Replacing Equipment: Age Is Not the Only Factor

There are a number of factors that hospitals, medical facilities, and healthcare organizations must consider before they replace equipment besides age.  Each year companies could potentially waste thousands of assets by focusing solely on the age of their equipment. 
It wasn’t long ago that healthcare facilities were zealous to add all of the latest surgical equipment to their organization.  From robotic surgery systems, linear accelerators, and other large scaled medical equipment were installed to keep physicians happy and be competitive.

However, in recent years budgets have gotten smaller and funds have become more restricted and facilities are seeing that equipment can’t just be discarded on a whim or purchased without advanced planning.  Instead equipment needs to be repaired or refurbished and kept at peak performance for longer and a strategic approach needs to be taken to replace not only large scaled equipment but also universal equipment such as beds, linens, and so forth.
Proactive replacement planning is necessary between financial and clinical leaders within organizations need to work together to plan in order to achieve:

• A reduction in expenses associated with service, parts, maintenance, and training
• A decrease “close call” events that come with the use of older equipment with more precise maintenance schedules
• A reallocation of assets that are underutilized throughout the facility
• An ability to cross train employees throughout facility locations
• An increase in consistency and standardization throughout facilities

When the above objectives can be achieved, a reduction in costs can occur with an increase in the quality of care patients receive.
Instead of the reactive strategy that medical facilities have embraced in the past more proactive approaches are being embraced.  When purchasing new or refurbished medical equipment in a proactive approach allows leaders to embrace the situation over a period of time verse the reactive approach which tends to be more mission critical.  Being proactive allows financial leaders in medical facilities to work with clinical leaders to plan for the addition of new equipment whether it is brand new or refurbished.  When the replacement of equipment no longer is a life or death situation a better decision for the facility can be made.

Proactive planning in medical facilities allows for better outcomes overall.  Financial teams and clinical teams can work together, armed with historical data, to have meaningful conversations instead of hypothetical ones.  This allows better decisions to made for everyone throughout the facility from administrators and physicians to patients and care givers.
Radparts is the world’s largest independent distributor of OEM replacement parts for Linear Accelerators and Radiation Oncology equipment.  Radparts provides high quality, user friendly, low cost parts support for linear accelerators and radiation equipment. More information can be found at https://www.radparts.com/.

Radiation Therapy: Equipment Used by Veterinarians

When many of us think of cancer and how it affects us and the lives we lead we are more often than not picturing human patients however, we are not the only ones that affected by cancer.  Today’s post is all about cancer in our pets and how their treatment includes similar treatment plans and medical equipment.  Just like in the treatment of cancer within humans, pets use radiation therapy in various forms to shrink and kill tumors.

Radiation therapy delivered to pets can take various forms with the most common form of radiation treatment being delivered via linear accelerators with multi-leaf collimators.  The multi-leaf collimator moves while the radiation treatment is on and being delivered to the patient.  This allows the radiation therapist to sculpt the treatment around the tumor with very little damage done to cells outside of the area.

Another form of radiation therapy that is used to administer radiation treatment to pets and humans alike is Cyberknife, a linear accelerator that is paired with a robotic arm.  This combination allows the machine to move around the patient.  The radiation beam is turned off and on and is able to deliver radiation to the tumor from several angles.  This ensures that the treatment conforms to the shape of the tumor within your pet.

Treatment can also be delivered through a Tomotherapy machine.  A Tomotherapy unit is best described as a mix between a LINAC and CT scanner.  It allows an image to be taken of the tumor right before radiation treatment is delivered.  The therapist uses the images that are produced to guide radiation treatment to the tumor.

Tumors of the brain are treated with a very specific method of radiation known as the Gamma Knife.  The word knife in the name may lead you to believe that cutting is involved however this is not the case.  What occurs in Gamma Knife treatment is that very high doses of radiation are delivered to a very specific location on the brain while avoiding normal brain tissue.

As with humans, radiation therapy can be prescribed to pet patients through a variety of methods.  One method is known as hyper-fractionated which means that many small doses of radiation are delivered to the pet with the goal being complete eradication of the tumor.  This method is most often considered after surgery has been performed when there are small bits of the tumor left behind.  Another method is known as hypo-fractionated in which radiation therapists use large doses of radiation in order to treat tumors that cannot be removed through surgery.

A more advanced scheme of delivering radiation treatment are Stereotactic Radiation Therapy, SRT.  This includes both SRS, Stereotactic Radiosurgery, and SBRT, Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy.  These methods both deliver high doses of radiation in one, two, or three treatments.

Radparts is the world’s largest independent distributor of OEM replacement parts for Linear Accelerators and Radiation Oncology equipment.  Radparts provides high quality, user friendly, low cost parts support for linear accelerators and radiation equipment. More information can be found at https://www.radparts.com/.