EBME Forums Forums Management Medical Equipment Management MANAGED EQUIPMENT SERVICE

I'm not making any assumptions about any MES provider or attributing blame to them in any way. I understand what they do and why they do it but I wonder about the perils of introducing an MES with blinkers on and not looking at the finer details to avoid problems down the line for the hospital and costs.

Hello Sean,
Your point is well made and a valid one.

I'm still not clear what you mean by "an MES", there, Leighton.

But yes, of course, in any well run hospital those responsible for using and maintaining new equipment should be involved (consulted) during the procurement process.

It sounds to me like your issues are not with MES companies per se (who only do what they are contracted to do, after all) but rather with those in charge of directing the hospital.

Hello John,

Thats a fair point.

Are you blessed with PFI in the Emerald Isle?

Not really but we have a government unparalleled anywhere in the known world, capable in ways others are not.

I can shed perhaps a bit of light on this topic..... (Seeing as I did manage sales for an MVS outfit in me younger days)

MES - Providing the kit and looking after it

MVS - (Multi Vendor Services) covering only maintenance

MES - Sometimes notoriously popular with PFI. Same concept as MVS but with the difference that the service provider is also the supplier of the equipment either through financing or outright sale. For MES its important to try and keep maintenance in-house. It helps with retention of revenue and keeps the long term "bottom line" looking healthy. MES also more effective over long term agreements. ie 10+ years

MVS - Probably a good idea if senior management does not understand the full implication of a well funded in-house ebme dept and definitely a valid option if audits are failed on regular basis. MVS works extremely well in cases where a lot of equipment is outsourced back to OEM for maintenance. A well run MVS scheme will target to bring at least 80% of outsourced work in-house over the shortest period of time. This way retention of revenue for such a scheme is secured in the same way. MVS best practise lifespan would be between 3 - 5 years. In some cases proven to be effective over longer periods up to 10 years.

There's a lot of merit in both (With the correct performance measures in place) but also a lot of pittfalls for the unwary and unenlightened soul who opts to go down this route.

All in all, MES and MVS is probably the easiest and best way to fix a budget for maintenance both short & long term. Unlike some of the sentiments mentioned earlier in this post, the red tape is also a lot less as it is easy to hold MES and MVS providers accountable through penalties and they try to avoid this so an EBME working for one of these providers will find funds more readily available for parts etc as performance is the main key to a healthy ebit which in turn keeps the shareholders & stakeholders happy...

I believe that what Jandre calls MVS came about in the US when the Big Imaging Companies (eg, G.E.*) started to maintain not only their own equipment, but others (eg, Philips*) as well.

Smaller players found straight away that they were kept out of the game by "difficulties" in procuring parts from the Big Imaging Companies.

Later on, the MVS model was extended to non-imaging equipment as well.

But "Multi-Vendor" is not new. O&M contractors (in Saudi Arabia, for example) have been doing it for donkey's years, as have ISO's (Independent Service Organisations - third-party maintenance providers, in other words) and hospital management (maintenance) companies all over the world.

As I say, MVS was distinguished from ISO by the fact that the ISO's couldn't get imaging parts (and tech info, etc.) easily. That situation continues in varying degrees to the present day. In short, some OEM's like to hang on to service revenue. So (when discussing the possibility of bringing on board an MES or MVS contractor), wise hospital management should enquire how original parts are to be sourced. One answer there might be for the hospital to obtain parts themselves then hand them over to the contractor.

* Other Big Imaging Companies are available!

OK ... here we go again.


How about ... Billy in Carlisle?

Has anyone got any experience of a system called BacktraqFM? Our trust is planning to implement this system but we have very little knowledge of it and we are not sure if it will be suitable. There seems to be quite a few systems available, what would be the most popular system?