How can healthcare providers optimise their IT infrastructures and medical equipment? What is the best way for them to structure their investments in new systems and technologies? How can they develop their employees’ digital skills? As one of the world’s leading non-captive specialists for technology management and finance, CHG-MERIDIAN offers healthcare providers an extensive portfolio of services. We want to help our customers make cost savings and efficiency gains that will provide them with the financial flexibility to invest in their digital future.
“We take a holistic view and work closely with our customers throughout the planning process and beyond, whether they need to implement customised IT solutions or optimise their hospital’s medical equipment.”
Healthcare providers frequently approach CHG-MERIDIAN to find out how to gain cost transparency and identify potential for savings in their capital spending. The challenge is that many healthcare providers are not in a position to make the necessary investment, with limited capital to undertake essential modernisation and digitalisation projects. This is where CHG-MERIDIAN can help.
CHG-MERIDIAN’s 360-degree service offering covers three interlocking phases: planning and selection of the appropriate solution (preparation phase), procurement, commissioning and asset management (productive phase), and remarketing and certified data erasure (end-of-life phase). To make the processes within this product lifecycle transparent, we use our proprietary technology and service management system, TESMA®. The application provides a central database for all key business information, making it available in real time.
At the start of every new customer relationship, CHG-MERIDIAN conducts a full commercial and technological review of all the equipment in use and current capital spending. The objective is to build up a detailed picture of administrative processes and to identify potential efficiency gains in the use of medical technology. “We develop customised business concepts in order to harmonise equipment portfolios and streamline processes,” says Stephen Kerr. “It’s about asking key questions such as which technology is unsuitable and might therefore result in increased maintenance costs? Can the number of suppliers be reduced, cutting training costs and potentially also preventing inappropriate use of the equipment? Is it possible to optimise procurement of consumables?”
On the basis of its review, CHG-MERIDIAN creates a suitable financing and charging model for the customer. For healthcare providers this could be a finance plan that is based on revenue (pay-per-procedure), on the useful economic life (pay-as-you-earn), or on the number of operations carried out to finance an operating theatre (pay-per-theatre), or it could be an overall financing package. CHG-MERIDIAN ensures that liquidity is retained and that income is generated from the remarketing of old equipment.
In the healthcare industry, return on investment is directly dependent on the estimated number of cases and the amounts that can be billed for them. This makes it difficult to accurately forecast cost efficiency and adds an element of risk to the financial planning process. CHG-MERIDIAN’s pay-per-procedure model gives hospitals more control over their capital investment. Unlike with conventional billing models, the calculation is done backward from the individual treatment case rather than forward from the acquisition cost. This means that the lease instalment is based on the expected number of treatments and the potential associated revenue, with the financing partner bearing some of the risk of deviation in the number of treatments.
Using pay-per procedure models to manage the risks of investing in healthcare technology
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“Estimating patient numbers at the start of the lease term is always a challenge, particularly with new technologies,” says Stephen Kerr. “That’s why we offer our customers a dynamic financing model that grows with their needs. Any necessary adjustments are assessed together with the customer as part of our annual review cycles.”
It’s not just the procurement of medical technology that can prove challenging for healthcare providers. CHG-MERIDIAN also supports its customers during the end-of-life phase. Its professional portfolio of services covers everything from the deinstallation and collection of the assets to certified data erasure and reconditioning and remarketing or environmentally responsible disposal of equipment. This ensures that the healthcare providers derive full benefit from the residual value of their systems. Our Technology and Service Center offers the perfect solution for every type of asset.
Feel free to contact us in case of questions!