Can In-House HTM Departments Partner with an ISO? A Collaborative Model for Hospitals
Hospitals are making higher-stakes decisions about medical equipment with fewer people and tighter budgets than they've had in years.
Roughly half of the healthcare technology management (HTM) workforce is between 45 and 59, and the U.S. Department of Labor projects about 7,300 openings per year through 2033, yet the field is producing roughly 400 graduates annually. This labor shortage is forcing a small group of senior technicians to train on more devices and potentially extend their retirement dates.
At the same time, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and the expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies have left millions of patients uninsured and will increase uncompensated care, putting increased pressures on hospitals just to survive. When you can't support the device with your internal team, InterMed provides a hybrid model for supporting those devices your internal team cannot.
In-house HTM teams continue to focus on patient safety, compliance, and daily operations. They own policy, set priorities, manage risk, and bring institutional knowledge that outside vendors cannot replicate. Their scope has expanded to include networked devices, cybersecurity, and off-site locations alongside traditional maintenance work.
Even well-run, in-house HTM programs are struggling to sustain consistent coverage and technical depth across all modalities and platforms. Hospitals are rethinking how they structure external support for their internal teams. Many are consolidating service agreements with qualified independent service organizations to make oversight easier.
The goal is a collaborative hybrid model that extends internal teams without surrendering control, in a partnership mindset.
Success depends on finding partners who follow your lead rather than working around you, but that starts with understanding what a good partner looks like.
Defining the ISO's role
External service support is often seen as an either/or decision: protect your team or hand control to a vendor. But that's a false choice.
An independent service organization (ISO) is a vendor-neutral partner that fills gaps where your team is challenged to maintain consistent coverage or doesn't have specialty expertise. Unlike original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), which focus solely on their own products, or local third-party vendors, ISOs operate across most manufacturers, modalities, and models.
Many hospitals turn to ISOs to consolidate dozens of device-specific contracts with different terms and conditions. Moving to an ISO, simplifies governance, strengthens accountability, and improves negotiating power.
Once a scope of service is defined, InterMed’s commitment is to ensure that the work is controlled, documented, and verified once it is completed. InterMed’s ISO 13485 certification establishes procedures for traceability, calibration, and corrective actions to create clearer records, for audits, inspections, and accreditation. This combination of multi-modality expertise and strong documentation is what sets InterMed apart from traditional service vendors and enables genuine collaboration.
How this model works in practice
A collaboration between an HTM and ISO starts with clear shared expectations.
The in-house HTM team retains program leadership. They set maintenance policy, prioritize clinical needs, manage the CMMS, and make risk decisions. InterMed operates alongside those parameters to provide expertise or continuity when staffing gaps emerge.
Work gets divided based on complexity. The in-house team handles triage and routine maintenance while the ISO takes on high volume needs, specialized equipment or higher-complexity repairs. This process limits downtime by ensuring people with the right skill set address issues faster.
This structure lets hospitals add capacity without giving up control.
When partnerships make the most sense
Consolidating multiple OEM and third-party contracts under InterMed eliminates multiple contracts and generally reduces expenses. Imaging downtime can impact hospital revenue by $100,000 to $400,000 — downtime hospitals can't afford. Consolidation also improves compliance or accreditation readiness when service records and calibration results are standardized.
This model works well for facilities of all types, both rural and community hospitals, multi-site health systems, and academic facilities managing the most complex patients. The partnership goes beyond contracting specific devices, giving in-house teams support during major transitions, including acquisitions and extended staffing shortages.
The most successful in-house hybrid partnerships deliver these benefits, but only when roles and accountability are clearly defined upfront.
The right partner strengthens your HTM program
Hospitals manage a mix of general biomedical equipment, imaging systems, and specialized technologies with different risk profiles and service demands. A well-suited ISO fills the gaps in your program without creating a new set of contracts to oversee.
Beyond coverage, evaluate how the partner actually operates. Your ISO should work within your workflows and governance, not around them.
Cultural alignment deserves as much attention as technical capability. When executed well, co-managed approaches improve continuity and technical depth.
The goal is to find an ISO that reinforces your internal team rather than trying to replace it.
How InterMed can help
InterMed provides ISO 13485-certified hybrid solutions designed to strengthen internal programs. Whether you need specialty device coverage, or JumpTeams for surge staffing and projects, our vendor-neutral approach aligns with your hospital's priorities without disrupting your control.
If your organization is evaluating how to maintain control, enhance performance or reduce administrative burden, now is the right time to assess your options.
Email sales@intermed1.com or call 800-768-8622 to connect with an InterMed advisor and discuss how a collaborative HTM model can support your team.