Nearly every healthcare provider will need to order new capital medical equipment at least once, if not multiple times during any given fiscal year. However, with rapidly changing healthcare policies and ever-increasing budget cuts, getting the best equipment and supplies at a great price is getting harder than ever. Especially, if you do not address the following five hidden costs associated with ordering capital medical equipment:
1. Installation costs at end site. The biggest cost may be in the actual installation of the equipment to your desired end location. Depending on the type of equipment being ordered, you may have to consider special add-on costs like air handling, extra weight allowances, or dedicated 30 amp electric power.
2. Unpacking. When you order directly from the manufacturer, generally the delivery team will simply ship the item to your organization's receiving department. This means that it'll be up to your team to redirect resources to unpack the delivered items.
3. Assembly. Not only will you have to be in charge of using resources to unpack these items, but as larger medical equipment is generally broken down when shipped, it'll also be your team's responsibility to assemble the delivered items. Again, for most organizations tasking an internal team with these factors is a costly waste of time and personnel that could be better utilized elsewhere.
4. Testing equipment for proper operation. When the manufacturer ships medical equipment, while it may have undergone standard testing at a production facility, it is rare for the item to have undergone third-party testing. This means that once again it's up to your team to take care of all the associated testing. Should you find fault with any equipment, it will also likely be the responsibility of your organization to facilitate a return and replacement order.
5. Disposal of packing materials. Once all the above has been taken care of, the equipment and supplies have been delivered, unpacked, assembled, tested, and any replacement orders have been made, it's time to dispose of all the packing material. Depending on the specialty of your equipment, this may require special disposal and, if you're dealing with an excess of scrap materials, then you may have to hire a box truck to remove all of the leftover packing materials from the work site.
Calculating all the above costs can represent a staggering 8 to 12 percent of the total acquisition cost of your new medical equipment.
However, you can mitigate some of these costs (and headaches) by using our white glove direct-to-site delivery service. With this service, our goal is to streamline the entire delivery process. This begins as soon as the PO is issued as our team orders and receives all of the components in our warehouse where it can be unpacked, assembled, and some equipment can even be tested. We also check for missing components to ensure that you get exactly what you need.
Once all of the equipment has arrived and been checked, our team will deliver the items to your site and stage each piece in its desired end location. After you have done a walk-through and checked off each of the delivered items, our team will then pack away all of the excess packing materials and truck it away from your location. No muss, no fuss.
For more information on our white glove delivery service, contact us at CME today.
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.
