Looking for ways to save when buying new medical equipment? Unsurprisingly, the easiest way to lower equipment costs is to…buy less equipment. Industry data has shown that about 40% (or even as much as 60%) of clinical equipment goes unused, which means that your hospital probably has one or more unused piece of whatever equipment you’re looking to purchase. With so much potential value sitting dormant, your unused equipment represents a prime opportunity for big savings.
Review utilization of current equipment before buying more. Though it’s often quicker to submit a purchase order for new equipment rather than go hunting for old equipment, it’s rarely the most cost-effective method. More isn’t necessarily better. Of course, unused equipment might not actually be in an official “storage” area. A hospital is a big place with lots of room for equipment to get lost in – an empty bed in an unused patient room, a mobile blood pressure machine left in a hallway, pumps on a shelf that were repaired but never returned to circulation, or maybe a bunch of mobility equipment loaned out to another facility altogether.
Tracking that equipment down and redeploying it (or finding other ways to recover value) can help you increase your utilization rate, expand your case capacity, and – most importantly – save a significant amount of money. So before you buy, check storage first. By carefully evaluating existing clinical equipment capacity and maximizing utilization, you can be sure your hospital is only buying what is absolutely necessary – saving you time, saving your hospital money, and saving a lot of lonely equipment from a life spent stuck in a closet.