4 Trends In Pharmaceutical Equipment Sourcing

If you’re in the healthcare industry, and especially with the management or the procurement department, you’ll understand the hassle that comes with buying pharmaceutical equipment. Anything from the costs to the quality of equipment, you’ll need careful planning and execution in the sourcing process. 

So, to lessen the hurdles you might stumble upon, read below for some trends in pharmaceutical equipment sourcing you may want to consider for your next purchase:  

1. Buying Second-Hand Equipment

Nowadays, many institutions in the health industry purchase second-hand equipment. Whether you’re running a hospital, pharmacy, or clinic, you require a lot of equipment to ensure that it’s fully operational. For instance, you’d want to buy used industrial mixers and blenders, or second-hand drying equipment. You can also get second-hand ultrasound scanners, patient monitors, and more, for technical medical operations. 

You ‘t need to worry about the condition of the equipment you buy as they undergo a thorough refurbishing process to ensure that you get them in proper working condition. Normally, the refurbishing companies buy used items from institutions such as hospitals and take them through a repair and upgrading process to restore their quality. Afterward, they test them to ensure that their functionality meets industry standards. 

Some of the benefits you’ll reap by purchasing refurbished equipment include: 

• Cheaper costs: Unlike new ones, refurbished pharmaceutical equipment is more budget-friendly. As a result, the money you save from equipment purchases can be channeled to other uses. For instance, you can use it to buy other equipment or transfer it to other patient care needs, such as providing them with better essential amenities like food, hospital robes, and general hospital maintenance services.  
• Higher quality: During the refurbishing process, used equipment may be upgraded to match new industrial trends. Therefore, despite restoring them to their original state, refurbished equipment may have an even higher quality than the brand new ones.  

Accordingly, if you’re running on a tight budget but still want to deliver quality services to your patients, you may want to consider buying second-hand equipment.

2. In-House Manufacturing

Instead of buying the medical equipment, you may decide to construct them in-house. You, however, have to have the right resources and meet the required medical standards for it to happen. These may include: 

• Regulations on medical devices standards 
• Regulations on workplace safety 
• Hygiene, electrical, and environmental regulations 

Once you fulfill the conditions set by law, you can proceed to manufacture your equipment. You may also collaborate with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to supply you with products or parts of a product that you’ll use to build the whole. 

The key in medical equipment manufacturing is speed and cost-saving, at the same time ensuring efficiency throughout the production process. However, you shouldn’t get carried away by these factors, as the goal is to produce quality equipment. Some common devices you can manufacture include: walking aids, such as walkers, canes, and wheelchairs; respiratory aids, like ventilators and inhalers; hospital beds, and other accessories. 

Here are some of the benefits of in-house manufacturing: 

• Quality equipment production 
• Fast delivery times 
• Customer-oriented production 
• Efficiency flow in the manufacturing process 

Therefore, if you want customizable equipment in your institution, you can manufacture your own devices. In-house manufacturing can also be profitable as you can venture into selling any extra equipment you produce. 

3. Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs)

These are organizations that manage the buying needs of their clients, otherwise termed as member facilities, which in this case are the healthcare providers. In other , a GPO is an interface between a healthcare provider and a supplier of a required product.  

GPOs are valuable assets to your facility in terms of equipment sourcing as they: 

• Save you money: They usually negotiate with equipment supplier partners on a cost-saving plan. Therefore, through a GPO, you’d spend less than if you’d have purchased without a GPO contract. 
• Save you time: They handle all the sourcing processes that you’d have otherwise spent a lot of time on while negotiating with suppliers. They hand you the finished contract so all that’s left for you to do is to receive the equipment. 
• Save you resources: Aside from time and money, GPOs also give your procurement team ample time to focus on other areas that will be productive for your institution. 

Thus, if you intend on buying new equipment for your institution, signing up with a GPO may be a good idea. However, make sure you go for credible GPOs. You can use some quantitative or qualitative markers before choosing a GPO. For instance, the higher the number of members registered with the GPO, the more competent it is. Also, a GPO offering additional services, aside from the three major perks mentioned above, indicate its quality and reliability. 

4. Equipment Outsourcing

As a medical institution, you need to constantly focus on an array of important tasks within any particular day. Therefore, it’s important that you get the needed equipment up and running so that you can deliver quality services to your patients. 

Aside from professional services like hospital financial officials, cleaning services, or special condition doctors, you can also outsource medical devices such as imaging devices, leasing medical devices, laboratory equipment, patient transportation services, among others. 

Outsourcing has its benefits in any given health institution. These may include; 

• A decreased purchasing cost: You may lease devices from other hospitals, which will rent them to you at a lower amount than if you’d have spent buying new equipment. 
• An increase in the quality of services rendered: The medical equipment will still offer quality services, despite it not being owned by the health facility. 
• An increase in flexibility: Through outsourcing, you can get any device you require, as all you have to do is rent it from the owner. 
• An increase in profits: You’ll be able to work on a vast array of procedures as you’d be having the required instrumentation. 

When you carefully plan your outsourcing, you can cost-effectively get the products you need to render quality services. The saved money can then be used for other processes that’ll lead the health institution into even more productivity. 

 

Conclusion 

For the successful running of a health institution, you need to have equipment that ensures patients’ needs are met.  

This article discusses four trends you may use to source your pharmaceutical equipment, including, buying used equipment, manufacturing them in-house, using GPOs, and outsourcing them. All these sourcing techniques have their perks, with the most common one being that they’re cheaper and offer quality services. 

Therefore, if you want to purchase equipment for your health institution, try these tips and achieve efficient results for yourself and your patients. 

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