Nothing is inexpensive when it comes to purchasing equipment for medical use. Medical facilities are in a constant battle to decrease expenses while maintaining quality. This is especially difficult when it comes to radiation oncology where cutting edge equipment, such as linear accelerators and CT scanners can easily cost millions of dollars. It is essential that facilities search for different ways to reduce expenses and cap costs.
In the following installment we will discuss three different options medical facilities both big and small can provide top notch services to stay competitive without sacrificing the delivery and quality of care. One way that medical facilities seek to do this is by purchasing refurbished linear accelerators and CT scanners.
Medical facilities can curtail equipment expenditures while keeping up with updates in technology, improving safety, providing more precise treatments and streamline work flow by budgeting for and purchasing refurbished equipment. This is an extremely attractive alternative to purchasing brand new equipment especially when you can arrange to procure similar models to what is currently being used in your facility. Using similar model equipment to what is already in use saves money on training. It also reduces the amount of time that is usually lost when adopting to a new piece of equipment.
Refurbished equipment can offer the same performance and reliability as new equipment at a discount. Choosing a reputable supplier that specializes in radiology equipment while also offering installation and maintenance services medical facilities save a great deal of money without any sacrifice.
Before seeking to purchase new refurbished medical equipment it is imperative that the decision makers in charge of purchasing get answers to seven very important questions. These include:
- Can we purchase refurbished equipment? If so, what is the process of refurbishing that the radiology oncology equipment we are seeking goes through? Are the parts thoroughly tested?
- Should we be able to expect that the refurbished medical equipment, either a linear accelerator or CT scanner, perform according to the manufacturer’s original specifications?
- Will the equipment comes with any warranties or guarantees covering parts and labor?
- Will the supplier that the refurbished oncology equipment is purchased from also be able to perform the installation? What about future maintenance?
- What has the overall reaction to this model been? Have facilities that are using this model reported any ongoing issues?
- Do they have a radiation test cell? Will full beam testing be done prior to installation within the medical facility?
- What is the company’s reputation in the industry? Are you able to speak with other medical facilities that have been provided refurbished equipment and services from the supplier?
In our next installment we will continue looking into ways that medical organizations can save money when looking into reducing expenses in their medical equipment budgets while keeping up-to date with advances in technology in the field of radiation oncology.
Radparts is the world’s largest independent distributor of OEM replacement parts for Linear Accelerators and Radiation Oncology equipment. We provide high quality, user friendly, low cost parts support for linear accelerators and radiation equipment. For more information on low cost parts for repairing Linac equipment find us at http://www.radparts.com.