Jun 30, 2021
By Heidi Horn

The Future Is Here: Make the Blue Sky Dream a Reality for Your HTM Department

A version of this article was originally published in TechNation

It’s always fun to predict a brighter future and then watch it become possible. Eight years ago, I had the opportunity to attend AAMI’s Future Forum II. For three days, a group of two dozen healthcare technology management (HTM) industry leaders created a vision for the future of HTM. I was part of a breakout session we called “Blue Sky” that brainstormed what HTM professionals could do for healthcare in a perfect world with limitless possibilities.

In our perfect world, we imagined the HTM team would be the undisputed experts within the hospital for all things involving clinical device technology. Being the experts, we would, of course, be invited to participate at all levels of the organization—in device planning, budgeting, and purchasing, and in decisions around maintaining, integrating, enhancing, and retiring equipment. We would have the data to add value to those discussions. We would lead efforts to ensure the safety and reliability of clinical equipment, and we would make recommendations and lead teams to optimize the equipment’s performance and user workflows. The perfect HTM department would have a good working knowledge of networking, device integration, and cybersecurity—and be able to share information and track updates in real time with other supporting departments, like information technology (IT).

To make that vision a reality, we recognized we would need real-time data about our HTM operations and clinical equipment from our CMMS. This data would help us make business, clinical, and safety decisions based on facts and not just assumptions.

AAMI recently documented what this level of performance would look like in its current Level’s Guide1.

Now, the “Blue Sky” dream has become a reality for many HTM departments that have made the switch to the Nuvolo Connected Workplace for Healthcare solution. Nuvolo Connected Workplace for Healthcare is not only a modern CMMS that provides real-time data at your fingertips, but it also helps HTM, Facilities, IT, and other support departments connect and better coordinate their interdepartmental work related to asset management, service and maintenance support, OT cyber security, project management, space planning, and real estate management—all from a single application (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Nuvolo Connected Workplace for Healthcare supports interdepartmental work related to asset management, maintenance support, OT security, space planning, real estate management, and more.

 

Nuvolo is continuing to invest heavily in product development so we can offer new functionality that meets the needs of today’s HTM departments and clinical equipment service providers. Based on features and functionality our clients are asking for, Nuvolo has significant enhancements already planned through 2022.

Make that “Blue Sky” dream a reality for your HTM department. Check out Connected Workplace for Healthcare.

 

About the Author

Heidi Horn, MA, AAMIF is Vice President of Product Marketing-Healthcare for Nuvolo. She has over 20 years of experience as a leader in the healthcare technology management (HTM) industry. Horn was the 2019 recipient of AAMI’s “HTM Leadership Award” and is well-known for her transformational work leading SSM Health’s 120-person HTM department for more than a decade. Horn is also heavily involved with AAMI and serves as a member of AAMI’s Board of Directors as well as chair of AAMI’s Technology Management Council and its HTM Standardization sub-team. She is also an inaugural member of the AAMI Fellow program.

Footnotes

1The level of performance described in this article is detailed in AAMI’s 3rd Edition of its HTM Level’s Guide as Levels 4 and 5.

2 Must have an ECRI subscription.