your primary devices are offline, says Xi Chen, PhD, a principal ana-
lyst at Design Resources Group in Toronto, Canada. "You can always
rely on scope manufacturers to offer loaner scopes that match the
quality and performance of the ones you're having repaired."
That's not necessarily true with third-party companies, which often
can't match the in-house resources of scope manufacturers and there-
fore might provide older models or another brand that aren't equiva-
lent matches, says Dr. Chen.
Get a service provider to commit to the number of loaners you'll
receive and a guarantee that the loaned instruments will match the
quality of the devices you're currently using, says Nancy Chobin, RN,
RN, CSPDM, CFER, president of Sterile Processing University in
Lebanon, N.J.
"Request that that information is agreed upon upfront and included
in the service contract before signing it," she says.
2. What's the cost?
When Materials Manager Jimmy Henderson purchased brand new
scopes for the Outpatient Surgery Center of Jonesboro (Ark.), the
deal included a 3-year, $80,000 service contract from the scope manu-
facturer. But when the agreement expired, the cost for renewal
tripled. That's when Mr. Henderson immediately began to collect
quotes from third-party repair companies with the hope of finding a
more reasonable rate. He found a company that offered to service the
facility's scopes over 3 years for $26,000. Sold.
Ms. Chobin once helped negotiate a service contract for the hun-
dreds of scopes in use at 7 hospitals within the RWJBarnabas Health
System in northern New Jersey and says the third-party repair compa-
ny's fee was one-third less than what the original endoscope manufac-
turer charged.
J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 9 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 3 1
