NC Biomeds: Support Right to Repair

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Dear legislator,

COVID-19 has underscored the need for a more cooperative relationship between medical equipment manufacturers and hospital clinical engineering departments. But this problem is not new. Some manufacturers routinely restrict our access to repair parts, manuals, diagnostic information or training, limiting our ability to fix life-saving medical equipment and putting patient safety at risk.

As a result, we pay higher prices for manufacturer repair and have to deal with delays as we wait for manufacturer technicians to travel to our hospitals to make fixes that our onsite team could make if armed with the right information and tools.

A report by U.S. PIRG published July 2020 shows how pervasive this problem is. It shows that 91.8 percent of the 222 biomedical repair technicians surveyed were denied repair information for “critical equipment (defibrillators, ventilators, anesthesia machines, imaging equipment, etc.).” 48.8% report they have been denied access to “critical repair information, parts or service keys" in the first three months of the pandemic.

Many manufacturers claim that allowing hospitals to repair their own equipment would result in safety issues. A 2018 FDA report, however, found that many third parties “provide high quality, safe, and effective servicing of medical devices,” and are “critical to the functioning of the U.S. healthcare system.”

Right to Repair reforms, which provide access to repair parts, tools and information at a fair and reasonable price, would help to address the problems that we face. We, the undersigned biomedical repair technicians, clinical engineers and health technology management professionals, urge you to support Medical Right to Repair and associated legislation.

Sincerely,

First name *

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Would you be willing to speak to a reporter about this issue? *

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Have you experienced an occasion where repair restrictions limited your ability to do your job and put patient safety at risk? *

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How do repair restrictions affect your work?

How have you seen repair restrictions affect patient safety?

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