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Discover the top OEMs in MD Buyline's customer feedback survey

by Gus Iversen, Editor in Chief | July 06, 2016
Business Affairs
Based on direct-user feedback from hundreds of health care providers nationwide, MD Buyline has unveiled its User Satisfaction Trending Data Report for the second quarter of 2016.

By showing providers which equipment and service companies their peers are having the most success partnering with, the exclusive survey is intended to help them make better-informed decisions in budgeting for and acquiring medical technology.

All told, the list includes over 50 companies, many of which (particularly the major OEMs like Siemens Medical Solutions U.S.A., GE Healthcare, Philips Healthcare and Toshiba America Medical Solutions) took honors in multiple categories.

“GE has dominated the mobile C-arm market for years. In SPECT/SPECT CT and PET/CT, GE and Siemens have been the leaders in the market for several years. Siemens has always dominated the urological imaging market with regard to overall ratings," said Jamie Dildy, Clinical Analyst with MD Buyline.

Dildy and a few of her fellow MD Buyline analysts — Kathey W. Leibold, Sabrina Newell, James Laskaris, Dennis Matricardi, Phyllis Carlin and Maria Hernandez — commented on the findings over e-mail with HCB News.

“Many times, it surprises customers to know that market leaders in certain categories do not always have the highest ratings. We find many times that small, niche players have higher customer satisfaction ratings as they strive to keep their small customer base," said Leibold.

For the survey, suppliers are rated on a scale from one to 10 in six categories: System performance, system reliability, installation and implementation, application training, service response time, and service repair quality.

Historically, Leibold said, customers have rated certain companies highly in customer training and support — such as CareFusion and Philips for their respiratory therapy products — while others consistently rate highest in reliability, such as Draeger Medical.

Most of the companies on the list only took top honors in one or two categories. Physio-Control was the most highly rated defibrillator company, Olympus took video endoscopy, Hospira was highest ranked among infusion pump manufacturers and Epic took the top spot for EHRs, to name a few.

“Both SCC Soft Computer and Sysmex are niche companies that specialize in one area and have long led in user ratings for Laboratory Information Systems and hematology, respectively," said Hernandez.

Leveraging the information

According to Newell, one way that providers can utilize the list is when negotiating for service with companies that were not at the top of the class. "Lower ratings in an area can provide leverage for the customer during negotiations," she said. "For example, customers can negotiate discounted service contracts with the highest guaranteed uptime and response time or negotiate extended warranties at no charge if service ratings are low.”

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