different OEMs, because the OEM biomed is just a much of our community, if not a more vital component of our community. Because us that are affiliated with OEM, you know, we're left out of constraints and times just because we don't have that support. And it's through our fellow brothers and sister biomed. 's out in the OEM community that are supplying us with those tools and that literature behind the scenes to ensure we can take care of our little Eltech or ch hospital out in the middle of nowhere, that the OEM will not go out to or tap on the shoulder and so to get to, so, I am the first to, you know, think the OEM bomb a, because you guys are vital, you guys are worth keeping us afloat out here

Jinesh Patel:

by this because what you said is absolutely perfect and right. When I say OEM, I'm talking company, corporate body, not the biomed themselves, who's doing the work, who knows what you, like I said, they know, the value that you and all the other independents in themselves bring. They're the ones actually, in the good fight within the big organization, they just don't have the power, that being you wish they had the talk about corporate rules, and you know, not letting you have access to power, and all that other stuff. So you're gonna want to just

Chace Torres:

and what, what's so funny too, is we're not trying to take away from their business, we're just trying to add options to the end user that is directly responsible for patient care, the worst feeling in the world as a biomed, which, unfortunately, I've had to make the statement many times to customers over the past couple years is, I am so sorry, I do not have access to parts, I do not have access to literature, tech support literally laughed at me on the phone, when I asked for anything that has happened. And you will have no other choice than to spend whatever price they throw at you, whatever OEM this may be to get support or get your unit fixed. That's my hands are tied. And that's the end of it. That is the worst feeling you can give to anybody, especially when we start talking about budgeting constraints and everything else. And you know, some of these hospitals Eltechs especially that are struggling. Let's be frank, the the OEM model there, they don't make their money, really outside of after the contract. So their money isn't going to be beneficial per the pm It's going to be the repair costs the the service after the contract, and then whatever money they got for you purchasing of the device. So why would they give up their bottom line to supply these resources to us, because that's going to hurt share shareholder interest. I understand there's there's other parts of this and that's fine. Like, it doesn't bother me, because everybody has a business. Everybody needs to be able to support their families and everything else that goes along with that. That's fine. All we're asking is the seat at the table. And whatever means of negotiation and understanding that comes with that. What have you, so be it but we're kind of in this this middle frame like we were talking offline a minute ago. You know, New York passed the first rights repair bill for electronics, but medical devices aren't included in that. And it's a notch towards the right step. But it's a knock. It's like, here's medical devices. And here he's more important

Jinesh Patel:

than my vital essentially is the

Chace Torres:

Somebody's TVs are expensive nowadays. For anybody that wants to learn more and read more about this FDA report, put it in the comment section and people to reference that and go explore more to see them for not just talking out of her ass. And

Jinesh Patel:

obviously, you've talked at length about the number of biometrics and the shortage of the industry in the labor market, even the aging of the industry itself. And one of the things that I want, at least your listeners to also understand is, because I don't think biomed has been put at the forefront a lot of these conversations in the past, and hopefully, it's getting more and more out there as your as some of us have gone to Congress and tried to try to lobby for more airtime. But we already as a country are moving legislation, you know, reimbursement policy, and even the patient care model to be closed as outpatient and ambulatory and eventually in home model of care. And the reason I need to bring this up is, we already have a very strained the labor force, which is you guys, everyone who's supporting the medical equipment. And right now, it's a little easier, I think it's easy, it's a little easier for a single biomed to go to a large health system and maybe tackle 100 devices over a period of a couple of days, you know, it's it's you have a high density, you can do a lot more in a single place in time, then you can if those same color 100 devices existed over 20 locations, which is now Urgent Care surgical center, you're starting to see, you know, advanced complex equipment get into these buildings, which is fine, because being US consumers, we get better care local to us probably for a lot cheaper. So we went, but we've created a logistical nightmare for the biomed who are ease time is, you know, over over indexed. And as we go to in home, that's just now instead of 10 devices for building, it's one device per building. So we've now even created a crazier network. So until we can either increase the labor market to support the sprawl of equipment, increase access to parts to where we can support the sprawl, and, you know, maybe attract new entrants to the, to the actual industry from biomed. Or, if we can have people do some kind of at least self management at some levels and tiny bits of, hey, here's a self help video, here's a manual, here's a access to a quick hotswap part that will really, you know, be considered remanufacturing. But it's just me replacing the air filter, and some, you know, ease coming in, we're going to set ourselves up from, we're going to be just like your Eltech, who couldn't get maybe a normal OEM technician out there. That's at least the worries when they have to eventually go to people's homes. So I know that this fight that you're creating now, or we're creating now is going to benefit what we're trying to all goes society for healthcare. And until we figure out how to increase access to current service, increase the labor pool, we're going to be in a moment that we might be sitting at home on our dialysis machine 20 years from now waiting two weeks for tech to come out while I need that to save my life. And that's the that's all I don't I do not want to be right about that I want us to get I want to get it right now. Not later on whenever it becomes a problem. So that's

Chace Torres:

proactive instead of reactive. Unfortunately, we're very reactive right now. No, I love that. Yeah. Man, medical care is always going to continue to expand and like I said, with with going into OEMs are not going to be able to take care of every urgent care, er l tack in home service like it's the logistics behind it does not support the numbers or the argument. So there's going to have to be some some understanding that you're not going to be able to conquer the world. I like to end the show on a on a fun note. One segment that I like to call oh the modality the modality All right. So the modality simply enough is if you have any kind of recollection of maybe a funny or scarring story that comes to a particular medical device during your your testing and

Jinesh Patel:

say it's more of an embarrassment whenever we were getting trained to look at working on imaging equipment. You know, we're trying medics back in the day and yes, I was a clinical engineering manager. But I also tried to learn some of the service and repair stuff and getting my hands dirty to do some of that service support. Now I remember the first time I saw a phantom four calibration, and not knowing what the heck, you know, look like some weird gel device and whatever. And I was just like, yeah,

Chace Torres:

right. Yeah. There's a big box with Jelena

Jinesh Patel:

what it was how just looking like, this goes on this machine. And like, you know, I basically stood on the class, it was a very embarrassing moment. And just like, not knowing calibration events, even worked on imaging equipped because it's not the same as infusion pump, or some of the small interfaces, you just do this, it's buttons, and it's not as hard. And so having like, all these objects, inviting us to completely fish out of water, and it was like, a variation among everyone else there at least had some imaging training and like had some kind of level of understanding, I was the only one. Are you sure we're in the right spot.

Chace Torres:

It's kind of some some of the equipment that we use in our field is kind of like it takes you step back a little bit. Like, I don't know how to use this, or this, this doesn't look right, you're

Jinesh Patel:

gonna help with this machine, like, you know, get it right and get all the calibration done. And I just, I was just really confused. And it was a moment that I was completely embarrassed myself.

Chace Torres:

But you got past it. biomed figured things out inherently one way or another. So I got one more segment, before I let you go today. Through to be bored, not true. Though, to be you're not to be simply think of any medical device you can think of take the functionality of it. And that is your superpower. So what would your best superpower be?

Jinesh Patel:

Yeah, kind of help you. I'll say that you tried to help me out earlier thinking through this. And I'm still.

Chace Torres:

So I always tell people, mine would be a defibrillator. Because I can use electrical discharge, electricity, people,

Jinesh Patel:

I was trying to get too nerdy with it. When I knew that I was like, Okay, could be an MRI, because you're pointing hydrogen molecules in a single direction. And you can kind of like help navigate where they go. I was like, what was I going to do as a superpower? I have no idea how to actually make that something that.

Chace Torres:

I mean, you can get just simplistic with it. Or you could get super in depth with it. It really just matters how your mind goes, Oh,

Jinesh Patel:

it'd be cool. You saw on our technology to kind of navigate through Jackson, you know, eventually, if I can understand and see what Boonie can strike oil because

Chace Torres:

I thought to like you could you could see, you know, maybe someone's heart speeding up so you can know if they're reacting on, you know, an emotional level a certain way. Maybe they're lying to you or, you know, there's Yeah, exactly. Now, I'd say you don't have to be overly complicated with it. But I had to have something like this because I think about this stuff during my lifetime. I'm a nerd. And I love you know what it is? So just I appreciate you being on the podcast today. It's been an absolute pleasure, sir, I look forward to working with you more in the future. And I appreciate what you do to give those that don't have a voice an opportunity to speak their their voice. And that's ultimately, you know, the mantra for your podcasts and then also what your company provides to customers as well. It's it's a worthwhile endeavor. So I just wanted to give you your flowers for anybody that would like to enlist uptime health services, or you know, possibly learn more about the podcast

Jinesh Patel:

said, Time health.com Everyone probably listened to the show knows how to spell uptime and the word health so just add that and then that's just called hashtag no filter, health care all one word. It's on any Apple Spotify anywhere you can find a podcast.

Chace Torres:

All right. Again, thank you for being on

Jinesh Patel:

with you and you