Trimedx Chief Operating Officer Kristi McDermott wrote an article for DOTmed HealthCare Business News on how AI is helping healthcare technology management (HTM) teams eliminate everyday inefficiencies. She shares how AI can streamline administrative work, make critical information easier to access, and help teams proactively address equipment issues to improve device availability.
Artificial intelligence often dominates headlines with promises of revolutionizing health care, but the most meaningful improvements may be far less dramatic. For healthcare technology management (HTM) teams, success isn’t measured by futuristic breakthroughs or flashy demonstrations. It’s measured by whether a medical device is available when it’s needed, whether a technician can quickly find the information they’re looking for, and whether routine administrative tasks consume less of the workday.
As health systems navigate workforce shortages, growing equipment complexity, and mounting financial pressures, one of AI’s greatest benefits is its ability to quietly eliminate everyday inefficiencies and help people work more effectively. Leaders are looking for exactly that: in a recent survey, 83% of C-suite healthcare executives said boosting employee efficiency is the biggest opportunity AI presents for their organization.
Reducing documentation and administrative burdens
The HTM industry is particularly well positioned to benefit from automation because the profession is built around managing large volumes of equipment data, maintenance records, service manuals, and troubleshooting guides. AI can help streamline many routine administrative tasks like summarizing work orders or capturing equipment test results. That relief matters when technicians spend a third of their time on administrative work.
Reviewing field service reports is another task that has traditionally been manual and time-intensive. AI can automatically extract key information from a variety of report formats, cutting hours of manual review, improving accuracy, and allowing teams to focus on higher-value work.
Teams that use AI to automate these processes allow technicians to spend more time maintaining equipment, solving problems, and supporting the clinicians who depend on them.
Putting critical insights at technicians’ fingertips
Health systems can leverage AI-powered tools to make it easier for technicians to organize, access, and utilize the vast amount of data and documentation they need each day. Whether troubleshooting an unfamiliar issue, reviewing a repair history, or locating a service guide, technicians often spend valuable time searching through information spread across multiple systems.
With the right technology and processes in place, technicians can quickly ask conversational questions to get step-by-step instructions on how to fix a certain device. They can also locate service manuals or troubleshooting recommendations from other technicians in a matter of seconds—making the right information easy to access when it’s needed most. One report found a 39% improvement in field service resolution time and 21% increase in accuracy when using AI.
AI-powered tools can also capture and organize knowledge accumulated through years of service activities, ensuring valuable insights remain accessible and searchable across the organization even after veteran technicians retire.
Improving device availability through operational intelligence
Making expertise easier to access is only one way AI can reduce friction in HTM workflows. Service histories and work order records don’t just answer today’s questions—analyzed in aggregate, they reveal early warning signs of equipment issues before they surface.
AI can detect degradation patterns that indicate a medical device component is likely to fail soon. Instead of responding after the equipment goes offline, clinical engineering teams can proactively schedule service, secure the necessary parts, and complete repairs before the failure occurs. AI may also identify when a related component is likely to fail, allowing technicians to replace multiple parts during a single service event rather than making a second repair visit later. This reduces equipment downtime, improves device availability, protects revenue by minimizing disruptions to scheduled procedures, and decreases the number of off-hours emergency calls technicians receive. In practice, that adds up. Trimedx technology helps health systems avoid more than 1,200 downtime events annually.
By turning large volumes of operational data into actionable insights, AI in healthcare operations helps teams make more informed maintenance and asset management decisions, ensuring devices remain safe, reliable, and ready for patient care.
Building trust through measurable results
The common thread across all these examples is that they use AI to solve real-world problems clinical engineering teams face every day.
Health systems and individual technicians are more likely to embrace new technologies when they deliver clear operational benefits like reducing documentation burdens or preventing unexpected equipment downtime.
Each of these applications creates a proof point. Early wins earn trust among technicians and make the next adoption easier than the last.
AI's success in HTM will be defined by the problems it helps solve. Health systems don’t need artificial intelligence for the sake of innovation—they need tools that help technicians work more efficiently, find information faster, and keep critical medical devices available and performing as expected. Applied with intention and built into the workflows technicians already use, the simplest uses of AI are often the most impactful.