by
John W. Mitchell, Senior Correspondent | August 05, 2015
From the August 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
We are no longer looking for vendors, but instead collaborative suppliers. Under our agreements with collaborative suppliers, it’s a win-win for health care — it’s no longer just about beating each other up on price,” said Busdicker.
As an example, he cited a recently signed 10-year agreement with GE Healthcare. While nondisclosure prevents explaining too much detail, Busdicker said that because GE and Intermountain stepped outside their comfort zones to seal the deal, both were rewarded with a long-term beneficial commitment. But he said the contract sets new standards for the ability of Intermountain to move equipment service levels and provides service contract stability to GE. Such innovative thinking has helped Busdicker save Intermountain $8 million in documented savings over the past three years. These kinds of savings in all departments will be key in helping every hospital adjust to the new payment realities of population management that no longer reimburses for each episode of care. Such a flood of savings in Intermountain’s Clinical Engineering operations is an indicator of the future.
The professionals interviewed were nearly unanimous in their agreement about their changing roles. “The message from the leadership group is that we can’t keep having higher and higher operating costs,” said Curt Rodriguez, Clinical Engineering Manager for Cedars-Sinai, for all equipment except for the operating room. “They are asking us in clinical engineering to manage and control our costs.”
He and his co-Clinical Manager Roberto Torres, Jr., who manages the technologies for the procedure areas (including preoperative, imaging, image-guided equipment, and endoscopic equipment) cited several strategies they have deployed to manage service and parts expense. For example, when they identify a possible new source for open market parts, they will trial the parts in a small number of their machines to see if they perform well. But he stressed that when it comes to life-critical equipment they will not take the risk and they stick to OEM parts.
With more parts players entering the field, Gary Barkov, Manager for Clinical Engineering at several Advocate Health sites, said the quality of third-party parts is getting better. He cautioned that attention to detail about the software version and the replacement part is a must. A few of the experts interviewed repeated this warning. “As equipment ages, it’s necessary to go to the open market when it’s not supported by the OEM.
