The decision to purchase your medical imaging equipment involved a substantial investment of time, planning and money, but that equipment quickly became the lifeblood of your operation. Once the initial warranty is up, you face an equally difficult decision: who will service that equipment?
The cost of choosing the OEM to offer service coverage is beyond the budget of many facilities and they turn to independent service companies for information. The lesson quickly learned is that NOT ALL SERVICE COMPANIES ARE CREATED EQUAL. The question for many medical professionals, then, is how to identify the right service company.
To start with, I suggest that you ask a lot of questions of any service company that you contact. Not all companies are suited to your needs, and I would like to give you a list of tried-and-true screening tools for evaluating a potential service provider.
Top 10 criteria for choosing a Service Company:
1. Qualified Service Personnel: The heart of the service company is its knowledge and experience. You want to choose a company that employs its own qualified personnel to service your equipment. Avoid working with companies that primarily subcontracts your system repairs to others. Qualified service companies should be able to provide you with complete service reports for your records.
2. Qualified pool of replacement parts on hand and expedited part delivery: Companies that are short on inventory will waste your precious scanning time sourcing parts to cover their service obligation, or by trying to repair components on-site instead of installing good ones. At a minimum, parts should be delivered to your site by the next AM via courier. Parts repair should be done in a qualified facility off site.
3. Original Test Equipment and tools: Your systems will need calibration by trained personnel using qualified test equipment. The right test equipment can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Beware if the service provider is trying to cut-corners by using some non-qualified test equipment to work on your expensive system. Ask if a service company has qualified test equipment.
4. Availability of live response to your service needs: When you need to talk to a knowledgeable person about your system you should have access to that person within minutes. Voice mail and answering machines are NOT acceptable in the Customer Service world. Always insist that you can dial one number and get a live person that will connect you with the right person to answer your questions.
5. On-time service delivery: Systems will go down and you will need specific answers about repair times and work schedule. Once you place a request for service you should have answers about the engineer's time of arrival, number of hours needed for troubleshooting, schedule for parts arrival (if any) and your system’s uptime.
6. Up-time guarantees: Locking a service company to a service contract will eliminate your risk in case of any component failure; you should also make sure your service company will commit to an uptime guarantee. This will give you peace of mind that your service company is sparing no effort m maintaining your system's reliability, while expediting repair time.
7. Availability of telephone and on-site technical support: A qualified service company will always employ qualified technical support level engineers to help fix problems over the telephone. It is to your advantage that the technical specialist receives accurate information about the problem and service issues. Telephone support may help bring your system up faster so can scan more patients.
8. Reasonable prices and no hidden charges: Service costs should be clear and understood upfront. No hidden charges should be imposed on your service bill.
9. Liability Insurance: always ask for a certificate of liability insurance to be provided by the service company in your name. This certificate should shift the responsibility from you to the service provider in the event of injury of any service personnel while on your site.
10. Request References: Ask the service company to provide you a list of customers that will attest to the provider's service delivery and integrity.
As a side note, it makes a difference when you deal with a service sales individual who has an actual MRI and CT service background. He/She will have a better understanding of your issues and will be able to answer questions regarding the service delivery of the company and stand behind all promises made to maximize your systems' uptime.
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