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Parts and Service - The Full Story

by Sean Ruck, Contributing Editor | November 04, 2014
From the August 2014 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine



  • 1. What impact will repairs by your company have on the OEM warranty?

  • 2. How does your repair warranty compare to the original manufacturer’s warranty?

  • 3. For devices that must be reprocessed and/or sterilized, can you provide me with documentation that the repaired devices are validated for sterilization?

  • 4. Because the KARL STORZ IFU are invalid upon third-party repair, it will require new instructions for use from your company in order to maintain compliance. Will your company provide new IFU for repaired devices?



“A better solution is to carefully consider the total cost of ownership at the time the capital decision is made, and then hold the endoscope and equipment supplier strictly responsible for their devices’ performance and cost over their expected lifetime,” he says.

To illustrate his point, Yates offered an example of a situation where a hospital did take the long-term approach. “The surgery program manager at a hospital named a 100 Top Hospital for 11 years, recently prepared a report on that facility’s experiences and achievement from implementing Protection1 solutions. In addition to eliminating 95 percent of all issues that previously posed ongoing daily challenges (issues relating to quality, safety and cost effectiveness), equipment repair turnaround time was reduced from three weeks to 24 hours, and surgeon complaints decreased from 40 per month to none at all.”

Knowing what you want and getting what you know
For hospitals utilizing in-house staff for preventative maintenance and repairs, there are a few things they need to know in order to control and predict parts costs, according to Mike Schwarzwalder, director of service marketing for STERIS.

First, the total cost of the required part needs to be determined. That includes acquisition, any carrying, obsolescence cost and down time for equipment. The need to know doesn’t end there. It’s also necessary to know the right parts to inventory in order to get things up and running with the first call. OEMs should have data available that will allow them to help in the process, says Schwarzwalder.

Those same manufacturers may have auto-ship programs for PM parts. That option helps reduce in-house storage needs, while providing a physical and timely reminder of the need for a PM.

Finally, by ordering parts from the OEM, you know you’re getting a part that will precisely fit the same part it’s meant to replace, thereby removing any risk of repair delays due to a non-compatible part.

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