MedTech Outlook recently named TRIMEDX the 2024 top company in medical equipment maintenance services as part of its annual top 10 companies edition. In highlighting TRIMEDX, COO Kristi McDermott was also interviewed about the company’s dedication to service excellence and making a difference in the healthcare technology management industry.
TRIMEDX: Healthcare excellence through technology and talent
When asked what makes a hospital successful, many would readily point to the presence of skilled doctors and prompt patient care.
However, beneath the surface of medical prowess and efficient patient care lies an often-overlooked cohort of professionals who play an essential role in the seamless operation of healthcare facilities—clinical engineering/biomed technicians.
Tasked with the responsibility of optimizing clinical assets, their role is pivotal in ensuring hospitals consistently deliver safe and high-quality care.
TRIMEDX’s indispensable technician support to hospitals shines here.
“Our contribution to the healthcare industry stems from an acute awareness of the challenges hospitals face, particularly when operating within limited budgets. Hospitals typically prioritize recruiting and retaining clinical talent, which may deter hiring and retaining top clinical engineers and technicians,” says Kristi McDermott, chief operating officer of TRIMEDX.
Staffing and supply challenges within clinical engineering can be difficult to address without adding cost and/or risk to the program. With TRIMEDX, health systems get integrated and innovative technology and experience with on-site technicians & its centralized support team of associates. This partnership with the only fully dedicated Clinical Asset Management company bolsters a CE program and addresses resource constraints with every component of clinical asset management—from inventory reconciliation and regulatory support to training and recruiting top talent.
With TRIMEDX’s supply chain, regulatory, and quality teams focused solely on clinical asset management, teams have the resources, parts, service plans, and support to fully deliver clinical equipment needs that satisfy clinicians and caregivers. Hospitals are also able to maintain a fully staffed, fully engaged clinical engineering team with TRIMEDX’s CE-specific recruiting, training, and career development resources. All this leads to improved availability of equipment that is safe, compliant, and ready for patient care.
The advantages of a partnership with TRIMEDX are twofold. On the one hand, hospitals benefit from reduced CapEx and OpEx while optimizing their available resources. On the other, it tackles critical talent shortages within the healthcare domain and fosters career advancement opportunities for skilled technicians.
The proof is in the numbers; TRIMEDX’s Clinical Asset Informatics platform, a unique offering. covers up to 95 percent of multivendor medical devices in use across the country. It provides invaluable data, insights, proprietary benchmarking, and analytics to help clients manage medical device fleets without substantial investments. Simultaneously, the company’s high level of engagement within the industry and reputation as a top-tier employer enable it to effectively recruit and retain top talent, resulting in a lower turnover rate than industry standards.
There’s another crucial aspect that TRIMEDX considers—risk management. Managing a medical device fleet entails various risks from regulatory and cybersecurity standpoints.
From the regulatory perspective, ensuring medical devices are safe, properly maintained, cleaned, and ready for patient use when needed is paramount. TRIMEDX’s dedicated team of about 40 experts takes a holistic approach to offer seamless regulatory management. They proactively track numerous medical device alerts and recalls, making sure issues posing potential client risks are promptly addressed, minimizing downtime, and enhancing patient safety.
Cybersecurity is another facet healthcare institutions must navigate, particularly as more medical devices become connected. TRIMEDX has invested substantially in medical device cybersecurity solutions and augmented its technician base with cybersecurity experts to support clients.
The company maintains an extensive library of 70 intelligent sources for vulnerabilities and actively manages them for clients. This includes applying patches, implementing remediation measures, and employing alternative strategies to mitigate cybersecurity risks. It also employs a dynamic risk-scoring system to aid clients in making informed decisions, including device replacements.
However, these innovations can amount to little if the onboarding and change management processes encounter challenges. To seamlessly transition and facilitate effective change management, TRIMEDX has a robust implementation and onboarding plan. This covers the transition of the clinical engineering program and extends to all users within the health systems who will use the solutions.
Throughout this process, the team provides comprehensive training to ensure clients can fully access its services. This includes guidance on using the Client Experience Center integrated with its computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). This integration is crucial as clients can easily make service requests within seconds through an online portal, or they can make requests on the phone which typically take on average two minutes or less to address their needs.
In one instance, a client’s radiography and fluoroscopy room in a busy ER appeared to be working normally, but occasional tube spits were happening, which can lead to image artifacts. TRIMEDX’s Predictive Work System identified the tube spit problem and automatically generated a work order for the clinical engineering team. TRIMEDX technicians first worked with the ER staff to assess the problem outside of high-patient volume times. The technicians discovered the issue was not the tube after all—it was a faulty generator. If they had replaced the tube without knowing this, it would have continued to produce artifacts and caused even more equipment downtime and ER disruption. Because of TRIMEDX’s technology and trained technicians, the real issue was quickly identified and saved the hospital from a long period of equipment downtime.
TRIMEDX’s distinctive organizational culture significantly contributes to its growth and success. It emphasizes active listening and highly values the insights and input provided by its dedicated technicians, operations management team, and client services teams. This culture of collaboration and receptivity is fundamental to its commitment to delivering excellent service in the healthcare sector.