In our previous blog, Considerations for Medical Equipment Replacement: Time is Money!, we discussed including a Design and Construction Team in your planning strategy for replacing large equipment such as MRI’s, CT’s, and Linear Accelerators (LINACs). Large equipment types such as these are not as easy as remove and replace. Changing manufacturers, or even just upgrading with the manufacturer that you currently have, can mean changing your existing infrastructure and that isn’t a quick, or inexpensive, fix.
Vendors can’t always speak to the overall costs associated with an equipment replacement. Only to the cost of replacing the equipment itself. There are many design considerations, from an architectural and engineering perspective to a construction perspective, that a facility must understand when negotiating a new piece of equipment and, possibly more importantly, when establishing a budget for the total project cost of replacing the equipment. Historically, we have seen inadequate time and money allowed for such projects. We encourage facility decision makers to engage an experienced team early in the decision-making process to ensure that an adequate budget has been established to cover potential costs for infrastructure modifications and that a realistic schedule is established for construction and equipment installation and validation. This will result in a clearer expectation of when patient scheduling can be resumed, thus allowing revenue to flow again. In our next blog, we will cover some of the items that should be considered, discussed, and included in your next equipment replacement project. Contact us for more information on how we can assist you with your next medical equipment replacement project.