How to Pick Imaging Service Providers: Downtime Will Cost You

DEXA service technician

Why you need imaging service providers:

Either you run a private clinic, or large-scale medical facility, you’ll agree that one of the most frustrating things that can happen to a medical imaging facility is system downtime. You’ve got patients lined up, gingerly waiting on their appointments to get scanned for their conditions and your medical equipment lay there lifeless.

Nothing practically works, and you run the risk of losing your patients to the competition. What do you do? How do you solve this problem? Simple, you need Imaging service providers.

Here are a few tips on how you can solve this problem and how to get the right Imaging Service Providers.

Finding the Right Imaging Service Providers

Numerous professionals can fit right into this category, they could be engineers from an independent service organization (ISO), an OEM’s engineers or an in-house employee.

Whoever they may be, the endgame is to have an engineer that will readily be available to attend to your Medical Imaging equipment system downtime.

New or Used Imaging Equipment?

One downside of using OEM engineers is that they don’t usually provide clarity, they don’t tell you whether the medical replacement is either a new or refurbished one. You trust them to fix your failed system for you since they are supposed to be the “experts,” all-knowing.

With all due respect, you need to know the value of what you’re coughing up money for, so you don’t run the risk of having to replace another part or ultimately damaging the equipment.

The OEM business model

OEM’s will commit more time to research and development of new systems. It’s in their business interest to design newer technologies for (Healthcare Technology Management) HTM leaders to buy into.

It’s not like they don’t provide you with engineers to maintain your ageing system, they do! What happens is that the time you might need their service, they might be in the next state or somewhere else on Planet Earth far away from you.

ISO inconsistency

There are tons of independent imaging service providers that can send engineers to HTMs on short notice, it is, however, important to note that there’s a wide variety of ISOs in service.

ISOs consist of individuals for hire, large organizations and some can provide you with permanent support staff. At the end of the day, what you need is a partner that will provide you with clarity, trust, consistency, and proficiency.

Finding the right Parts Provider

A nightmarish situation is when your imaging expert orders a bad replacement part, therefore a reliable source for your replacement parts should be established.

Sometimes, misconceptions about the legitimacy of replacement part sources arise. You might think an OEM provides brand new parts while a third imaging service provider provides used parts, however, it may just be the other way around. The responsibility falls on you to identify the source of your replacement parts.

Dead-On-Arrival (DOA) rates

DOA rates are a measurement scale you can use to identify redundant parts. You can find DOA rates that are lower than 5 percent, much better than OEM rates. The problem most OEM engineers face is that they often pick up redundant parts that were reintroduced to the manufacturer’s inventory by another OEM who didn’t notify the manufacturer about the equipment’s redundancy.

Quality Assurance (QA) testing

The best way to safeguard your equipment is to discontinue using the service of a service provider that doesn’t test parts for their efficiency. All you need to do is some research on a provider’s QA assessment. This will give you an insight into their modus operandi.

Technical Support

Companies that provide support to ISOs that order replacement parts should be put on the trusted list of part providers. Sometimes parts ordered by service providers might encounter lags during installation, if the part company provides technical support to an engineer in the field, it will greatly reduce downtime.

Medical Imaging Service Providers: Certifications and Regulations

Certifications and regulations are measures that have been established by regulatory bodies like the FDA. These measures are set up to guide healthcare providers on what third party imaging service provider to subscribe to. Imaging Service Providers who operate along with the latest servicing guidelines stipulated by the MIITA about the ISO 9001 standard and ISO 13845 standard for medical devices, should be sort by healthcare providers.

There are numerous ISO engineers in the imaging servicing provider market, however, one imaging service provider stands out and that’s Dexa Plus.

At Dexa Plus, provide preventative maintenance, service and repair of Dexa scanners.

Contact us today (click here)!

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