Reducing Medical Equipment Repair Costs

Is your medical facility looking to reduce the costs involved in repairing medical equipment used to treat patients?  There are three important questions to answer when deciding how your facility will reduce the costs associated with repairing medical equipment. 

First, it is important to know the overall expense for annual medical equipment maintenance and repair including repairs that are made in-house, those that are outsources, OEM, T&M and more.  Next, it is essential to determine the cost of long term contracts that are in place regarding maintenance on medical equipment.  Be sure to take note of what type of maintenance and repairs are covered by the long term contract.  The last question that needs to be answered is what the actual cost reduction goal for the facility is.  After these three questions are answered clarity regarding a plan of action in reducing the repair costs of medical equipment in your facility can reached.

Medical facilities are facing a myriad of uncertainties.  There is a need for healthcare facilities to find ways to trim expenses and cut careless spending.  It is vital that medical facilities recognize, measure, implement, and maintain a cost reduction strategy regarding maintenance and repairs to medical equipment in order to remain operational while enduring economic downturns.

In order to find ways to save money a facility needs to understand the cost of their current medical equipment maintenance program.  To clearly see the big picture of the program that is currently in place it is key that all of the contracts regarding equipment maintenance are taken into consideration.  The contracts should be completely understood.  What do the contracts cover?  Are failed parts replaced as a part of the contract? Does the contract fully cover the expense of labor and parts?  Does the plan cover the expenses incurred whether they are in house, outsourced?  What about the time and cost of materials be it new or refurbished?  Reducing the costs within a medical facility are never easy but having a clearer understanding of the bigger picture and overall costs helps. 

Take a complete inventory of all of the medical equipment that your facility currently has on hand.  From linear accelerators to CT scanners access the number of pieces, their overall condition, repair history, replacement parts that have been installed and everything in between.  Determine what is still being paid on the contracts.  Many times facilities find that they are still paying on maintenance contracts on equipment that is no longer being used by the medical facility.

One way to cut costs is through this inventory process.  There is no reason to pay on contracts on equipment that is no longer in use at the facility.  By evaluating the current medical equipment in your facility and removing excess unused equipment or canceling contracts on equipment no longer at the facility medical facilities can save a significant amount of money.

Radparts is the world’s largest independent distributor of OEM replacement parts for Linear Accelerators and Radiation Oncology equipment.  The mission is to provide high quality, user friendly, low cost parts support for linear accelerators and radiation equipment.  For more information on low cost parts for repairing Linac equipment find us at http://www.radparts.com.

Budgeting For the Expense of Medical Equipment

One of the biggest issues facing medical facilities is the cost of purchasing, maintaining, and operation much needed medical equipment.  Linear accelerators can cost anywhere between three to four million dollars to purchase.  When budgeting for such large scale equipment, facilities should consider that maintenance on a linear accelerator can average approximately half a million dollars each year.  This figure does not include any of the expense in regards to personal involved in operations.    

Medical facilities, especially cancer facilities need to be equipped with state of the art, reliable equipment in order to achieve a high level of patient care.  As medical linear accelerators start to age the machines reliability starts to decrease and errors increase.  The average lifetime of a machine like a linear accelerator or CT scanner is between five to ten years.  Medical machinery errors can often be detoured by upgrades in software or by replacing parts with parts that have been refurbished that bring machine back to its original state.

Many companies that offer linear accelerators for sale also offer maintenance contractors or are affiliated with refurbished linear accelerator part distributors.  There are several levels of support that facilities can choose from.  So many medical facilities are facing budget constraints that they are often left choosing between updates on machine software, operating manuals or continued training for machine operators and physicists.  All of which is above and beyond the initial expense and regular maintenance of the machine itself. 

Another dilemma that plagues medical facilities needing large pieces of medical equipment to diagnosis and treat patients is the pressure of production.  Each piece of machinery is expected to pay for itself overtime its lifetime.  The pressure is even more present when used in a profit generating facility verse a non-profit medical facility. 

The demands of patient care and quality, error free treatment also plagues medical facilities operation large equipment like CT scanners and linear accelerators.  When treating illnesses such as cancer it is crucial that treatment follows a certain schedule.  Most cancer patients are experiencing enough disruption in life that the last thing they need is scheduling conflicts because of issues pertaining to medical equipment. 

Radparts is the world’s largest independent distributor of OEM replacement parts for Linear Accelerators and Radiation Oncology equipment.  The mission is to provide high quality, user friendly, low cost parts support for linear accelerators and radiation equipment.  For more information on low cost parts for repairing Linac equipment find us at http://www.radparts.com.