By John Wallace
Collaboration promotes progress.
The inaugural HTM Mixer held in Denver, Colorado overflowed with collaboration as healthcare technology management (HTM) professionals and some of the industry’s top companies came together for a unique event presented by MD Publishing. Networking in the outdoor exhibit area along with signature events provided an ideal “safe and clean” forum for the top HTM minds to share ideas while observing social distancing protocols.
The top-flight educational presentations also provided a venue where knowledge could be shared by presenters as well as by attendees via Q&A portions of the classes and workshops.
The two-part workshop “Using Standardized CMMS Data to Make Smarter HTM Decisions” presented by Carol Davis-Smith from Carol Davis-Smith & Associates LLC and Baretich Engineering Inc. President Matt Baretich was itself a product of collaboration.
“The session should be immediately applicable to supervisors, managers, directors, and other management roles. Staff (individual contributors) may also find this session helpful in becoming stronger contributors to the HTM department’s success. Those individuals seeking to advance into management roles will find the workshop useful in developing perspective and skills that will support career growth,” the HTM Mixer website explained.
Baretich added that HTM professionals have long know that the lack of standardized nomenclature for failure codes or other CMMS data hamstrings the efforts of many within the field.
The original idea was that those in the HTM world have long known that they can be inconsistent in how they record data.
“In a lot of cases HTM managers are unable to get usable data to compare,” Baretich said.
Davis-Smith explains how the duo came up with the workshop idea.
“Matt and I came up with the workshop topic during an informal brainstorming session to identify ways to encourage adoption of the ‘standardized’ failure codes defined by the AAMI CMMS Collaborative initiative,” she stated. “We had presented the list several times and felt it was time to shift into implementation mode. The workshop allowed us to help HTM professionals see practical value from the standardized failure codes. That is, the ‘what’s in it for me’ value proposition. It also allowed us to reinforce other concepts we’ve each been teaching/presenting – i.e. AEM and strategic technology planning. Additionally, we both felt that a workshop format, rather than all lecture, would better engage the attendees and provide them with very relevant ‘take home’ materials.”
Baretich and Davis-Smith shared how a collection of CMMS companies collaborated to promote further collaboration among HTM professionals.
“Carol and I were approached by one of the major CMMS vendors and asked about getting together with some of the leading vendors to see if we can get some improvement in standardization,” Baretich said. “At the 2019 AAMI Exchange, we had six vendors present for an informal meeting. The vendors present were Accruent, EQ2, Nuvolo, MediMizer, Phoenix Data Systems and TMA Systems.”
“AAMI sponsored the CMMS Collaborative which brought together the major CMMS suppliers in the HTM market,” Davis Smith added. “The CMMS suppliers provided blinded data from across their respective clients for Matt and I to review. As a group, they discussed the findings of our data analysis and subsequently aligned around the ‘standardized’ list of failure codes. Additionally, as a group, they discussed ways each could encourage existing and new clients to migrate to the standardized list of codes – e.g. operational and financial benefits. Individually, they considered how to technically convert their clients based upon their respective software platforms.”
AAMI’s is expected to publish a whitepaper in the near future.
“AAMI sponsored this group. AAMI engaged Carol and me to facilitate this work. So, it is an AAMI project that is just wrapping up right now. So, it will be a whitepaper on what we did and how to standardize the failure code field,” Baretich said. “At the HTM Mixer workshop, we went over the history and the recommendations that the CMMS Collaborative group made. After summarizing the work of the group, we focused on two applications: One part was what you can do with an AEM program. How to measure the performance of the PM program by tracking PM-related failures. To use that metric you need accurate counts of failures and categorization into PM-related failures (that can be addressed by better PM) and failures that are not PM-related (e.g., device programming errors).”
He deferred to Davis-Smith regarding her applications on how HTM professionals can use the repair code field in regards to “technology planning” or equipment replacement and acquisition.
“I had two hopes for the workshop relative to technology planning,” Davis-Smith said. “Reiterate the importance of tech planning and the opportunity for the HTM community to lead this effort. Illustrate how use of the standardized failure codes provides greater data-driven objectivity to a normally very subjective process.”
“In both cases, I wanted to highlight the ‘treasure trove’ of data within the hands of the HTM community (i.e. CMMS maintenance data) that no one else has access to but desperately needs to make sound strategic and tactical decisions. Additionally, the workshop allowed me to walk attendees through the relatively simple and complex math required for a tech plan. The objective was to remove the mystery, teach the concepts and have the participants walk out of the room with real work completed that enhanced their current tech planning efforts or inspired them to initiate a planning process.”
She added that those interested in the workshop can still participate.
“HTM professionals who were unable to attend the workshop should know that it is available online via the MD Publishing HTM Mixer website,” Davis-Smith said. “Matt and I would love to see HTM departments publish/present their journeys of implementation to their CMMS and application to their operations. We are here to assist as needed and appropriate!”
For information about upcoming HTM Mixers and the 2020 MD Expo, visit HTMMixer.com or MDExpoShow.com.
