CTG Clinical Engineering Assessment Unlocks $10M+ in Potential Savings for University Health System

"CTG approached our challenges with an exceptional level of expertise and objectivity. Their team quickly understood the complexity of our environment and delivered a clear, evidence‑based plan that highlighted over $10 million in potential savings. This assessment has become a cornerstone of our strategy to strengthen Clinical Engineering and improve systemwide efficiency." — Chief Information Officer, University Health System 

The Challenge and Opportunity

A large university health system client of CTG’s, with nearly 10 hospitals and hundreds of outpatient sites, has undergone significant growth, both organically and through acquisitions. While this growth increased bed counts and medical equipment, Clinical Engineering (CE) staffing levels did not keep pace, resulting in operational strain on resources, reliance on external vendors, and high service contract costs. CE and IT leaders recognized the need to increase headcount but lacked the reliable data required to justify the investment. They sought a consultant to perform a data-driven assessment of CE staffing. 

Instead of solely a staffing evaluation, CTG proposed a full assessment of the entire CE function, including processes and technology. We brought the strength of a vendor‑agnostic IT consulting organization and a senior consultant with more than 40 years of CE leadership and healthcare consulting experience. This combination of deep domain expertise and an enterprise‑level perspective, alongside one of the university’s leader’s prior positive experience with CTG, led to our selection. 

The Solution and Results

The goal of CTG’s CE Assessment was to identify areas for improvement, ensure optimal staffing levels, and assess the overall alignment of resources across the health system’s multiple locations.  

Data Collection and Site Assessments 

CTG began by collecting data from across the organization, including equipment inventories, budgets, medical equipment spending, and service contracts. Due to the recent acquisitions, information was decentralized and inconsistent, creating challenges with data collection and validation. To complement the data, CTG conducted site visits at all hospitals to observe daily operations, interview CE staff, and identify location-specific needs. 

Data Normalization and Analysis 

A rigorous data normalization phase followed to create a consistent, accurate foundation for analysis. This included combining multiple equipment inventories into a master database and standardizing nomenclature. We assigned and reviewed estimated acquisitions costs for more than 106,000 assets and analyzed one year of accounts payable data to identify medical equipment-related contracts and service expenditures, enabling us to calculate performance and opportunity metrics.   

Findings and Roadmap 

We delivered a comprehensive report that included operational insights, staffing and cost metrics, and a clear roadmap to improve CE Service Delivery and justify the cost of additional staff. The assessment identified four key opportunity areas:

1. Workforce Optimization: We recommended a phased CE staffing expansion to meet current demands and future strategic initiatives without overwhelming HR and Finance. This included reframing additional CE staff not as increased labor expenses, but as expense reduction or margin improvement opportunities.

2. Organizational Structure: We proposed a more robust centralized model for CE to improve efficiencies and resource alignment. This would strengthen data integrity, create common processes, improve resource sharing, and establish accountability under a unified leadership structure. Our recommendations also included adding additional corporate oversight positions, creating a shared mission and vision, reorganizing the Field Services team, and more.

3. Cost Savings: We identified significant opportunities to reduce third‑party service spending by centralizing contract budgets and shifting to a time and materials model; investing in internal training and hiring; and reducing reliance on external service contracts. Additional recommendations included shadowing vendors to ensure accurate billing and accelerate staff skill development.

4. Quality Improvements:  We recommended targeted quality improvements, including regular safety data tracking to proactively identify issues and risks, ensuring all sites have complete medical equipment inventories, involving CE leaders in capital planning, and more.

Through detailed data analysis and benchmarking, CTG demonstrated that strategic investments in internal training and staffing could reduce external service contract costs for high-tech medical equipment—unlocking more than $10 million in potential cost savings for our client. The assessment provided CE and IT leaders with the data needed to justify staffing increases and develop a sustainable, centralized CE strategy.