When purchasing new equipment, do you utilize a capital checklist? If you don’t, you may want to consider it. There are many different elements hospitals need to validate when buying medical equipment – system configuration, options, accessories, consumables, networking, trade-in, cybersecurity, service contracts, training, and much more. Each of those elements are critical to make sure that the hospital gets exactly what it needs with the equipment you purchase. And, on top of all that, here’s the big question: is the price being quoted consistent with prices other hospitals are paying? With so many details to consider, how can you be confident there isn’t one you’ve overlooked?
Make a (check)list, and check it twice – or more. Make a detailed capital checklist to guide your purchase process, and be sure to include all the fine details that may be needed for you to properly evaluate a quote. And while suppliers will never tell you upfront if their quote is “naughty or nice,” using a detailed checklist can help you know it for sure when you submit the quote for benchmarking. And, even after the purchase has been completed, a good capital checklist will help ensure equipment is delivered, installed, and available for patient care without delay or added cost.
A Miga hospital client recently used a capital checklist to avoid an expensive pitfall when buying a new linear accelerator. Given the complexity of the new system, the hospital immediately saw the value of a detailed capital checklist in order to keep track of all the critical items needed for implementation. And, in the final review, the checklist identified a critical electrical panel that was left off the supplier quote. By catching this early, the hospital was able to order the missing part and avoid $70,000 in the cost overruns it would have incurred.