Professional of the Month: Adam Vorpagel

By K. Richard Douglas

One of the great things about the HTM profession is that there is real opportunity for advancement if that is a biomed’s goal. It is possible to go from an intern to a system director.

Just ask Adam Vorpagel, CBET, system director of clinical engineering at Munson Healthcare.

“Coming out of high school, I wasn’t entirely sure which career path I wanted to pursue. My mother was a NICU nurse at the time, and she mentioned that there were people in the hospital whose job was to fix and maintain the medical equipment their team relied on. I’d always enjoyed taking things apart, figuring out how they worked, and fixing them, so that immediately caught my attention,” Vorpagel says.

He remembers that the more he researched the HTM/biomed field, the more he realized it aligned perfectly with his interests, technical problemsolving with a purpose.

“That combination is what ultimately drew me into the profession,” Vorpagel says.

The decision to enter biomed led Vorpagel to enter the biomedical engineering technology associates’ program at Schoolcraft College.

“I started out as a biomed tech intern, worked my way up through the ranks holding positions as a BMET I, BMET II, BMET III, lead tech/coordinator and I am currently the system director for clinical engineering for Munson Healthcare,” Vorpagel says.

Munson Healthcare is northern Michigan’s largest and leading healthcare system. It is based in Traverse City; a tourist destination and home to nearly 16,000 residents. The system serves patients across the entire region.
Prior to entering leadership, Vorpagel’s primary area of focus and specialty was patient monitoring.

GETTING PATIENT MONITORING RIGHT
There are few projects that biomeds and HTM leadership can engage in with a more impactful benefit to patients than cutting edge patient monitoring. This also reduces stress for clinicians.

“One of the most challenging and impactful projects I am currently working on is the standardization of patient monitoring across all hospitals and care sites in our system. Prior to this work, our environment included multiple legacy platforms, inconsistent alarm workflows and fragmented connectivity models. As part of this initiative, we are implementing an enterprisewide conversion to Philips patient monitoring, establishing a standard, scalable platform that brings consistency, interoperability and long-term stability to our entire clinical monitoring environment,” Vorpagel says.

Some of the challenges that this initiative has presented include a highly fragmented technology landscape with more than a dozen monitor models across the enterprise, each with different integration workflows, alarm behaviors and data formats.

Vorpagel says another is “complex cross-department workflows: critical care, procedural areas, emergency departments and med/surg units all had unique expectations for monitoring, requiring careful alignment of clinical needs.”

He also lists a couple of other challenges uncovered during this project.

“Interoperability inconsistencies: variations in how monitors interfaced with middleware, networks, and downstream systems created reliability and data quality issues and deployment logistics: coordinating replacements and go lives across multiple hospitals with minimal disruption to patient care requires a highly structured rollout strategy,” he says.

Vorpagel’s approach to the HTM profession has been consistent since he entered the field.
“At my core, I am driven by a sense of responsibility. If a device is in a patient’s room, it should work every time, integrate seamlessly, and support clinicians without adding burden, and above all, it must be safe for both patients and the staff who rely on it every day,” he says.

“That mindset has guided me from my earliest days in the field to this current systemwide leadership role,” Vorpagel adds.

In his free time, Vorpagel says he enjoys anything outdoors. “I love to fish, hunt, hike and camp,” he says.

He also says that he is happily married to his wife of five years. The couple has two children, ages 3 and 1.

Vorpagel knew that HTM was the right career from early on and he has embraced a philosophy and approach that has served him, clinicians and patients well over a successful career.

BIOMETRICS

Favorite book:
“Extreme Ownership” by Jocko Willink

Favorite movie:
Does anyone have just one? I don’t think I have a single favorite. I honestly am more into binge watching shows when time allows.

Favorite food:
Polish food! Pierogies and kielbasa with sauerkraut

Hidden talent:
My team members probably disagree sometimes; but I like to think I am a pretty talented multi-tasker.

Favorite part of being a biomed?
My favorite part of being a biomed is the fulfillment that comes from helping others.

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