Professional of the Month

PROFESSIONAL OF THE MONTH: STEPHANIE DRAKE

The Right Skill Set

BY K. RICHARD DOUGLAS

Not everyone who considers providing veterinarian care to horses ends up as a biomed, but biomeds often take an indirect path to the profession.

Some start out intent on taking the clinician route and end up as HTM professionals.

Both were the case with Stephanie Drake, clinical engineering manager with Intermountain Medical Center and TOSH facilities at Intermountain Healthcare IMC/ TOSH in Murray, Utah.

Drake didn’t know much about biomed at the start of her journey and considers it a fluke that she found biomed.

“I wanted to be an equine veterinarian, then joined the Army in 2008 hoping to become a Combat Medic (68W), but there were none available at the time,” she says.

A recruiter she spoke with was a biomed (68A) and pointed her in that direction.

“I had no idea what I was getting myself into, yet I caught on well, particularly when it came to the hands-on portions of the training. I do not believe I would have done as well as a combat medic as I have as a biomed, both in and out of the military,” Drake says.

Training came by way of the military and then more handson experience overseas.

“I attended the military’s biomed program at Sheppard AFB in Wichita Falls, Texas from 2008-2009. It was 10 months of both book and hands-on learning from a Gomco suction unit to closet-sized sterilizers,” Drake says.

Shortly after completing that program, she got married and was informed that her unit was slated for deployment to Afghanistan.

“That started a six-month process of additional training on devices such as would be used in the lab or imaging,” Drake says.

Drake’s HTM journey continued in the civilian world after her time in the military.

“I was in the Army Reserve as a biomed and reached sergeant (E5) prior to my contract ending. I joined Intermountain Healthcare in August 2012 as a clinical engineer. I serviced the medical group clinics for three years. I transferred to the LDS Hospital, and with my five years there, I reached tech III and team lead before accepting the clinical engineering manager

position for the Intermountain Medical Center and TOSH facilities in December 2020,” she says.

Drake’s area of specialization includes the GE Aisys anesthesia machine as well as multiple ventilators.

“In my most recent role as manager, I have had less time with equipment. I specialize in promoting my team’s development and growth,” she says.

MEETING THE CHALLENGE During the pandemic, Drake and her team were called upon to coordinate and quickly expand bed capacity.

“In the summer of 2020, we came upon the need to quickly expand our ICU capacity at the LDS hospital. This involved pulling and storing equipment from those previously occupying the floors and commandeering extra patient beds to fill each room,” she says.

The project required a push for a patient monitor upgrade in another facility in the system so that the old monitors could fill these rooms. This project required Drake to do research to purchase consumables (cuffs, hoses and finger probes) that could be delivered within a week.

“Some of these rooms had to go live with patients before we could install the central monitoring and nurse call system. Nursing had extra sitters available as well as bells in each room. My team escalated the need for each install and was able to get them in with coordination between the vendor and nursing staff to work around and move patients between rooms,” Drake says.

Away from her role as a CE manager, Drake enjoys reading and video games when there is time.

“For both, I enjoy fantasy with good story lines that I can lose myself in,” she says.

She also enjoys staying active, which includes going to the gym and yard work.

“More mowing the lawn than weeding. I like being up and moving about,” Drake says.

At home, she enjoys time with her husband of 12 years and three children from one to six-years-old.

“When the opportunity arises, I will take home devices apart to try to fix or even just replace the power cord on my dryer. Teaching my kids what the different tools are called, and what they can be used for,” she says.

Despite initially thinking she would be healing horses, Drake ended up in her perfect vocation.

“I love what I do, both as a tech and as a manager. Even though I ended up in the field by happenstance, I have the mechanical mindset and ability to work with people to do the job and to do it well. Being able to solve problems with machines and people is satisfying work and I get to be called a wizard. The moments that the end-users see how we affect their work, and the appreciation they show, is one of the things that keeps me coming back to the problems,” she says.

Drake says that the work that she does would not be nearly as good if not for her husband.

“He takes the time to listen to my day and provides amazing insight into what the results could be depending on the direction I choose to go. He also reminds me when it is time to set my work aside and come home. If not for him, I would be a much worse workaholic,” she says.

People skills and a mechanical mindset allow this CE manager to check all the boxes while enjoying her work.

BIOMETRICS

FAVORITE BOOK: “The Lightbringer” by Brent Weeks

HIDDEN TALENT: “As a teenager I did clogging which included competitions at high schools and the local amusement park, Lagoon.”

FAVORITE FOOD: Rice and brown gravy, especially when it has some beef and mushrooms.

WHAT’S ON MY BENCH?

Pictures of my kids/their handprints, breakfast shake/concoction that is surprisingly tasty, sticky notes, as much as I try to go digital, I always go back to the sticky notes, scrubs so I can jump into the OR at a moment’s notice, water bottle because I am never hydrated enough, and texts from my husband.

FAVORITE PART OF BEING A BIOMED? “Training people and seeing their eyes light up when the information clicks. Both awesome and sad that they then tell me I can go away because they’ve ‘got it.’ ”

COMPANY SHOWCASE

Phoenix Data Systems Inc.

Phoenix Data Systems is a trusted provider of CMMS software. AIMS (Asset Information Management System), the company’s signature software, is used by tens of thousands of HTM professionals around the world. Phoenix was formed in the early days of specialized software based on the urgent need for hospitals to have a computerized maintenance work order system.

In 1984, the first AIMS was delivered to eight Michigan hospitals. Presently, AIMS is used in almost 3,000 hospitals in 22 countries and by an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 users each day.

Phoenix’ success is based on a collaborative partnership approach with our customers. Phoenix listens, builds and delivers both quality CMMS software and quality support service. The software is constantly improving with two software releases per year to satisfy customers’ wants/needs and regulatory requirements.

Phoenix Data Systems Inc. CEO/ President Ben Mannisto recently shared more information about the trailblazing company.

Q: WHAT ARE SOME ADVANTAGES THAT YOUR COMPANY HAS OVER THE COMPETITION? Mannisto: AIMS was specifically created by health care engineers for health care clients and has been a CMMS system explicitly dedicated to the health care industry for over 35 years. The Phoenix staff has extensive experience with CMMS software implementations, database conversions and

Ben Mannisto

ongoing customer support. Phoenix’ customer support satisfaction scores in the last three years have been 94% to 97%. Arguably the highest in the CMMS industry.

Q: WHAT ARE SOME CHALLENGES THAT YOUR COMPANY FACED LAST YEAR? Mannisto: Our hospital customers deferred many capital projects in 2020 and early 2021. Once hospitals became less busy with COVID, the deferred business has been reinstituted and Phoenix is enjoying a backlog, the highest in the company’s history. Phoenix’ biggest challenge is to find qualified staff to support the growth.

Q: CAN YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN YOUR COMPANY’S CORE COMPETENCIES AND UNIQUE SELLING POINTS? Mannisto: Phoenix has approached the complexity of creating a solution for small, individual hospitals to large, multi-site health systems by providing each user the ability to define their preferences for hospital count and breadth of feature and function. AIMS 3 can also interface with almost any third-party application, giving customers the freedom of customizing even further than the numerous optional components. Health care is our only business, and our extensive experience is reflected in the software’s ease of use and creative features and functions.

Q: WHAT PRODUCT OR SERVICE THAT YOUR COMPANY OFFERS ARE YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT RIGHT NOW? Mannisto: AIMS 3 is 35 years of hospital technician and management needs combined and optimized in a completely new rebuild of the AIMS platform. AIMS 3 makes the users experience easier and more efficient with meaningful labor savings.

A Phoenix subsidiary, Superior Analytics, provides its services to hospitals using any CMMS software. Superior can analyze an HTM department using any of the 15 identified very relative department KPIs. These metrics show a comprehensive HTM department profile indicating where the potential areas of improvements are. The hospital’s ROI for fees to do the analysis are typically 300-500%.

Q: WHAT IS ON THE HORIZON FOR YOUR COMPANY? Mannisto: We expect continued growth with the release of our AIMS 3 software

and combined excitement with the services we offer through Superior Analytics. Phoenix and AIMS have numerous future activities and ideas for software expansion that will facilitate making the HTM departments more efficient, more effective and more visible as to where they are doing a good job versus where they can do better.

Q: CAN YOU SHARE SOME COMPANY SUCCESS STORIES WITH OUR READERS? Mannisto: Customer needs are the primary force that drives the AIMS product. Phoenix will often design and implement specific solutions for our customers.

For example, a 40-hospital group determined that (a) their receipt of products to a central warehouse is important before distribution to the hospitals; and (b) the redistribution of the obsolete equipment must be warehoused to optimize a sale, relocation to another hospital, or donated.

Phoenix presently is designing a warehouse optional component to handle all of these needs and a number of other activities. The software will be a major add to the AIMS 3 software and will be phased in by the various sections of the warehouse operations over the next two years. Q: CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR COMPANY’S FACILITY? Mannisto: Phoenix’ corporate office is located in Southfield, Michigan. However, many of our employees enjoy flexible working conditions with the ability to work from home.

Q: CAN YOU HIGHLIGHT ANY RECENT CHANGES TO YOUR COMPANY? Mannisto: Management commonly knows that quality work is reflective of the individuals and team experience. Because of the accelerated customer growth of AIMS 3, Phoenix has expanded our team and acquired some very able employees who have extensive experience in health care CMMS.

Q: CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR EMPLOYEES? Mannisto: Phoenix has many key employees. However, it is important to highlight Aaron Peters, the 18-year AIMS product manager. Aaron supervised the team that designed AIMS 3 from the very beginning to its current condition. Aaron works closely with customers and is constantly improving the software through close communication and innovative thinking. AIMS 3 is being well recognized by the HTM community and Phoenix enjoys many new customers because of it.

Q: WHAT IS YOUR COMPANY’S MISSION STATEMENT? Mannisto: Phoenix’ mission is to stay current with ever changing health care needs and, where practical, stay ahead of any HTM health care requirements. This commitment to our users’ efficiency and ease of doing business is one of Phoenix’ foundational values. This has helped build Phoenix from a nominal number of customers in 1984 to roughly 3,000 hospitals presently. Phoenix cares about our users’ experience and this shows through our solid, long-term relationships with customers. The average relationship is longer than 20 years, and many of our customers began using AIMS as early as 1984. Many of those early customers have never used any other CMMS. “Choose AIMS 3 and you will never search for another CMMS”

Phoenix is committed long term to health care CMMS and nothing else.

For more information, visit goaims.com/