Frequently Asked Questions

Question: What is the difference between Medical Equipment Planning and Medical Equipment Project Management?

Answer: Over the years, the term “medical equipment planning” has evolved and become almost generic in its use, covering a broad array of services relating to equipment and medical facility development. In the early days of medical facility development, the requirements for equipment planning were not nearly as complex, nor was the equipment itself. Equipment planning, in the early days, normally consisted of budgeting, specifying, and coordinating equipment but the procurement, installation, commissioning, etc were, more often than not, performed by the facility or the facility simply signed quotations from various vendors. With the ever increasing quantity and variety of medical equipment and its sources, coupled with the way that it is sold and the tremendous potential price variances, there has developed a need for procurement to be part of the planning process. Other than internal equipment planning departments in large hospital management companies, HELP Equipment Planning was the first medical equipment planning company to offer complete Equipment Project Management services.

Some “equipment planning companies” chose to sell equipment (which HELP sees as a conflict of interest) and, in that role of selling equipment, performed some of the actual procurement duties but only as a seller, not as a buyer.

HELP Equipment Planning’s services really go far beyond equipment planning to include the entire spectrum of Equipment Project Management. Please reference the Equipment Project Management chart found here.

To maximize coordination and minimize errors and omissions, total equipment project management, by HELP Equipment Planning, is the best choice, since the integrated software has built in checks and balances, comparative budgets, open item reports, purchase order reports, expediting reports, etc. that all work together to keep the project on time and on budget.

Question: Why is equipment project management needed?

Answer: A start-up medical facility today can easily order equipment from 50 to 150 different sources, covering literally thousands of individual products, each of which requires multiple decisions and action. In addition, new equipment is coming on the market routinely and high cost technical equipment can become obsolete as frequently as yearly. The only way to manage a project’s equipment needs is to utilize established checklists, procedures, forms, and software that prevent duplication and omission and encourage timely decisions with the proper documentation.

Accurate budgeting, based on realistic attainable net costs with factors for escalation, sales tax, contingency, and freight is the best approach, but to do so, you not only need a master checklist of all potential equipment, departmentalized, but you need current accurate pricing and knowledge of applicable options to develop a meaningful report.

In today’s healthcare market, typically, existing department heads and procurement staff are already working with minimal staff and multi-tasking, so they do not have the time to dedicate to equipment planning in an organized and timely fashion. In addition, existing staff, typically, do not have access to the checklists and software that is necessary to prevent omission or duplication. Lastly, a professional equipment project manager draws knowledge and data from multiple facility projects nationwide and internationally, so they are in a position to share industry trends, product performance, vendor performance, and other soft data that can and will improve the outcome of your project.

Question: What does it take to make a good equipment project manager?

Answer:

• Broad based knowledge of all types of medical and surgical equipment from sharps containers to MRIs.
• Broad based knowledge of architectural and engineering processes, needs, terms, and documentation techniques.
• Good management skills with the ability to multi task and be proactive.
• Strong technical support of their firm, including software, databases, training, checklists, controls, and documentation standards.
• Current active involvement in the budgeting, specification, procurement, and installation of all types of equipment in multiple facilities.
• Easy access to vendors on a National level with corporate vendor recognition and respect.
• A personal passion for producing a quality product with pride.
• A strong sense of business ethics, respecting the confidence and business of all parties.
• A thorough understanding of the owner’s budgets, needs, and goals.
• An understanding from the owner as to the role they would want the equipment project manager to play.

Question: I already have an architect, why would I need an equipment planner?

Answer: Architects go through years of formal training, education, and experience in order to become licensed and gain their AIA certification. That requires them to have a broad based knowledge in all the related engineering services, as well as the architectural design aspects. As you can well imagine, keeping up with all the codes, regulations, new products, new systems, etc. is at best pretty much a full time job, much less trying to keep up with the medical equipment. Most healthcare architects thoroughly understand the need for outside, professional, medical equipment consulting and eagerly await the addition of such a team member to the project. There are certainly a few medical facility architects that would prefer to take equipment planning under their responsibilities; however, in many case, this is subsequently just turned over to a vendor.

At minimum, an equipment planner is required to provide budgeting, planning, and coordination services and to work side-by-side with the architects and engineers to ensure maximum coordination. HELP Equipment Planning takes this minimal requirement very seriously and performs it very well; however, we feel that it should not stop at that point. There are really two other major aspects of equipment project management, one being serving as the client’s advocate with the vendors. The medical equipment market is highly competitive and pricing is very diverse and irregular from vendor-to-vendor and salesman-to-salesman. It is only natural for vendors to try to sell the products that make the company the most money and them the most commission. HELP is in a position to advise the client on what the true net pricing should be and what others in the industry are doing with regard to due diligence and decisions on equipment selection. The second major aspect of HELP’s equipment project management is the entire procurement, expediting, delivery coordination, relocation coordination, and installation services. Even if the architect developed all the specifications for the equipment and it was turned over to someone else to purchase, there is a high probability that the products specified will be different from the products purchased, if for no other reason, time and technology. Without a project manager overseeing both areas, there is a great opportunity for error. In the case of new health facility construction, errors come in the form of construction change orders, which we all know can be extremely costly.

With the total “Equipment Project Management System,” offered by HELP, the opportunity for and occurrence of equipment related change orders is virtually eliminated. In order to accomplish this task, the equipment project manager, ideally, would be on the team prior to the finalization of schematic drawings and until at least 90 days after the opening of the facility.

Question: Why has Equipment Planning become a major consulting service required in medical facility development?

Answer: The simple answer is technology and cost. Medical Equipment Planning was actually a recognized discipline and profession over 50 years ago, prior to the development of the extremely large majority of current technology. While it is sometimes hard to believe, technology such as pulse oximetry, electronic non-invasive blood pressure, CT, MRI, diagnostic ultrasound, Cath Labs, PET scanners, electronic medical records, audio/video integration, and even personal computers have only been on the scene since about 30 years ago. The problem is that for each one of these major technologies named above, there are hundreds of other items of capital equipment, some very costly such as: lasers, imaging guided surgery, harmonic scalpels, cyber knives, etc, that still are growing at an incredible rate. It is now possible for the cost of medical equipment to actually exceed the cost of construction and be the largest single capital expense on a healthcare project. In addition to being costly, much of this equipment needs to be integrated with one or more information systems, which eventually will become one master coordinated/consolidated system.

On top of the cost implications and the ever increasing technology, manufacturers and vendors are constantly being bought and sold with new products being introduced and existing products being discontinued. Keeping track of the changing technology, providers, integration, and pricing takes a firm dedicated to that need.