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Are you prepared for a major medical equipment moving job?

by John R. Fischer, Senior Reporter | August 24, 2020
Business Affairs Parts And Service
From the August 2020 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


A few more things to keep in mind
Completing an installation and/or deinstallation requires all parties to be in constant communication with one another. One of the best ways for ensuring this is to have multiple meetings, and to not be afraid to ask questions after the project ends.

"Call with any questions," said Empie. "Don’t be afraid to reach out for clarity on the system. I think the fear that customers have is that once the job is done, that’s it and we’re gone for good now. What we like to do with our customers is have some check-ins, especially if they’ve been silent after two weeks. We reach out to say, 'Hey, how do you like your system?'; 'Is it working for you guys?'; 'Does your staff need any more training?' Our goal at Sigma is to be your partner and see your practice thrive."

The most successful projects are the ones planned well in advance from the beginning, according to Iravani. “To us, the biggest recommendation to the customer is to plan, plan, plan, plan and plan. The more planning you do in the beginning, the smoother the job will be,” he said. “The sooner we get involved with the contractors and the powers that be in the organization, the smoother the job will go.”

It is important to communicate with the electrician, plumber and construction crew to avoid any issues that could lead to costly delays.
Diener says another key responsibility of the provider is to keep tabs on the different schedules of each contractor involved to ensure they do not conflict with one another. Otherwise, delays or problems can occur.

“Often I’ll get phone calls from people who are frantic,” he said. “They don’t know what to do and have to have their system taken out next week, because whoever is installing the new system is going to deliver and start installing. It’s difficult at that point to get a crew together, go to the site and remove the system at short notice like that. A lot of times, our schedules are made out for 30 days already.”

Sometimes, when there are middle men involved in a project, such as brokers or project managers, they will assume that everything is going to be a piece of cake. This, of course, is not a smart mentality for embarking on an equipment construction job.

“They assume you have large entry doors, a straight run to the room. Sometime it’s easy, sometimes it’s not,” said Polo. “The biggest factor is when you’re dealing with a bigger facility, getting [the system] in and out of the room can be a problem. When you’re dealing with major hospital chains, a room could be on the third or fourth floor. Often they share the loading dock but it may be on a different avenue, meaning you have to go down to the basement floor, shoot across and come out on the other side of the building.”

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