Healthcare Technology Management Is Not an Island

Abstract

AAMI's strategic planning process is underway. A multidisciplinary committee recently spent two days discussing what forces are at work in healthcare that create opportunities or pose threats for AAMI as it looks to the future. The committee discussions were lively and covered a gamut of changes in healthcare, such as the growing pressure to reduce costs, the pressing need for regulatory policies and standards to address the expansion of healthcare delivery beyond the hospital, the upcoming retirement of large numbers of Baby Boomer technology experts, the continued rise of interoperability, and the promise of innovation coming from many new entrants to the technology market.What I found more provocative, though, were two seemingly disparate insights: (1) healthcare technology management (HTM) is increasingly interdisciplinary, and relatively few professionals have expertise in all of the disciplines needed to carry out the responsibilities; and (2) short-term cost pressures and a lack of executive understanding often stand in the way of HTM evolving beyond the traditional “repair a device” focus to a broader focus on the life cycle of technology. Together, these two insights shine a bright light on the fact that HTM is not a service department in the basement of a hospital, even though that's the view of many hospital and industry executives. They see HTM as a cost center, ripe for expense reduction.Depending on the lens one uses, HTM is an opportunity to outsource; a group of people who can't stand up for themselves so it's easy to slash their expenses; an add-on service component to technology purchases; a headache for information technology (IT); a capital equipment competition; something new for nurses to learn; a treasure trove of clinical data for research; or an opportunity to make care safer. It's easy to see what HTM should be, and the smart departments have moved in that direction or are on their way.When HTM is viewed strictly as some isolated service department, we miss the bigger picture, which takes me back to my earlier point: HTM is increasingly interdisciplinary, and relatively few professionals have expertise in all of the disciplines needed to carry out the responsibilities. The top executives in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, IT, finance, operations, clinical safety, infection control, and risk management—and the top executives in industry—need us to help them understand HTM more holistically, viewing it as a crucial component of and link to every element of safe, efficient, and effective patient care. The best place to start in promoting a new mindset is for HTM departments to consider how they view themselves. If they see themselves as an afterthought, that's what they will be. If we they see themselves as key partners in the full life cycle of technology, then they will be. We all have a role to play to eliminate the one lens that is not helpful to anyone: seeing HTM as an island.