Expert tips on managing medical equipment lifespan, costs, and downtime in healthcare

Patel delves into the intricacies of equipment lifespan, cost management, downtime impact, and the importance of predictive maintenance, offering practical advice for improving operational efficiency and patient care. 

As you know an ultrasound machine should be replaced every 5-7 years, and X-ray machines can last 10-14 years assuming 10,000-20,000 examinations are performed on them each year. How do these lifespan expectations impact maintenance strategies for healthcare facilities?​

The lifespan expectations for medical equipment like ultrasound and X-ray machines play a crucial role in shaping maintenance strategies. Knowing the details about highly utilized and expensive machines helps healthcare facilities plan their budgets and maintenance schedules more effectively.

Regular maintenance is key to extending the life of these machines and ensuring they operate efficiently as they age. Facilities can use this information to implement a mix of preventive and predictive maintenance strategies, scheduling regular check-ups and servicing to catch any potential issues early on. A few examples:

• The healthcare facility may be inclined to increase the service cycle of its machines in the last two years of its life to minimize unplanned downtime.
• The healthcare facility may look to implement a policy that states in the last two years of the expected life of a specific machine, if the cost to service is past a certain threshold, they should replace it instead of repair it.
• The healthcare facility can reduce the urgency or eliminate any requests related to cosmetic issues on the equipment, knowing it will be replaced soon.

Each of these items will reduce the negative impact on a facility's bottom line and reduce the number of unplanned critical service requests that are placed on these high revenue-producing, highly utilized items.

Replacing medical equipment is a costly expense in the medical sector. What strategies can healthcare providers implement to manage these costs effectively while ensuring high-quality patient care?​

Replacing medical equipment is indeed a significant expense, but there are several strategies healthcare providers can implement to manage these costs effectively:

• Be proactive in the replacement of poor equipment and capitalize on moments for the buyer. Collect equipment performance data throughout the entire lifespan of your equipment to better forecast and plan for replacements. Bulk purchasing and negotiating better terms with suppliers can reduce costs. Waiting for moments when there are offers and discounts, especially toward the end of a corporate fiscal year of the manufacturers will create additional leverage.
• Explore leasing or financing options, which can help spread out the cost and make budgeting easier.
• Invest in high-quality maintenance programs to extend the life of their equipment, reduce failures and their associated costs, and increase the bottom line because of less operational disruption.

While a single solution or strategy will not be enough to make a major impact, a combination of these strategies can help manage expenses while maintaining high standards of patient care.

Medical instruments often crash at the most inconvenient times, leading to rescheduled appointments, lost revenue, and unsatisfied patients. How does UptimeHealth help mitigate these disruptions and improve equipment uptime?​

We understand that equipment downtime can be a major headache for healthcare providers. Focusing on minimizing that is our core thesis and why we have the word “uptime” in our name. We provide our users with a software tool that helps them understand the equipment they own better. It tells them what they own and where it is in their building. Based on the equipment, we provide a system that helps manage and monitor that all maintenance-related activities are being performed, whether that’s by the device user or by a Biomed technician. We monitor equipment and implement predictive maintenance tools, using data analytics to foresee potential issues before they become serious problems, allowing for timely intervention and repairs to reduce unplanned down events. By proactively managing equipment health, we help ensure maximum uptime, keeping operations smooth and patients happy.

Can you elaborate on how hospitals and practices that ignore predictive maintenance are hemorrhaging revenue? What are some specific examples or case studies that highlight the benefits of predictive maintenance?​

Hospitals and practices that overlook predictive maintenance are indeed losing significant revenue. Unplanned equipment failures can lead to costly emergency repairs, extended downtimes, and rescheduled

appointments, all of which affect the bottom line. For example, for one of our clients, a high revenue-producing device was experiencing frequent breakdowns. Not running the machine resulted in substantial financial losses that almost forced them to shut down. Not only were the repairs costing them a fortune, but they also had terrible reviews on Google due to all the reschedules and dissatisfied patients, making it harder for them to attract new patients when their machines were working.

Once the location implemented our solution, they noticed some of their team members were not fully trained on small routine maintenance items. After implementing our solution to track maintenance tasks and educating the teams during the night shift, they were able to get back up and running and stay open. This not only improved their revenue but also enhanced patient satisfaction while their ratings improved.

Healthcare facilities are heavily focused on provider staffing and patient satisfaction but often overlook the third crucial variable: functional instruments. How does this oversight affect operations, and how can UptimeHealth assist in addressing this issue?​

Overlooking the importance of functional medical equipment instruments can have serious consequences for any type of healthcare facility. Without reliable equipment, even the best-staffed and most patient-focused facilities can struggle to deliver quality care, or in most cases, patient care at all.

As mentioned previously, equipment failures lead to delays, and rescheduled procedures, and can compromise patient safety. At UptimeHealth, we focus on the third variable. Our software and service network allow even the smallest provider teams to rest easy knowing they have a management system in place to operate like a bigger company.

The easiest analogy we give people is to treat it like your car, or whatever your preferred mode of transportation might be. Every time you need to get from point A to point B, we mentally expect that our car will start, our subways will run, and the flight will take off on time without any issues. However, the moment those cars, trains, planes, bicycles, etc., do not work, your entire day is ruined. You are having to adjust your schedules, work around the issue, and still pay to fix the problem. Using UptimeHealth will create a system that you can rely on to ensure that everyone is doing everything possible to keep the core equipment running so providers can focus on patients. Staying on top of equipment condition, providing regular maintenance, real-time monitoring, and predictive analytics will all help to prevent failures before they happen.

UptimeHealth recently acquired Dental Whale. Can you discuss the significance of this acquisition and how it aligns with your company's goals and vision for the future?​

The acquisition of Dental Whale is a significant milestone for UptimeHealth. This move aligns perfectly with our goal of expanding our reach and enhancing our service offerings in the dental sector. Dental Whale brings a wealth of experience and a strong customer base, which complements our expertise in predictive maintenance and equipment management. This acquisition allows us to offer even more comprehensive solutions to dental practices, helping them maintain their equipment more effectively and ensure continuous, high-quality patient care.

• DentalFix (now UptimeServices) - to continue to foster a robust service network and enable them through the UptimeHealth marketplace.
• Florida Dental Repair (now UptimeServices) - a handpiece and small equipment repair depot that will help our dental office clients gain access to more support for their small equipment needs.
• Front Office Rocks (now UptimeHealth) - an online learning management system to help educate front office team members and inform them of how to be productive in each practice. We plan to build upon this LMS and add more content related to compliance and equipment maintenance.
• DentalWhale (corporate - now UptimeServices) - the corporate brand and structure held a lot of the manufacturing relationships that the company used to foster service training, equipment, and parts access for technicians.

All of these key business units support us in our mission to revolutionize equipment maintenance across all areas of healthcare with turnkey solutions.

The global medical equipment maintenance market is anticipated to grow significantly. What factors are driving this growth, and how is UptimeHealth positioning itself to capitalize on these trends?​

The global medical equipment maintenance market is set for significant growth, driven by several factors. An increase in the number of medical devices in the ecosystem will create more service and maintenance events for UptimeHealth to support. The increasing complexity of the equipment will create more moments for UptimeHealth to simplify the education and knowledge transfer of how to take care of those instruments with the appropriate preventive maintenance to avoid costly downtimes. Lastly, as the number of IoT and connected devices enter the market, UptimeHealth is the best place to integrate those devices to track their performance and uptime. We will continue to expand our service offerings to both broaden our market reach as well as innovate better solutions and other needs to identify themselves with the changing times. By staying at the forefront of innovation and expanding our capabilities, we aim to lead the way in the evolving medical equipment maintenance landscape.

What future innovations or advancements in predictive maintenance and equipment management are you most excited about? How do you see these developments impacting the MedTech sector?​

I’m particularly excited about the advancements in AI and machine learning for predictive maintenance. These technologies are becoming incredibly sophisticated, allowing us to predict equipment failures with greater accuracy and take proactive steps to prevent them. Better data will also lead to improved alternative equipment maintenance (AEM) strategies that will reduce the burden on technicians and cost to the device owner without compromising the equipment quality. Overall, these innovations are set to transform the MedTech sector by significantly reducing downtime, improving patient care with more reliable healthcare equipment.

What are some of the biggest challenges healthcare facilities face in maintaining their equipment, and how does UptimeHealth help overcome these challenges?​

Healthcare facilities face several challenges maintaining their equipment, including limited access to trained technicians, service manuals, and the high costs of replacement parts. Moreover, keeping track of what a facility owns as things move and get bought and sold throughout the normal course of business can compound that challenge.

UptimeHealth helps overcome these challenges by offering a comprehensive network of technicians to call upon in your moments of need. By implementing the UptimeHealth software, healthcare providers can automate their workflows to keep track of what they own and ensure that maintenance programs are being set appropriately in real-time.

What advice would you give to healthcare providers looking to improve their equipment maintenance practices and reduce downtime?​

My advice for healthcare providers is to invest in a preventive maintenance program and if possible, leverage predictive maintenance technologies. Even just getting ahead of something as simple as regularly scheduled maintenance and the use of data analytics to predict and address potential issues can significantly reduce downtime and generate ROI in the first few months. Additionally, ensure your staff is well-trained and keep open lines of communication between clinical and technical teams.

Lastly, consider what devices are crucial to your operations and financial success. See if it makes sense to invest in backup equipment or create pre-determined processes to allow your team to work around any significant events. By taking these steps, you can improve equipment reliability, enhance patient care, and maintain operational efficiency.