Medical equipment procurement is a critical factor in ensuring that the process of opening, moving, or even upgrading a medical facility is handled in a manner that both lets the doors open when planned, and delivers the level of service promised right from the start.
"Industry best."
"Best practices.”
“Best in class.”
Here’s another often-cited quote: “You can’t argue with success.” If you want to be a high achiever and successful within your own organization, Bob Engel, C.P.M., says to look to the processes and practices used by the most successful industry leaders. He says, “In today's economic environment, doing what you've always done—even if you do it very well—is no longer acceptable. Under pressure to contain costs and produce results despite challenging circumstances, you (and many other supply chain managers) must transform rather than simply improve your operation.”
With the new focus of the Affordable Care Act, hospitals are under increasing pressure to reduce costs while increasing the quality of care they provide and patient satisfaction. This means that even medical equipment procurement has to be as efficient as possible to help keep overall hospital costs down. So how do you uncover hidden costs and ensure you know what you're paying for?
Purchasing medical equipment in the current regulatory and financial landscape means that capital expenditures need to be thought through and executed carefully. Purchases that were once routine now have to be reviewed up the chain - sometimes all the way to the CEO or CFO.
As you purchase and plan equipment for your facilities, you probably visualize when, where and how various devices are most used. When it comes to patient intake, chances are good the first step in the process is fairly constant: taking vital signs. These important indicators are critical to properly triaging, diagnosing and treating each unique patient according to his or her specific need.
The task of opening a new medical facility is a huge undertaking. It requires licensing, permits, community consensus, and financial support to make it happen. Once you’ve got all of that sorted out, you get to the fun part, buying everything you need to outfit your new facility.
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:
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