Stock Up on Diagnostic Imaging Essentials: Make the Most of Your Year End Budget

For health care systems that operate on a calendar year, December provides system administrators with a unique challenge: what’s the best way to make use of remaining funds to enhance practice capacity and patient satisfaction?

One way to answer that question begins by identifying what makes patients unhappy. Being forced to wait for diagnostic testing – whether that means a delay of hours or even days – is consistently identified as a source of frustration by patients and their families. There are a myriad of reasons why these delays occur, with one of the most common being a lack of available diagnostic imaging equipment. Facilities simply don’t have enough operable units available to meet clinical demands in a timely manner.

This is a remediable situation. Your clinical team and scheduling staff can provide insights on where testing bottlenecks occur most often; this will help you identify what types of diagnostic imaging equipment is needed to shorten or even eliminate the amount of time patients are required to wait. In some instances, this may mean procuring additional units of equipment you already have, such as a portable x-ray machine or mini c-arm or large c-arm; in other instances, you may need to add an entirely new type of diagnostic imaging equipment to your practice. Your facility may have a need for an additional OR Table, Jackson Table or c-arm table to accommodate the growing number of patients.

Whatever the case may be, choosing refurbished diagnostic imaging equipment is a smart, strategic way to make the most of your year-end budget. A price comparison of identical units, one obtained new from the manufacturer, and the other fully refurbished, will reveal that savings of up to 40% are not uncommon. Refurbished diagnostic imaging equipment is available for purchase, rental or lease; rental agreements are ideal for those administrators who would like to test the impact of having additional diagnostic imaging equipment available on practice capacity and patient satisfaction prior to committing to a purchase.

To find out more, or to discover what types of diagnostic imaging equipment is available right now, give us a call. We’d be happy to discuss your practice needs with you, and help you get maximum value from your year-end budget.