Philips Multi-Vendor Global Services program can provide customers with predictable cost savings, while collaborating on a shared accountability model to help achieve the customer's desired outcomes.
From the May 2020 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
In March, as the novel coronavirus pandemic began taxing healthcare facilities in Northern Italy, a hospital in Milan reached out to Philips Healthcare Multi-Vendor Service program for help converting space to treat nearly 200 patients.
“They reached out to us on Friday, and were operational by Monday,” said Jim Salmons, Head of Global Multi-Vendor Service for Philips Healthcare.
Over a quarter century, Philips’ Multi-Vendor Service program has built up a global team of thousands of engineers and specialists. Their expertise covers a wide range, including disaster preparedness, site reconfiguration, clinical process optimization, patient flow, technology advisory and system configuration, and overall care delivery to support the critical challenges facing healthcare facilities, regardless of the modality or manufacturer.
“Whether during a pandemic, or meeting the unique daily clinical asset management needs of our customers, we’re able to quickly deploy the necessary resources to that service requirement,” Salmons said.
We recently spoke with Salmons about the key mission of the Philips Multi-Vendor Global Services program - to provide customers with predictable cost savings and improved financials, while supporting customers’ goals across the domains for safety, improved patient experience, and workforce satisfaction. Philips helps customers meet these goals through a quality and accountable service management program, delivered by trusted advisors and data monitoring.
Jim Salmons,
Head of Global Multi-Vendor Service,
Philips Healthcare
“Our service solutions offering has evolved over the years,” Salmons said. “To be a trusted advisor, we had to expand from the traditional break-fix model of hospital and vendor. We start every customer dialogue asking what they are trying to accomplish strategically, clinically, operationally, and financially. THEN, together, we decide how we measure success reaching those goals, collaborating on a shared accountability model to achieve the desired outcomes. Everybody wins in this situation.”
Philips has invested to build its global Multi-Vendor service capabilities through strategic acquisitions and collaborations.
Two such acquisitions are companies Philips now owns that each focus on direct access to multi-vendor parts, training, technical support, and recovered equipment: AllParts Medical, based in the USA, and Agito Medical, headquartered in Denmark.
The Philips program allows customers to select the level of services and support that makes sense for their business and budget.
Additionally, Philips has developed innovative, remote service support technologies to ensure customers achieve their desired level of equipment uptime and utilization. Philips’ innovative technologies also provide customers with real-time clinical asset readiness using Philips’ cloud-based asset management tool, InfoView.
Salmons said, “our program is nimble because customers can select the right level of services and support for their business and budget. Our focus is healthcare customers, and we are vendor agnostic. Philips can also work with a facility, using the information from the facility’s case mix, to help the facility make sure it has the right equipment for its patient population.
One of the most important aspects of the program is what Salmons calls “predictive planning,” to help minimize downtime, maximize equipment utilization, and balance patient and staff requirements by acting on the insights of captured data points.
While it’s easy for companies to pat themselves on the back when addressing a routine maintenance problem, Philips is thinking ahead, especially as the global health environment is facing more challenges than ever before. “We’re already preparing for the next change in the healthcare industry,” Salmons said. “We’re already seeing a shift in how things are going to be done and we’re ready for that”.
To learn more, visit:
http://www.philips.com/MVS
This article was sponsored by Philips.
