Every lesson in CHTM Academy

The exam

Exam domains

How the course works

1. Cheat sheet. Everything the exam expects you to recall cold, printable.
2. Starter test. A few questions per exam domain, with a confidence rating on each.
3. Your tutorial. Lessons chosen from what you missed or guessed, each with a checkpoint and a deeper explanation.
4. Practice tests and retraining. 50 questions, weighted like the real exam. Every miss is explained and feeds back into your lessons.
5. 3 of your last 5 at 80%. That unlocks one full-length test on the real exam's clock: 100 questions in 120 minutes, at its real passing score of 70%. Pass it once and you are ready to book.

Every lesson

The first 15 lessons are open to read here. Every lesson, with its checkpoint, is free inside the course.

Unit 1: Financial Management

How hospital money is organized, how the HTM budget is built and defended, and how a manager reads the statements.

1. How Hospital Money Is Organized: Operating and Capital Budgets, Cost Centers, the Fiscal Year 9 min
2. The HTM General Ledger: Supplies, Payroll, Parts, Consumables, Contracts, Training 9 min
3. Budget Reports and Variance: Reading the Monthly Report and Explaining the Gap 10 min
4. Financial Statements: Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Depreciation, GAAP, Accounts Payable and Receivable 10 min
5. Business Justification and Return on Investment: ROI, Payback Period, Total Cost of Ownership 10 min
6. Analyzing Past, Present, and Expected Operations: Trends, Forecasts, Development Opportunities 9 min

Unit 2: Procurement, Contracts, and the Asset Lifecycle

How a manager plans replacement, evaluates contracts, sources parts and service, and advises on value.

7. Life Expectancy and Capital Replacement Planning 10 min
8. Service Contracts: Cost, Compliance, Terms and Conditions 10 min
9. Contract Types and Coverage Levels; the In-House Versus Vendor Decision 10 min
10. Sourcing Parts, Service, Training, and Test Equipment 9 min
11. Fair Market Value: Purchase, Lease, and Asset Recovery on Disposal 9 min
12. Advising Management: the Recommendation and the Paper Trail 9 min

Unit 3: Risk, Recalls, and Data Security

How a manager finds, scores, controls, reports, and recovers from risk.

13. Identifying and Evaluating Risk: Patient Safety, Operations, Financial, Emergency Preparedness, Regulatory 10 min
14. Risk Scoring and the Maintenance Strategy It Drives 10 min
15. Recommending Controls: Processes, Procedures, and Policies That Mitigate Risk 9 min
16. Root Cause Analysis and Incident Investigation in the course
17. FMEA: Severity, Occurrence, Detection, and the Risk Priority Number in the course
18. Reports That Explain Risk: the Safe Medical Devices Act of 1990, Medical Device Reporting, Sentinel Event Alerts in the course
19. Recalls, Hazards, and Safety Advisories in the course
20. Data Integrity and Security for PACS, the EMR, and Networked Devices in the course
21. Cybersecurity Oversight: Patching, Hardening, Segmentation, WMTS, Operating System Life Expectancy in the course
22. Emergency Preparedness and Continuity for HTM: Downtime, Utility Failure, Disaster Plans in the course

Unit 4: Service Operations and the CMMS

How the work gets done, recorded, measured, staffed, and resourced, and how the record you keep answers a surveyor years later.

23. Work Order Flow From Request to Closure, and Customer Satisfaction in the course
24. CMMS Documentation Regardless of Ownership: Inventory, Parts, History, Recalls, End of Life in the course
25. PM Scheduling, Completion Rates, and the Compliance Report in the course
26. Performance Data and KPIs: Productivity, Staffing, Competency, Cost Reduction in the course
27. The Cost of Service Ratio and Benchmarking in the course
28. Staffing and Scheduling Requirements in the course
29. Resources: PPE, Tools, Test Equipment, Supplies, Technical Information in the course
30. Electronic Data Management of Computerized Assets: Backups, Security, Patching, Updates in the course
31. Alternative Equipment Maintenance Programs and How to Document Them in the course

Unit 5: Policy, Regulators, and Accreditation

The plan, the procedures, the committees, and the regulators that judge the program, and what each of them expects you to produce on request.

32. The Medical Equipment Management Plan in the course
33. SOPs and the Environment of Care Manual in the course
34. Goals, Objectives, and Reporting to Committees: EOC, Patient Safety, Risk, Performance Improvement, Radiation Safety, Infection Control in the course
35. CMS, Deemed Status, and the Organizations That Accredit on Its Behalf in the course
36. FDA, FCC, NRC, and HIPAA Obligations of the HTM Department in the course
37. Surveys: Preparing, Hosting, and Answering Findings in the course

Unit 6: Projects, Capital Planning, and Stakeholders

How a manager evaluates technology requests, runs the projects that follow, and works with everyone else in the building.

38. Capital Planning: Evaluating Healthcare Technology Requests in the course
39. Project Feasibility: Space, Site Preparation, Power, Network in the course
40. Sustainability and Service Strategy: Parts, Training, Manuals, Life Expectancy, MAUDE Reports in the course
41. Standardization: the Argument and Its Limits in the course
42. Coordinating Service Providers Across the Lifecycle: Acquisition, Contracting, Installation, Training, Sustainment in the course
43. Project Management: Plans, Schedules, Stakeholders, and the Sustainment Plan in the course
44. Construction Planning, Utility Interruption, Change Management, and Downtime Procedures in the course
45. Meetings, Rounding, Huddles, and Communicating with Department Leaders and Vendors in the course
46. Collaboration with IT, Nursing, Informatics, Facilities, and Senior Leadership; Device Interoperability in the course

Unit 7: Education and Training

How a manager decides what training is worth, buys it, delivers it, and proves it worked.

47. Analyzing Training Needs: Cost, ROI, Competency, Operations, Inventory in the course
48. Measuring Training Effectiveness: Failure Rates, Total Time to Repair, Competencies, User Satisfaction in the course
49. Technical Training: Model-Specific, Manufacturer-Provided, Negotiated Into the Purchase in the course
50. Regulatory, Safety, and Soft-Skills Training in the course
51. Orientation and Initial Training: Mentor, SOPs, Shop and Facility in the course
52. Operator Training Against Failure Trending and Use Error, and for New Equipment, Applications, and Staff in the course
53. Manuals and Media, and Collaboration with Non-Clinical Departments in the course

Unit 8: Human Resources and Labor Law

Hiring, evaluating, developing, paying, and protecting the people who do the work.

54. Job Descriptions, Selection, Retention, and Termination in the course
55. Performance Evaluations: Compensation, Organizational Values, Engagement in the course
56. Development Plans, Competency Assessment, Certification, and Recommendations to Human Resources in the course
57. Goals, Coaching, Mentoring, Recognition, and Conflict in the course
58. Facilitating Change; Hearings and Investigations in the course
59. Staffing Levels, the Cost of a Biomed, Incentives, and Pay Equity in the course
60. Labor Law and a Safe Workplace: ADA, EEOC, FMLA, NLRA, OSHA, and PPE in the course

On exam day

• 100 questions in 2 hours, closed book, with an on-screen calculator and notepad. That is over a minute per question; the arithmetic items are few and worth doing carefully.
• Some questions are unscored trial items. A question that seems to be from nowhere may be one of them; answer it and move on.
• Read for the qualifier: FIRST, MOST appropriate, BEST. The manager's answer is usually the one that measures, documents, and escalates through the right committee, not the one that fixes the device.
• Know the formulas and the names cold: variance, ROI and payback, depreciation, the cost of service ratio, the risk priority number, the Safe Medical Devices Act, the committees, the regulators, and the labor laws.
• Eligibility is checked when you apply: a current technician credential plus three years as an HTM supervisor or manager in the last five is the common pathway. Apply early; the windows are May 1 to 15 and November 1 to 15.
• Two forms of ID, arrive early, sleep the night before.