As hospitals increasingly focus on driving structural cost reduction, areas of cost such as servicing and maintaining complex clinical equipment and technology are under increased scrutiny. While efforts to capture savings on equipment purchases have been in vogue for years, many hospitals are also realizing that service – which can account for double or more of the annual cost of purchasing equipment – represents double or more the potential savings opportunity, and is finally starting to get the attention it deserves. For one 200-bed community hospital in the central U.S., scrutiny of and attention to the ever rising costs of medical equipment repair and maintenance saved them 87% – or $34,000 – on a single repair in a clinic x-ray room. Here’s how:
When a part failed on a high volume x-ray room at one of the hospital’s adjacent family medicine clinics, the x-ray room could no longer be used and patients had to be rescheduled or directed to another location. The clinic manager contacted the manufacturer’s service representative who indicated the required part would need to be special ordered, would cost nearly $40,000 and could not be available for more than three weeks. Not only was this a significant unplanned cost, but the unplanned downtime in an extremely busy clinic disrupted patient care and created the potential for lost revenue.
Due to the urgent nature of the need, the clinic manager got the proposed $40,000 cost approved by the hospital CFO on an emergency basis. Despite having approval to move forward with the repair, the clinic manager took the initiative to see if there were any alternative sources of the replacement part. This simple but important step paid big dividends for this hospital.
Using Miga’s EVMS platform, the clinic manager located, purchased and had the needed replacement part installed within just four days, saving more than two weeks of unplanned downtime. And, the clinic saved $34,000 (87%) by using the right information to find the solution they needed at the right price.
How would your hospital react if you saved 87% of an approved cost simply by taking the time to verify what alternatives may exist? This story illustrates what we see in our work with hospitals every day: sometimes the biggest savings can come from seemingly small actions with outsized benefits. We encourage you to continue to share your experiences and be part of the dialogue about advancing common sense savings and efficiencies in healthcare.
For more details about how EVMS can help your hospital uncover incremental savings on new equipment purchases and service contracts, contact us today.
