Money-Saving Tips for In-House Clinical Engineering Departments
It can be a constant struggle for clinical engineering departments to get resources committed to help them take on equipment risk successfully. Often, this struggle is rooted in a lack of understanding that in-house clinical engineering can be both highly effective and more financially sound than traditional OEM or outside party engineering services.
Below you’ll find two action items clinical engineers can take to help show their facility’s c-suite just how worthwhile it can be to grow in-house engineering.
Know Your Service Contract Language
Study up on the terms and conditions of your existing service contract. Could you reduce your level of service? Could you cancel altogether? Training, hiring, and experience may have expanded your department skill set since your contract’s inception. If your service coverage is redundant with your in-house expertise, it may be time to reevaluate your relationship with your service provider.
Identify a Target Modality to Bring In-House
This decision should be made primarily on the availability of parts and training (or a trained engineer you can hire). Select a type of equipment that your facility spends significant dollars in servicing, but not the most daunting from a service perspective. Your “trial modality” should be the product that you have the highest probability of having “hero moments” servicing. You should also select equipment that your facility has owned for a few years. Your staff will already have some familiarity with it and training courses and replacement parts will be more readily available.
Both of these areas offer the potential for cost savings that don’t sacrifice service quality. This leg work gathers essential evidence for building the case to grow in-house clinical engineering. If you need a hand, we can help you identify service risks, find training resources, and back up your engineers if they get in a pinch.
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Meet the authors: Jason Crawford and Jordan Batterbee
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