The 7-step Guide to Saving Money with Capital Equipment

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Do you want to save money with your medical equipment portfolio?

It’s not a complicated process, but one that is essential. Essential to not only the financial success of a hospital, ASC, or clinic, but the ability to deliver world-class patient care.

Here is the blueprint…

  1. Know what you have: The inventory is the basis of everything. If you do not
    know what assets you have, how do you manage them? A comprehensive,
    detail-oriented inventory accomplishes this.
  2. What kind of shape is it in? Just like an inspection lets you know what kind of shape your assets are in a home, (vehicle, refrigerator, water heater, etc.), you need to know what kind of condition your medical equipment is in at your facility. Not only outward condition, but is it meeting a current standard of care.
  3. How long should it last? Again, when you buy a car or house, you want to know how long things should last and retain or grow in value. Why should your medical equipment be any different? Having an appropriate full life standard enables the development of Estimated Remaining Useful Life (ERUL) metrics for your portfolio, which is critical for ongoing management.
  4. Value: Going back to the car and the house yet again – you utilize tools like Kelley Blue Book, Edmunds, and Zillow to project your value of your at-home “assets”, why not understand the value of your medical equipment assets?
  5. Develop or utilize systems: Develop or utilize a system to visualize and understand the data. Tools, analytics, benchmarks, and key indicators can help you identify what needs to be done.
  6. Plan: Your data and system should identify the needs and priorities, allowing your capital spend to be planned strategically. You dictate what, when, and how – proactively, according to your plan.
  7. Consistency: Hank Aaron said, “Consistency is what counts; you have to be able to do things over and over again.” Now you’re armed with the data and a system to plan and manage your assets going forward. This is the beginning step to savings and ongoing financial success with a portfolio. Continued success will be maintaining the data and staying consistent in your system for strategic planning and execution.