AAMI Project to Explore Technology Management Future
AAMI’s Technology Management Council (TMC) is launching an important new project designed to assess the current status of technology management within healthcare facilities and explore the field’s future challenges and opportunities.
To help carry out the project, AAMI has retained the services of Michigan-based Beaumont Services Company, a firm that has conducted similar technology management evaluation projects for healthcare organizations.
At AAMI’s behest, Beaumont will conduct an online survey and face-to-face interviews with leaders of clinical engineering departments from around the country, as well as their supervisors. The project will explore such issues as the perceived position of technology management departments within facilities, the role and importance of IT integration and benchmarking data, and how these departments communicate the value of their departments to healthcare executives.
The results of these interviews and the survey will be recorded, compiled, and analyzed, resulting in a white paper that will be presented to AAMI members this year and serve as a springboard for future AAMI and TMC projects. Think of this white paper as a roadmap that could help pave the way for future changes in the technology management field.
“This is a significant project that the TMC hopes will help clarify and strengthen the role of technology management in healthcare institutions,” says Dave Francoeur, CBET, who serves on the TMC’s Executive Committee and is vice president at ARAMARK Healthcare.
Questions to Explore |
This project will explore such questions as: —What is the C-Suite’s perception of the value that technology management provides to the organization? —How do you capture and manage performance feedback communicated by your department stakeholders? —Do you benchmark your performance against others? —With which committees is your department actively involved? —How will the scope of technology management services change in your hospital? —In the future, how do you plan to promote the value of your department to the C-Suite? |
AAMI’s Strategic Partner
After a detailed request-for-proposals (RFP) process, TMC members selected Beaumont because of its relevant experience and expertise, and its solid understanding of the scope of the project and the amount of work involved.
“They are also very familiar with the goals of AAMI and the TMC, and I am very confident they’ll be able to help us achieve those goals,” says Steve Yelton, TMC member and chair of the electrical engineering technologies department at Cincinnati State Technical College in Cincinnati, OH.
Michael Tanner, director of technology development with Beaumont Services Company, notes that “a ‘roadmap’ really is an appropriate way to describe the white paper that this project will generate.”
“Specifically, the white paper will profile the current state of medical technology management within facilities; provide a vision for the future of effective technology management; identify barriers or challenges to achieving that future; and recommend potential projects that could help move the field of medical technology forward,” says Tanner.
The complete project will comprise
four phases:
1. Initial data gathering and planning.
2. On-site interviews and survey distribution.
3. Data analysis, during which technology
management opportunities and
barriers are identified.
4. Completion of the white paper,
which will serve as a key guidance
document for future TMC projects.
This exploration of the future of medical technology management is one of numerous projects undertaken by the TMC to promote the interests of biomeds, clinical engineers, and other managers of medical technology.
Source: AAMI News, Vol. 43, No. 3, March 2008