BEAI and APSM Joint Lecture Presentation

Life without the original equipment manufacturer. Third Party Possibilities.

Pat Cooney is Principal Physicisist/Engineer at St Luke's Hospital, Dublin.

On Wednesday the 18 September 1996 a presentation entitled "Life without the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) - Third Party Service Possi- bilities" was presented by Mr. Bruce Gran, the Medical Business Unit Product Manager with Richardson Electronics Ltd. The presentation, ajoint BEAI and APSM venture, was held in Buswells Hotel and had a good turn out followed by some interesting discussions over a few glasses of wine. Mr Gran's talk outlined the early service options that existed in both the USA and Europe up to a couple of years ago. Various service options (full service without glassware, labour only, PM etc.) were offered by the OEM or its Representative. Parts were supplied only by the OEM or its Representative. The OEM manufactured parts or had proprietary agreements with their suppliers. In general there was very little choice for the purchasers (i.e. the hospitals) other than the OEM or its representative. In addition the general attitude of the hospitals was to just get the job done and not worry about costs.

However this attitude of the hospitals has changed in today's economic climate. Today the hospital objectives are to have good administrative control and to save money while maintaining a consistent quality of patient care. This has led to the development, within the hospitals, of areas such as Equipment Management with In-House service. In addition what is being witnessed now is the further development within the market place of Third Party Maintenance (TPM) Companies.

This gives rise to the latest service options such as:

OEM (Multi-Vendor Service & Asset Mgmt.)
TPM ( Multi-Vendor Service & Asset Mgmt.)
In-House (Hospital Employees or Contracted)
In-House & OEM (Shared service)
In-House & TPM (Shared service)

In addition today's part sources are radically changed with less proprietary agreements and com- panies who offer: Image tube re-loads, X-ray tube re-loads, Board repair facilities, Used & refurbished parts & equipment.

To summarise, two years ago in the UK there was little or no competition to the OEM's or their Representatives. They were refusing to install after-market parts (supplied by alternative companies) which in the majority of cases were the exact same part. The OEM's threatened "No Support" if after-market parts were used and threatened to remove documentation and software. The hospitals had no TPM Companies or Independent Service Organisations (ISM) to fall back on. Today there are big changes. There are 6 to 8 TPM Organisations in the UK offering multi-vendor service capabilities, servicing all modalities (old & new). These organisations are growing rapidly, using after-market parts and are taking out contracts with the NHS and Independent Hospitals.

Richardson Electronics (Europe) Ltd. supply a wide variety of medical products including: Medical X- ray Tubes, Medical Image Intensifiers, High Voltage Cables, Pulse & Switch Tubes, Medical Camera Tubes, Video Products, Accessories and Hydrogen Thyratrons.

In addition they are able to recommend TPM Organisations who will install such items often at a fraction of the cost offered by the OEM's, Should anyone require any further information their District Sales Manager is Ms. Mary Emery who can be con- tacted at Ph: 0044 1753 734105 or Fax: 0044 1753 733012.