By Rodgerick Williams, MSHA
I began my career in health care as an Army Combat Medic/EMT/Medical Specialist. I used that certification to work in a civilian nonprofit hospital as an anesthesia technician in surgery. I had an interest in biomed and switched to the Air Force for the Department of Defense medical equipment repair course. My career vision upon entering the field that we now refer to as healthcare technology management (HTM) was to become the highest ranking biomed in America or become a healthcare administrator.
After five years, I became a lead technician for a third-party company. My operational objective with this company was to satisfy all stakeholders. I needed to make money for the company I worked for, provide a service to the leaders of the hospital and save them money and make sure the clinicians were able to safely take care of their patients and the communities we served.
I was able to satisfy my company and the hospital by finding cost-effective repair solutions, eliminating waste by incorporating just in time practices, and by extending the life of medical devices. The corporation that owned the hospital decided to bring biomedical services inhouse. Because of the value I brought the hospital, the hospital CEO called his corproate CEO and told him he had to have me or they couldn’t go inhouse. (Previously, I was supposed to be working at this hospital temporarily when I was a contractor and the CEO called the third-party company CEO and told him he had to have me or they were cancelling the contract.)
This led the National Director of Biomedical Engineering to call me and ask me what I did to these people to make them think they couldn’t function without me. My answer was simple. I listened to the clinicians, the managers, the BMETs and administration and did what I could every time according to what was a win-win situation for all and allowed us to perform medical equipment service according to manufacturer’s recommendations, Joint Commission, CMMS recommendations and FDA guidelines.
The first thing we all need to do is be the CFO’s friend. The CFO never has a friend in the hospital. The sky is always falling. Hospital professionals go to the CFO with a story of future catastrophe that will occur unless money is spent. They say patients will die, the database will be hacked, and the hospital will be sued out of existence unless the money is spent. It is our job as the healthcare technology managers to access the situation and give an honest assessment. One way numerous HTMs and IT professions lose the trust of the CFO is when they use their technical expertise to lead administration to what they want to happen (which is intellectual dishonesty), while in actuality, that should be the opposite. The technical leader should be an agent for the facility allowing the leaders to use the technical expertise to make decisions. Always give leaders honest options. Explain the labor costs, risks to patient care, long-term possibilities of each choice and advise the leader on how to make the decision.
My first big project after I became an inhouse biomed manager was a patient monitoring system upgrade. The clinical leaders told the CFO they had to have $2.3 million for a patient monitoring system upgrade. Previously, when I was with a third-party, I told the CFO, they only needed a $298,000 upgrade. The hospital only needed to upgrade the central stations and some mainboards, but not the entire system including bed side monitors, computer screens, switches, servers, antennas, etc. My voice was lost among all the clinical leaders. They gained the support of the CNO, then the CEO, then corporate.
The corporate biomed director called me and said, “I see you say you have to have a $2.3-million-dollar patient monitoring system.” I said, “No, that’s the clinicians. We only need $298,000.” Then he said ,“Well, your name is on the quote.” I said, “That’s because they asked me to get the quotes, and I gave them three quotes and they submitted the biggest one.” The national director explained to everyone at corporate this $2.3 million was not needed and the facility was asking for too much.
The division leaders for the corporation still had to visit the hospital because of the urgency relayed to them. I reported to the director of facilities at the time, who reported to an assistant administrator, who reported to the COO. I literally was not at the table when the meeting occurred. The facilities director would leave the board room to ask me questions and I would answer them and he would come back and forth until the division CEO called the national director, who told him there was only one person in that hospital who knew what they needed, and that person was Rodgerick Williams.
A few days later, I was asked by the national biomed director if I would risk my career advancement on my decision of $298,000 being able to have the hospital patient monitoring system operate correctly. I told him I would put my career on the line for my decision. A few days thereafter, the CFO asked me about the $298,000 option and I told him that would address their needs. We went forward with that project and it worked. I remained at that facility for four more years before it was purchased by another group and that system worked until I left.
They did a $2.5 million upgrade six months after I left. I was asked if I could perform those types of cost avoidance decisions at 25 hospitals simultaneously. I replied “Easily, if I don’t turn wrenches anymore.” The hospital was sold, which made me free to leave, due to the corporation having a policy of not hiring from a hospital for division or corporate if the hire would leave the facility in a worse position. I completed an associates concentrating in business at Tulsa Community College, while I was majoring in business with a minor in international business at OSU-Tulsa while working. I was then promoted several times at once to hospital director, regional director and division director over 25 hospitals, their associated clinics and surgical centers. My territory grew to 108 hospitals before I became a national director of biomedical engineering for the third-largest for-profit health care organization in America and then a system capital procurement director before settling into my current role of national director of corporate accounts for Tenacore. Along the way, I also got a bachelor’s degree in healthcare management and a Master’s of Science in health administration from UAB where I also taught health care strategy.
This all grew from being a knowledgeable technician. I read manuals and made a PM binder as I learned how equipment operated during PMs so I’d be prepared for failures. I learned clinical operations and worked closely with nursing education to reduce operator error. I partnered with the CNO and the house supervisor, and risk management after patient incidents. I advised the CEO, CFO and procurement. I made myself a resource and earned a seat at the hospital, corporate and GPO tables.
