EBME Forums Forums Management Medical Equipment Management How is your medical device service organized?

Hello

I would like to know how is your medical and laboratory device service organized in your country? Do the hospitals have their own service staff or is service in the hands of distributors and/or private companies?

It tends to be mainly Hospital employed staff for biomedical equipment, and contract service for pathology and X-ray.

Hi JJ,

You know, world wide the new concept of consumable rental of medical devices is looming up. Be it a laboratory, infusion pumps, point of care or near patient testing medical equipment, they all fall under reagent / consumables rental scheme. In this scheme the vendors lease the medical devices to the customers for 5 years with a contractual agreement of certain percent of consumption of consumables each month . After 5 years, the medical device becomes the property of the customer or may be replaced with a newer model with another 5 year reagent / consumable rental scheme which is at the discretion of the customers. I would go for the replacement as reliability is far better than the earlier one which would have run for 5 years as a work horse. Most of the capital equipment like imaging, oncology equipment are under annual service contract with vendors or we get trained by the OEM as a part of our purchase deal.

If it is not your core business, please outsource which is the modern strategy to cut cost and spend within your budget.

Hope this helps.

Cheers
Sen

"If it is not your core business, please outsource which is the modern strategy to cut cost and spend within your budget."
Very Controversial. Please explain how / why you have come to this conclusion and what processes youve used to proove such.

Nice comment from KM, Health care is bussiness now.It may be a bussiness secret, I doubt whether u get explanation from sen.I am also eager to hear from him.

Thanks KM,

We are a large (for profit) private healthcare organisation and patient comes first and their treatments. Our core business is healthcare delivery.Therfore, physicians, medical equipment and other medical staff are the tools used to generate business in the healtcare context. All other services and / or support services will fall under non core business though we are vital for the normal operation of the organisation. ITD, Biomedical, food services, laundry and environmental services and the like have to be outsourced in order to concentrate on the core business to have a competitive edge and strategic advantage in the healthcare industry. Again, this is not a ground rule for all healthcare organisations as there are private( for profit and non-profit), quasi government, government healthcare organisations,etc whose objectives and goals may be different.

For a medical equipment industry, sales, service contracts, spare parts sales and the like are part of core business but other support service s would fall under non core business. End of the day, in what context you interpret core business and non core business concepts and the organisation's mission, vision, goals, strategic objectives play major roles in the decision making.

Hope this helps.

Cheers
Sen

Hi!

Thank you for your answers! I'm just curios to know how the medical/laboratory equipment service is organized in various countries.Here in Finland Hospitals usually have their own service personnel but in some cases we use service contracts and help from manufaturer's / distributor's local service.In our country the distances can be quite long so its useful for hospital to have their own medical technicians.

Okay.If there's more examples from other countries I'll be pleased to hear about them.

It's the same case in Czech republic, hi JJ.

P.S.
People, how do you call Czech republic by one word? It was Czechoslovakia, but now, we are separated Slovakia and what...? Czecho?

Jak se maz JackFlash
Nice to hear from beautiful Czech Republic. Have done many visits and people are utmost friendly.
The only single word is Czech as in Czech people or Czech Republic. In sporadic use its also referred to as Czechia although not proper English. Like your suggestion of Czecho.
ahoj
John

The basic premise is (and has always been) that all items of technical equipment have to be supported somehow (ie, supported in the technical sense of routine servicing and maintenance, repairs etc.). It matters little how this aim is achieved, and it is rare for any hospital anywhere to do it all in-house, although many aim at this happy state of affairs. As John has already indicated, there is usually a mix whereby most kit is maintained in-house (at first-line, at least), whilst other stuff (usually the high-spec, capital items) is farmed out to contractors (who may, or may not, be the original manufacturer). My advice is, if you have the resources (technical skills, appropriate training, tools, facilities and time etc.) to do it in-house, do it!