Keeping a grip on your outsourced medical equipment management
When it comes to medical device management outsourced to vendors, you might consider monitoring the performance of equipment managed by contract as a function of downtime.
It may be that you are paying for more service than the equipment really needs — perhaps your vendors sell you four preventive maintenance (PM) visits per year, but two or three are more than adequate to keep things running.
By monitoring the PMs, when it comes time to renegotiate the contract, you have some data to say, “You’ve not met the commitment in the contract for this piece of equipment and yet it continues to function properly. What’s up with that?”
Let the contractors try to talk their way around their service gap.
About the Author: Steve MacArthur is a consultant for The Greeley Company, a division of HCPro. He brings 30 years of healthcare management and consulting experience to his work with hospitals, physician offices, and ambulatory care facilities across the country. He is the author of HCPro's Hospital Safety Director's Handbook and is contributing editor for Briefings on Hospital Safety. Contact Steve at 
