The Webinar Wednesday series continues to deliver valuable knowledge to healthcare technology management (HTM) professionals. The sessions cover a variety of topics and provide continuing education credits to attendees.
Optimize Hospital Operations
The Webinar Wednesday presentation “How Ochsner Lafayette General Medical Center Optimized Hospital Operations with Asset Tracking Technology” sponsored by Cox Prosight was eligible for 1 credit from the ACI.
As health care continues to become more and more patient-centric, hospitals and health systems must evaluate how their workflows are impacting the patient experience and what role technology plays in optimizing workflows. Presenters Jaiganesh Balasubramanian and Patrick Thibodeaux discussed how hospitals, like Ochsner Lafayette General Medical Center (OLG), are leveraging asset tracking solutions to optimize and modernize workflows and ultimately improve the patient experience.
Balasubramanian and Thibodeaux shared valuable insights, including some use cases that asset tracking can address within hospitals as well as the benefits of an asset tracking solution used to optimize hospital operations and streamline workflows. They shared how to expand beyond asset tracking solutions and fully leverage the investment in a hospital along with best practices from OLG on how to innovate and scale with RTLS technology.
During a question-and-answer session, one attendee asked, “Can we integrate existing software and systems into Cox Prosight?”
“Absolutely. There are a lot of integrations we currently support, and many more we’ll support in the future,” Thibodeaux said.
Another attendee asked, “how is Cox Prosight different from traditional RTlS platforms on the market?”
“A lot of key differences, but some to highlight include Cox Prosight is a full stack solution,” Thibodeaux said.
He explained that it provides cost savings because Cox Prosight’s approach is to have one vendor offer everything to provide a seamless experience.
Another benefit deals with enhanced cybersecurity.
“We have put greater emphasis and designed our system to meet the latest regulations,” he said. “This makes the system very robust against cybersecurity and malware and other issues.”
“The third is affordability, with our solution being designed in the cloud, as well as using Bluetooth low energy. We feel that we have reduced the cost by over 50% on what it takes to deploy asset tracking, or a real-time location system for hospitals making it more affordable,” he said.
Attendees provided feedback via a survey that included the question, “What part of the webinar did you like the most?”
“The benefits of asset tracking on time saving,” said Technical Sales Representative-Healthcare Diane Wall.
“Real life RTLS experience for a medical facility,” is what Medical Equipment Planner/BMET Charles Hardenstein said he liked the most.
“I liked the visualization of the hospital layout,” Biomed Tech Keeley Matson said.
“Well balanced between their uses and possible uses. Good comparisons of various technologies and the benefits/uses of the various choices,” Jay Hall, owner of Medical Equipment Planning and Solutions, said.
Medical Device Management, Security
The session “Winning Strategies for Medical Device Lifecycle Management and Security” sponsored by Ordr was eligible for 1 credit from the ACI.
Managing and securing connected medical devices in healthcare delivery organizations has never been more critical. These devices are fundamental to patient care, but are proliferating, often run outdated operating systems, and are not designed with security in mind. As a result, HTM and clinical engineering teams struggle with delivering operational efficiencies while creating a safer environment of care.
What are proven tactics and strategies for medical device life cycle management and security?
Ordr Director of Healthcare Product Management Ben Stock and First Health Advisory Executive Vice President and CSO – Clinical & Operational Technology Matt Dimino shared best practices that they have obtained from years of working with leading healthcare delivery organizations. They also shared a health care security maturity model, a framework for creating a medical device security program, coupled with technology that can accelerate the move towards a secure connected health care environment.
The presenters also answered questions from attendees.
One attendee asked, “Has newer equipment been easier to keep secure than older equipment? Any changes?”
The presenters said that it depends on the manufacturer but that some manufacturers are starting to make it easier.
“They’re starting to incorporate controls. They’re starting to allow you to make changes to the device and not keep you locked out of the device,” Stock said.
Another attendee asked about getting resources to help create a medical device security program.
The presenters said it is important to keep a record of requests and all work done. They suggest using the CMMS to log all of the HTM department’s time spent on requests regarding all work including cybersecurity.
Attendees provided feedback about the webinar via a survey that included the question, “How does the HTM industry benefit from Webinar Wednesdays?”
“Great topics that are useful, insightful and can be applied to our daily activities,” said Ron Perfater, director clinical engineering operations.
“Very good breadth and really good depth of subject matter. Excellent guidance, what to watch out for, how to sustain, and big picture as well as stumbling blocks. Very good balance. And not so vendor-oriented as to look biased; just right!,” shared Jay Hall, owner Medical Equipment Planning and Solutions.
“This is a great way to obtain ACI CEUs and gain industry knowledge,” James Breidel, healthcare engineering technician III.
X-ray Testing
The presentation “X-ray Testing Made Easier – Simpler Procedures for e.g. Dental CBCT” was sponsored by RTI Group. It was eligible for 1 credit from the ACI with 152 individuals registered.
In some situations, performing tests on imaging X-ray equipment can present challenges. One example is the growing install base of Dental CBCT where getting reproducible measurements of CTDI may be an issue. Another example is the positioning of measurement probes at certain distances above the tabletop to measure, for example, skin entrance dose. Each of these examples require specific holders or cumbersome procedures to complete. Both are difficult to replicate. It could be of interest to explore alternative methods that provide equivalent results.
RTI Group’s Erik Wikström provided webinar attendees with insights into certain measurement situations where there may be a need for alternative setups in order to achieve reproducible and practical results as well as an efficient procedure.
A portion of the webinar was a question-and-answer session with attendees.
One individual asked, “We use Excel to calculate the dose a certain distance from the tube, correcting it using the inverse square law. Can we do that with RTI instruments?”
“Yes, of course,” Wikström said. “There are different ways of doing that. You have the values, and you can just do the math and key it into Excel but there’s also a way of exporting that data directly into an Excel spreadsheet. So, you don’t have to do the manual keyboard entry.”
Another attendee asked, “Where is DAP used for dental, CBCT instead of CTDI?
“In Europe, it’s being used mainly because of the repeatability and reproducibility issues. And we understand that it’s being looked at in certain areas and certain states in the U.S. as well as Canada. So, we’re looking forward to having a easier way of doing it and a more reproducible and precise way of doing the PMs and inspections in the not too distant future … in many cases.”
Attendees provided feedback regarding the webinar in a survey that included the question, “What part of today’s webinar did you like the most?”
“This is my first webinar with RTI. It covered some of the issues with CBCT dental units. The speaker was also informative and the examples were helpful,” said Carlos Rodriguez, owner Rodriguez Dental Technical Service.
“The way the instructor explained inverse square law to calculate the dose when changing the position of the probe,” Sachin Gandhi, an imaging engineer.
“The test procedures are done with a series of diagrams and clear illustrations made it a good presentation,” Biomedical Technician I Michael Vallarta said.
For more information, visit WebinarWednesday.live.