Medical equipment services come at a hefty price tag. People who are looking to buy medical equipment for their facilities want to secure their investment but are looking for ways to bring the cost down before signing the contract. Through optimum maintenance coverage and warranties, one can strike a great deal to get the best performing medical equipment at the best rates. Following are some of the important considerations before buying medical equipment.
1. Sign Up for Extended Agreements
Many of the medical equipment service organizations will offer you agreements that extend for several years. Based on the number of years you sign up the agreement for, you can negotiate and ask for hefty discounted rates. The more the number of years is, the greater the amount of discount you can expect and reduce the overall cost of medical equipment services and maintenance.
2. Sign Up for Multi-System Agreements
If you sign up for coverage of more systems like surgical equipment, modular operating theater and others, the service provider will charge you less on the bulk orders. This will ensure that save more and reduce the cost of medical equipment.
3. Understand and Determine Potential Equipment Downtime
Every equipment’s performance and potential downtime relies on several factors that include design, quality of materials, components used and overall construction build.
If the medical equipment is designed after thorough research and makes use of top-quality materials, it is more likely that it will function seamlessly for a longer time and minimize any downtime.
Other factors that influence the performance of the medical equipment include service, maintenance, operations, support service and optimum accessories.
4. Identify Potential Causes of Medical Equipment Breakdown
There are several reasons why your medical equipment will malfunction. Surgical equipment, something in your modular operating theatre or other diagnosis and treatment equipment are prone to breakdown.
To minimize the medical equipment service and maintenance cost, it is important to know the reasons why the equipment breaks down. Some of them are listed below.
- Faulty installation
- Irregular maintenance
- Heavy usage
- Regular wear & tear
- Poor quality of hardware design
- Heavy physical load
- Accidental dropping of equipment
- Extreme weather conditions
- Frequent failures of components
5. Develop a Comprehensive Preemptive Maintenance Schedule
Medical equipment and other related parts are bound to break down after a certain amount of time. As a responsible healthcare facility, you are responsible to take care of the medical equipment and track their performance.
A solid preventive maintenance program will help you minimize the shutdown, ensure seamless and planned operations and cut down repair costs.
Along with the regular medical equipment service and maintenance, the preventive maintenance program will also include training of personnel for modular operating equipment, provide quality components and accessories and provide support whenever needed.
Optimally performing medical equipment is not only critical to ensure patient’s health and safety but also from a legal point of view. As a medical facility, you don’t want to have a reputation for medical emergencies caused due to malfunctioning.
6. Make Sure You Have Proper & Extended Warranty
When you form agreements for medical equipment and pen down maintenance schedules, it is important to look at the warranty of various components and parts involved.
Medical equipment service organizations do provide extended warranties by including minimal extra charges in overall cost.
7. Make Advance Payments to Minimize the Cost
Best advised making any advance payment to reduce the overall cost when optioning for funds. By making advance payments, the medical equipment service organization will reduce the overall cost and the proportion of discount will also increase.