Top 5 Healthcare Market Integrators

Think of the CI Industry Leaders as power rankings.

We recognize the top integration firms serving 12 vertical markets, not purely by revenue but by a variety of factors including reputation, innovation and market approach. Put another way, these are companies that are making waves and worth watching.

CI spoke to five healthcare market integrators about what helped them succeed (or fail!) at every step along the way. Check out what they have to say and click here to download the complete report, Meet the 2014 CI Industry Leaders.

On Success:

“[You have to be] good listeners. It may seem like a simple concept, but the act of listening to a client’s needs and then designing a technological solution around that information is the key to our service offering. Our motto is, ‘We don’t sell…We service.’ We never approach a client with a preconceived equipment list or solution. We create a solution only after we meet the client, get to know how they operate and understand what they are hoping to accomplish with an addition of technology.

“We are also not afraid of the challenge and risk, both financially as well as professionally, associated with medical integration. Integrating new and various forms of medical technology has many risks in the fact that medical equipment vendors have proprietary signal resolutions, which offer up challenges to commercial AV integrators. Having a staff that is knowledgeable on medical technology and enjoys a challenge is a key to providing a successful solution.” —Brad Peterson, CEO, Level 3 Audio Visual

“Our focus in health care revolves around identifying what is truly important to nursing from a patient experience, quality and efficiency stand point. We balance that with the needs of the IT department. We recognize our job is to listen and identify what is really important and align the proper technology mix that will enable their success.

Related: Level 3 Audio Visual Automates Talking Mannequins, Surgical Simulation

“This can encompass several aspects of the alphabet soup of the health care industry like VBR, HCAHPS and non-reimbursable care down to the basics of product life and electronics life expectations. We work hard to provide perspective via our thought leadership relationships as well as engage on a practical level with each individual team.

“However — and this has been critical to our success— we balance this entire conversation by being specific that we provide nurse call light systems integrated with end point and other enabling devices. At the end of the day we are a systems integrator and our specialty is systems integration. We install hardware components that are required by code to enable process.”—Kourtney Govro, Vice President, All Systems

On Failure:

“One has to decide that they will see the project through to completion even if this means losing money on the transaction. Walking away from a project is not in our vocabulary until the client is satisfied regardless of whether or not we are losing money in the process … It has taken us five long years to develop the team, the knowledge and the experience to be in position to offer value to the health care market.

“Health care integration is much different than corporate integration and there is a very steep learning curve associated with making this transition. Add to that the fact that people’s lives and surgical outcomes may be dependent on the technology an integrator provides. An integrator needs to understand the ‘buy-in’ necessary to play in this market and then decide if they are willing and interested in the associated risks.” —Brad Peterson, CEO, Level 3 Audio Visual

“[You’ll fail if you don’t understand] your place in the hospital ecosystem. Be good at what you are good at and be open to being supporting role instead of the star of the show. My dad would say, ‘Don’t get too big for your britches.’ What do you really focus on and do? Selling vision should be done by thought leadership and business development people but when the rubber meets the road you must be able to deliver on what is promised, so watch what you are promising.

“I read an interesting article written about Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, it was talking about their growth and how they had become so successful. One thing that stood out to me was that they exploited what they had great success — an ordering platform and delivery system. Amazon’s real ‘product’ is not a product at all. Their real product is the software for ordering and the methodology for delivery. Integrators are basically Amazon — listening, designing, delivering, and providing on-going support is our product, not the physical products we represent.” —Kourtney Govro, Vice President, All Systems

Click here to download the complete report, “Meet the 2014 CI Industry Leaders.”