Improve Hospital Budgets with Medical Equipment Transfers

The healthcare industry wastes about $700 billion in expenses every year, according to a 2009 Thomson Reuters report. And with nearly 20% of US hospitals in danger of closing due to financial concerns, cost-cutting solutions have become crucial. Leveraging internal medical equipment transfers can greatly improve capital budgets across a health system.

What most facilities don’t realize is that how you use your equipment can make or break an operating budget. The US spent over $44 billion on medical and healthcare equipment in 2015. Yet hospital equipment has a 42% utilization rate.

That means medical facilities around the country spend billions of dollars a year purchasing equipment that isn’t being used. On top of that, a low rate of utilization means lost revenue through other maintenance costs.

This underutilization doesn’t just apply to mobile assets such as IV pumps, telemetry units, and wheelchairs, which can be easily misplaced or stolen. It also applies to installed equipment such as imaging or surgical equipment.

By transferring larger assets to networked facilities that need them, health systems can cut down on underutilization and budget waste.

Asset transfer is the practice of moving equipment within a hospital system or network. For example, consider Hospital A has an unused asset sitting in storage. Then consider Hospital B plans to purchase the same asset. Together, they can save the purchase expense by transferring the asset from Hospital A to B.

Internal medical equipment transfers also help health systems retain book value, rather than taking a loss with fair market or OEM trade values.

Medical Equipment Transfers with the Private Exchange

BidMed’s Private Exchange facilitates connections within hospital systems, acute care or surgery facilities, and private practices. “Today, those connections are not really being made,” said BidMed Co-Founder and COO Joanne Frogge. Or at least “not being used as much as [they] should be.”

Creating an exclusive network, Workflow+ and the Private Exchange deliver an ecosystem of local and national healthcare facilities and equipment. The system helps subscribers transfer and sell assets with an all-in-one solution, including an inventory app and auction platform.

The Private Exchange tier of Workflow+ provides a dedicated, in-network listing of equipment available within a health system. Individual facilities can check for equipment they need within their system or share details of items they no longer need.

An extended tier integrates unrelated health systems on a hospital-exclusive Exchange. Here both buyers and sellers optimize capital budgets by connecting directly with other end-users.

How the Private Exchange Works

Access to this invaluable resource begins with a system subscription to Helix Workflow+. When a typical health system subscribes, all affiliated satellite facilities get their own login under the same subscription. These could include outside acute care campuses, surrounding ambulatory surgery centers, or even physician practices.

Workflow+

Workflow+ is a cloud-based software system designed to optimize asset disposition workflows. It is valuable for any hospital or medical facility managing asset retirement and dispositions. However, integrating a full health system unlocks even more potential with access to internal transfers on the Private Exchange.

To optimize hospital workflows even more, the Helix suite also includes an inventory management mobile app. This iOS app captures data and images of assets and uploads them directly to Workflow+. The cloud-based portal then allows users to manage inventory, request fair market value reports, make internal transfers, and access the Exchange.

Private Exchange

Facilities and systems have a number of disposition options for retiring equipment. The first step in choosing the right method is assessing equipment fair market values. Then, users can compare these values to OEM trade-in offers and existing book values.

Often times, retaining value with internal transfers is better than returning value through trades or sales. The Private Exchange provides an opportunity to do just that. It connects all facilities within a system, and makes listing items available for transfer extremely easy.

Facilities in need of new equipment can then view equipment currently available, and request to receive transfers with just one click.

Hospital-Exclusive Exchange

If there is no transfer request, an upgraded subscription provides access to our broader hospital-exclusive Exchange. This Exchange integrates facilities and health systems nation-wide. Buyers on the Exchange save money and sellers receive more by eliminating the middle-man — no expensive equipment flippers involved.

Four easy steps to optimize asset utilization and capital budgets with medical equipment transfers:

1. Appointed admins can list their assets for transfer or sale directly from their Workflow+ inventory list.
2. In-network facilities can view all available assets and make requests on the Private Exchange.
3. Admins review and manage requests in real-time through Workflow+.
4. Any items not transferred can be re-posted on the hospital-exclusive Exchange for open sale.

The hospital-exclusive Exchange is open to inter-system facilities, multiple health systems, collaboratives, and national group purchasing organizations.

Workflow+ also offers tiered user access for varying levels of facility employees. This connects all team members, whether they process inventory, request equipment, or make budgeting decisions.