The final Webinar Wednesday of 2018 featured a presentation sponsored by PartsSource. The webinar “An HTM Evolution: Merging, Managing and Standardizing Operations” was a popular presentation to close out 2018 with 231 attendees eligible to earn 1 CE credit from the ACI.
The attendance for the live presentation mirrored the average attendance for webinars in 2018. The total number of attendees in 2018 was 6,304 for an average 225 attendees per session.
The webinar featured Doug Kirsop, system HTM director for OhioHealth. In the current health care environment, health systems are consolidating through mergers, which increases the number of acute and non-acute systems in their portfolio. OhioHealth has been very active in the mid-Ohio region, and Kirsop has been tasked with integrating new facilities and merging and onboarding HTM departments at those facilities. During the session, he provided his team’s operational plan to create a cohesive HTM consortium throughout the entire system.
Attendees were able to learn the mindset and leadership approach for a multi-site integration and how to apply key learnings for standardizing and optimizing HTM operations. They also discover where they should look for hidden costs and drag on their organization, and ideas on how to fix them.
Positive reviews flowed in via a post-webinar survey in which attendees shared what they liked about the presentation.
“Doug had some good points we could relate to. I am one to ‘pick the low-hanging fruit.’ I look at and repair things that are out of our scope of work just to keep the flow going in the OR. I’ve mounted, tightened and repaired my fair share of items maintenance should’ve taken care of. I bypass the help desk when the GI Provation PC is down and call the PC support people directly because they can’t function without it,” said D. Felack, BMET.
“I feel like Doug hit on all of the issues I deal with day to day. We are a two-person department with several off-site facilities that we maintain and we are adding two more in 2019 without increasing our staff,” Biomed Manager P. Jenkins said.
“Over all theme I got from Doug Kirsop’s presentation was build relationships; in doing so you create a stronger you, team, HTM department and network throughout the organization,” shared A. Unsworth, BMET.
“Enjoyed today’s seminar. Host brought some valuable insight to the webinar. He mentioned things like accepting change, being prepared and attending meetings that you might not feel necessary. Those small things will often end up benefiting you in the future,” Clinical Engineering Manager P. Brown said.
The Webinar Wednesday series also received praise following the final presentation of 2018.
“The Webinar Wednesday series is a must for all leaders within HTM, as the unification and synergies created by these presentations will surely help the HTM field flourish. The presenters do a great job of providing a tour guide while orating the key decisions and subsequent actions they have embraced to help adapt and succeed in an ever-changing clinical equipment and healthcare technology management environment,” shared G. Joyner, systems clinical engineering manager.
“We have implemented Webinar Wednesday as a training opportunity for our entire shop. It is good even for the newer technicians to see how far our department goes throughout the hospital,” Clinical Engineering Supervisor of Operations J. Walker said.
“This continuing education support via webinars is fantastic. Thank you TechNation team,” said M. Moore, engineering technician.
“The Webinar Wednesday series is a beneficial resource for providing introductory information for a whole variety of topics and aspects of the HTM environment. There are subjects that will interest all players in the HTM community,” said T. Nirsche, performance improvement manager.
“It is difficult to choose a favorite event, however the information provided from each webinar is very valuable. I have shared Webinar Wednesday with seven CBET technicians and they are learning how valuable these events are. I always look forward to the next Wednesday event. I also have gone back to previous events that I found very helpful. I realize how much work and time it must take to get someone to put a webinar together. I have so much gratitude. Please keep the series going,” said Senior Biomedical Technician B. Hayes.
For information about Webinar Wednesday, including a calendar with upcoming webinars scheduled for 2019 and recordings of previous sessions, click on the Webinars tab above.