Healthcare facilities need the right equipment – delivered on time – to operate at peak efficiency and effectiveness.
Throughout the process, facilities need to be able to function seamlessly, without disrupting employees’ duties or patient care. This can become even more difficult if your facility is having multiple large pieces of equipment from many different manufacturers received and delivered to a new or remodeled location.
These four keys will help ensure that the assembly and delivery of your facility equipment proceeds smoothly:
1. Choose the Right Distributor
The right distributor will deliver your equipment on time, assembled and with minimal disruption to your patients, visitors, and employees. The process should be completed seamlessly, without compromising your employees’ abilities to do their jobs effectively.
Patient care and satisfaction should not be negatively impacted by delivery and installation activities. In order to ensure the best outcome, consider these qualities as you evaluate manufacturers:
- Reputation – Does the company have a solid reputation of being honest and accountable?
- Experience – Does the company have enough experience to handle the job? Do they focus on medical equipment, or is it only a small part of what they do?
- Reliability – Are they known to keep their commitments and complete the delivery with a minimum of delays?
- Services Provided – It’s important to understand and come to an agreement on exactly what the company will do. Finding one that will handle everything from procurement to warehousing, assembling, staging and delivering the items to the right areas in the correct configuration will make the process go much more smoothly for your facility.
- Guarantees and Warranties – If there’s an area of concern, will it be promptly addressed? Does the company stand behind its products and work?
2. Allow for Enough Time
Each part of the process – from ordering to receiving to installing and testing – takes time. Don’t underestimate the amount of time each step will take in a rush to get the project finished. Be realistic, and build a reasonable cushion into your timetable to allow for some unexpected delays.
3. Consider and Communicate Any Delivery Constraints
Consider in advance whether any constraints exist that could impact delivery, especially for multiple items delivered to multiple locations. For example, take into account the following possible issues:
- Does any equipment need to be delivered off-hours?
- Will existing equipment need to be removed, and if so, will the supplier take care of this?
- Are delivery destinations large enough to accommodate your incoming equipment?
These considerations need to be ironed out in advance to avoid problems – and delays – with delivery.
4. Arrange for Proper Receipt of Equipment
Ensure that the following details are taken care of in advance of the planned delivery:
- Let your security staff know when and where the equipment is expected to arrive.
- Make sure any electrical or other technical requirements are taken care of in advance.
- Have the proper person available to sign for and receive the equipment.
Arrange for someone with knowledge of the equipment’s operation to ensure that it is delivered to the right place and make sure it operates as it’s supposed to.
Being focused solely on medical equipment, CME has the experience to create and implement medical equipment solutions for hospitals, clinics, general practices, and other health care centers throughout the country.
We can provide turn-key, Direct-to-Site delivery services for new build projects. Our company is dedicated to providing the highest level of customer satisfaction to each of our clients, ensuring that your medical equipment purchase and delivery proceeds smoothly.
Let us know how we can help you with your equipment acquisition needs.
About CME: CME Corp is the nation’s premier source for healthcare equipment, turnkey logistics, and biomedical services, representing 2 million+ products from more than 2,000 manufacturers.
With two corporate offices and 35+ service centers, our mission is to help healthcare facilities nationwide reduce the cost of the equipment they purchase, make their equipment specification, delivery, installation, and maintenance processes more efficient, and help them seamlessly launch, renovate and expand on schedule.
