HTMA-GA (Healthcare Technology Management Association-Georgia) was created in 2015 with a goal to serve the HTM professionals throughout the state through networking, education, and a sense of community.
In March of 2016, HTMA-GA celebrated its first anniversary doing what it was designed to do … serve its members
“We just had HTMA-GA’s first anniversary and we were excited to start out our second year as an association with a great class for the HTM professionals of Georgia,” HTMA-GA President Ben Lewis said. “The AMX-4 class was taught by Bill Bentley of AMX Solutions and Michael Ragan of Piedmont Healthcare. It covered common failures and calibration. With close to 30 attendees and very good information, I was very pleased with the class.”
The class was sponsored by Troff Medical, Southeastern Biomedical, and Digital X-ray Services (DXS).
Lewis said the first year was a success. HTMA-GA looks forward to serving its members for years to come.
“When we started up the organization, we decided that we wanted membership to be free for the HTM professionals that provide service and service management, so that is what we did. We fund the organization through annual corporate membership fees and event sponsorship fees. This has allowed us to train and feed the HTMA-GA members at no cost to them, and it is working great,” Lewis said. “We work on a fairly small budget, but when you have great members of the HTM community in Georgia willing to volunteer their time, it doesn’t take a lot of money.”
“We also wanted to keep an active organization that meets more than once a year. So far, we have had several onsite courses on Cost of Service Ratio, our first annual Management Conference, and our class on the AMX-4 Portable X-Ray System,” he added. “We have an excellent board for the association that meets by phone conference every other week to plan and organize the events. All of our board members and sponsors can be seen at HTMA-GA.org.”
The class presented at the one-year anniversary celebration received great reviews from those in attendance proving that HTMA-GA is all about service to its members.
“The technical portion of the class was an excellent overview of the AMX-4,” said Tester Lewis, BMET II, Novant Health.
“We had very good attendance and lots of involvement from the attendees. Attendees traveled from all around the state. One of the attendees volunteered to assist with more focused training to address questions. One of the sponsoring vendors had test equipment with them and allowed it to be used to demonstrate how to calibrate the AMX 4+ with it,” said Piedmont Healthcare Diagnostic Imaging Manager Steve Kelly. “After the meeting, there was a lot of networking and private discussions between the attendees. This made for a very successful meeting for everyone.”
“The goals are perfect for everyone in attendance – Educate, Network, Collaborate and Build Relationships. We all want to do our part in evolving either as a provider or vendor in our space,” PartsSource Director of Business Development Chris Cook said.
Mike Helms from Troff Medical was impressed with the HTMA-GA meeting and the quality of the education.
“We had a great meeting and an informative class on the basics of preventative maintenance on the AMX 4+. The class, taught by Mr. Bill Bentley and assisted by Michael Ragan of Piedmont Atlanta, was outstanding. The information in the form of literature about error codes and common problems that have been experienced was well received by the biomeds in attendance,” Helms said. “This meeting was a real success for the attendees and the association. I got feedback from the vendor that sponsored the event that it was a real success for them, as well.”
For additional information about HTMA-GA, including a free membership, visit HTMA-GA.org.