By Ted Lucidi, CBET
If you had an opportunity to read last month’s article, we provided readers with a series of questions that would help HTM teams qualify their potential choices for repair partners. Questions ranged from 1) “What testing methods are used?” and “How is product performance assessed?” 2) “What mechanical repair capabilities does the provider possess?” 3) “What is the source of replacement parts?” 4) “Are system cables replaced or are they spliced?”
Ultimately, we challenged readers with, “What qualifies an independent service organization (ISO) to be YOUR choice today, tomorrow and moving forward?” Is it price? Is it that they have a loaner? Is it that they have 1-day turn-around? Is it an overnight exchange from their warehouse? Could it be quality and overall value? I’m hoping so. We’d like to believe that all service organizations approach repair using similar methodologies, sharing similar values and applying the same quality standard. The simple fact is we do not. A quick search will reveal vast differences in price for, what appears to be, similar product offerings. And, unfortunately, we often get what we pay for.
Asking the right questions might be the first step in helping qualify a potential choice. But, you might just find out that not everybody’s open to sharing detailed intricacies of their operations. The person with whom you are interacting actually may not know the answers. How is one to adequately assess a potential partner? What could be a second step in the qualification process? Missourians know the answer. It’s “Show Me.”
A second step might be to visit the repair facilities of select providers. This should be a must for health care systems deciding upon a key supplier. Key decision makers can tour the operations, see the overall process, and interact with the organization’s leadership. It takes the vendor qualification process to the next-level and has the potential to differentiate a good provider from a great partner and a broker/re-seller from an actual repair organization.
Facility tours are something that Innovatus has been doing for years. They’re something we encourage because we believe that seeing is believing. Not only are clients able to tour any of our Centers of Excellence, but we openly share almost every aspect of our operations. Clients can see for themselves just what goes into our repair processes. They can see their product being disassembled, repaired, both electronically and mechanically, and then quality tested. They are encouraged to interact with the wizards in our state-of-the-art machine shops and see the vast inventory of replacement parts and finished-goods loaners. Even the research and development areas aren’t off-limits. Clients can engage with our engineers to understand how we validate new repair processes. Finally, the leadership team reviews the key performance indicators that keep our operations running efficiently and assures that all products are returned to the OEM’s intended design.
Maybe, you don’t work for a large health care organization. Maybe, there isn’t a large decision-making process. Maybe, you just need one product repaired and this is your first-time exploring ISO options. Maybe, you’re not close to Tulsa or Pittsburgh. Who has the time to travel? And, these days, travel budgets are miniscule. I answer you with, “Isn’t technology wonderful?”
A few years ago, we took clients on a technical journey of our repair facilities. Our YouTube channel and our website host videos that enable customers to see our operations in detail. Much of what can be experienced in-person can be seen via video. The videos show the scale of our operations and then brings viewers down to the technician level enabling them to understand the technical complexity that is found in an Innovatus repair solution. We’re getting ready to re-shoot a few new videos because we’re excited to share all of the updates since the last ones. We haven’t moved or expanded internally. On the contrary, over the last year, we’ve added significant operational efficiencies and lean initiatives. The updates enable us to utilize a smaller footprint within the same physical space while processing significantly higher volumes, moving at about twice the pace, all while improving quality outcomes. We can’t wait to show you!
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that which was traditionally done in-person, might be just as effective virtually. We found that to be true with tours. Since early 2020, we’ve given dozens of virtual tours. Individuals as well as teams with up to 40 attendees have been able to virtually tour Innovatus’ operations. There’s no need to hire professional videographers. With today’s technology, we’re all videographers. Software solutions and network connectivity have improved significantly enabling high-quality live video from almost any metropolitan location.
Since we ALL have access to smartphones and tablets, and we ALL have used Teams, Zoom and GoToMeeting, and we ALL have access to high-speed Internet at work, shouldn’t ALL prospective repair partners be willing to virtually open the doors and roll back the curtains to their repair operations? A solid suggestion: Ask a contact at your current repair provider to pull out their phone and take you on a virtual tour of their facility today. It might just be eye-opening.
I’ll end this article in the same manner as I did last month. If the price seems low, if the turn-around time seems really fast, or if the warranty period isn’t long, you may just want to do some digging. There is a cost to “good enough.” Surprisingly, the price of quality solutions isn’t much more.
The link to the virtual tour of our Ultrasound Center of Excellence is www.innovatusimaging.com/technology-matters and details into MRI coil testing can be viewed at www.innovatusimaging.com/mri-coil-testing.
Ted Lucidi, CBET, is the director of commercial operations and business analytics at Innovatus Imaging.
