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Benefits Of Using A Certified Service Provider

  • Innovation is the process of new ideas, workflows, methodologies & services
  • Using technology in new ways to create a more efficient and agile practice
  • Practice innovation enables the achievement of goals across the entire organisation
  • Innovation wherein, viability, feasibility and desirability of each process are improved

Think

  • Think Device Performance
  • Think Quality
  • Think Value
  • Think Standards
  • Think Device Software Updates
  • Think Insurance
  • ISO Quality Assurance
  • Think Spare Parts Inventory
  • Think Additional Costs
  • Think Bottom Line Capability

Think

  • Think Scheduled Testing
  • Think Reactive Breakdown Service
  • Think Customer Support
  • Think Asset Management System
  • Asset Management
  • Test Reports
  • Device Warranty
  • Repairs History Records
  • Risk Ratings
  • Device Operating Manuals

If you think compliance is expensive try non-compliance  TOP

Our purpose is to provide authorised thorough services and online access for our clients to manage their medical device assets.

Think Device Performance

Lisa Bainham has been the Practice Manager of award winning UK practice for the past eighteen years. In 2016, she took over the presidency of The Association of Dental Administrators and Managers (ADAM). Lisa was asked to give us her views on the business of practice management.

“If you could wave a magic wand, what one business issue would you like to get sorted?”

Lisa: “I think that managing compliance has become a complex matter. I understand that it is an important function, but I would like to see it organised in a much more straightforward and practice -friendly fashion.

Technology – will maximise efficiency and productivity TOP

 Choose a service provider who provides online access automated and self-serve reporting.

Think Quality

The goal is not to make money by seeking low cost device solutions, low quality service, but to create first class healthcare, provide superb patient service, and build the best team possible – building a great practice will follow as a consequence.

Instead of seeing where you can cut costs; look at ways you can improve things to make the practice operate more efficiently?

The old school way is to find areas to cut, the new school way is how to maximise efficiency and productivity.

Thanks to technology!

Price is what you pay Value is what you get TOP

Think Value

There is no such thing as a low cost quote without a compromised service.

A $10 rubber seal replaced during the device test would have avoided a $1,000 plus loan equipment hire and repair bill later on.

Financially what looked like the best quote turned out to be a very costly mistake.

And It happens everyday.

When we test a device we also conduct preventative maintenance and this often results in a replacing or adjusting a component within the device.

If not corrected during the maintenance process the device would ultimately require a far more expensive repair that would otherwise occur if the preventative maintenance process had not been carried out.

A device that has to be repaired due to the person you hired not having the ability or the manufacturers authority to do preventative maintenance procedures ultimately results in an avoidable device failures and the cost to send and return the device to a repair centre, the cost of loan equipment and an expensive repair bill.

Low cost technicians can’t get the parts from the manufacturer because they are not factory trained nor have they had the training to complete device repairs all they can do is attach a test device to a medical device run a test and they’re done.

That’s why they quote less.

Understanding Australian Standards TOP

Not understanding the requirements of the various Australian Standards that apply to the maintenance and servicing of medical equipment. Your Exposed

The Australian Standards requires that all medical equipment must undertake routine testing by a qualified biomedical technician during its service life, in order to ensure its continued safety and performance. This is quite a complex area so I have prepared a table that will help you understand what standards are applicable in your particular circumstances.

Many people may not realise how many standards may apply to their medical facility and simply test medical equipment in their routine electrical test and tag program under AS 3760. This is NOT sufficient to be compliant when servicing your medical equipment.

Standard Standard Title Medical Centres, Day Surgeries and Hospitals
AS3003 Electrical installations – Patient treatment areas of hospitals and medical and dental practice Yes
AS3551 Management programs for medical equipment Yes
AS3840 Pressure regulators for use with medical gases. Pressure regulators and pressure regulators with flow-metering devices Yes
AS3760 In-servce safety inspection and testing of electrical equipment Yes
AS48157 Cleaning, disinfecting and sterilising resuable medical and surgical instruments and equipment, and maintenance of associated environment in health care facilities. Yes

To comply with the standards relevant in our circumstances, the technician you appoint must have received appropriate training and have access to the necessary specialist biomedical test equipment and follow the manufacturer’s test procedures using properly calibrated test equipment.

In most circumstances, the standards require that medical equipment and autoclaves undergo acceptance and validation testing before new equipment is released for clinical use. Acceptance testing encompasses a set of administrative and technical processes that must be performed.

During acceptance testing, a preventative maintenance schedule is developed for the equipment that defines service intervals according to prescribed criteria that are designed to reduce the probability of failure or degradation in performance of the equipment.

Standards compliance is particularly important in today’s litigious society where the chain of responsibility comes under critical examination in the case of a workplace incident involving medical equipment.

Typically in these cases, the first matter to be examined is standards compliance. If this cannot be demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt, the owner of the equipment in question faces significant exposure to litigation and adverse findings.

If you are working within an ISO9001 Quality Assurance framework, failure to comply with the relevant standards can result in a  Non-Conformance. This may result in significant expense to rectify if there is a backlog of equipment to test at one time if an unsatisfactory compliance audit is received.

Don’t make this mistake, ensure that your service technicians are fully aware of the requirements of the various standards and can demonstrate to your satisfaction that they have the necessary training and test equipment that demonstrates this. If in doubt, ask them about how they comply with the standard. If you are not satisfied with their answers, don’t engage them and seek an alternative complying service provider.

Update Device Software TOP

Think Device Software Updates

Updating equipment software is essential in the medical field. It helps medical professionals stay in sync with rapidly changing standards of care by improving interfaces and device capabilities, the process can in some cases be quite easy and in some cases the process of upgrading can involve several time & technical consuming steps.

When we conduct a clients annual PVT any updates available are installed so that the device is operating with the latest software features.

Software updates can only be installed by the manufacturer or a biomedical technician trained and authorised by the manufacturer.

This means some technicians complete testing devices and the software updates are not updated.

Don’t make this mistake, ensure your service technicians are aware of the requirements of the various standards and can demonstrate that they have the necessary training and test equipment. If in doubt, ask them how they comply with the standard. If your not satisfied with their answers, don’t engage them and seek an alternative complying service provider.

Everyday we receive service requests and almost all of them ask for a quote, does this mean the lowest quote gets the job?

If so it’s a concern, a serious problem because some people testing equipment have no factory training and cant optimise the performance of the device.

All they do is connect the device to a testing device it passes or fails and they are done.

Inadequate Service Provider Insurance: Your Exposed: TOP

Think Insurance

Inadequate insurances held by a contractor could leave you exposed to litigation if a workplace incident occurs. You could become liable in the case of an incident.

There are additional underwriting risks that insurers face when providing liability insurance to medical service engineers so ordinary public liability cover is not sufficient.

Many service providers do not take out specific insurances because it’s expensive.

Make sure the service provider you select holds specialist Medical Equipment Product & Public Liability insurance with at least $20 million cover. You should also ensure that your service provider holds Work Cover Insurance for all employees. Ask to see a copy of their current insurance policies to avoid making this problem.

Think Quality Assurance

Choosing a service provider who does not have ISO9001 Quality Assurance and other industry accreditation. Your Exposed

Almost all medical companies in Australia face some form of accreditation process. By choosing a biomedical service provider who has a quality assurance system in place gives you the peace of mind that you have end to end quality assurance systems that won’t be undone by dealing with a non-accredited service provider.

Make sure the service provider you choose has current ISO 9001 accreditation so that you know that they will be speaking your language when it comes to conformance with your expectations.

Dealing with a professional biomedical service company committed to a culture of continuous improvement.

Think Spare Parts Inventory

Choosing a service provider who can’t afford to keep an extensive inventory of spare parts is something you must avoid

Maintaining a comprehensive range of spare parts for a am equally wide range of medical devices requires a significant capital investment.

You’d be surprised how many technicians scrimp in this area. This means that the technician is often scratching around in the back of his van looking for any part that might get you out of trouble.

We’ve even seen repairs were the technician used rubber bands and Araldite because the correct manufacturer’s parts were not available to the unauthorised technician.

Some technicians will even fit a used part they took out of somebody else’s machine yesterday. If it didn’t work yesterday, how long will it work for you?

Ask questions does the potential service provider have a comprehensive inventory of spare parts.

Make sure you don’t make this mistake and ask some probing questions about spare parts inventory levels and the service providers authority to do a repair on all your different devices.

If the answer is negative call us.

Think Additional Costs

Choosing a Service provider who does not have an extensive holding of loan equipment. Will Cost You More Money

When you have a busy surgery, you need to have confidence that if a machine cannot be repaired promptly that your service provider backs up his service with an extensive holding of loan equipment.

Using a service provider who does not provide this additional level of support exposes you to a significantly enhanced risk of economic loss due to extended downtime.

If, for some reason, your machine needs to be taken back to the workshop for repair you will need to loan equipment in some rare cases when a part has to be shipped from an overseas manufacturer there may be a significant delay so you will need a replacement loan device.

Loan equipment enables you continue to provide procedures

Under these circumstances there is no economic loss due to an equipment malfunction

Ask potential service providers this questions: how many devices do you have available for loan.

Avoid making a potentially costly mistake.

Think Additional Capability

To ensure a hassle free experience with the servicing of your medical equipment, you should do some detective work on any service provider you’re considering to contract.

Download the checklist on our website as a guide. Taking the time to complete the checklist will save you thousands of dollars.

Performance Safety testing (AS3551) & Preventative Maintenance Services: TOP

Scheduled Testing includes the following elements:

  • Medical equipment inspection & safety testing (AS3551, AS4815)
  • Medical equipment servicing minor repairs and parts replacement
  • Medical equipment calibration assessment
  • Medical equipment tagging to Australian Standards
  • Medical equipment risk assessment rating
  • Medical equipment on going life expectancy assessment
  • Medical equipment recall alert service

Reactive Breakdown Repair Service: TOP

Customer Support Services includes the following elements:

  • Management of all equipment maintenance and services
  • Customer Service Call Centre staffed by trained and experienced customer service representatives
  • Managed a shared inbox for emailed service requests
  • Measured response times for reactive maintenance requests including
    • Urgent Response
    • Same Day Response
    • Next Day Response
  • Technical troubleshooting over the phone
  • Scheduling workshop and on-site field technicians
  • Co-ordination of loan equipment
  • Confirmation of equipment warranty arrangements prior to repairs
  • Spare parts and inventory management for medical equipment under agreement
  • Management of customer hot spares or loan equipment

Think Effective Asset Management: TOP

Centralised document management for every department and each practice:

  • Instantly search and retrieve files
  • With Multiple Folders
    • Test Reports
    • Device Operating Manuals
    • Device Risk Ratings
  • Insightful reporting
  • Document Management
  • Records Management
  • Document Storage
  • Document Control
  • Version Control
  • Search and Retrieval

Online Management

Easy access of documents without compromising the security, structured storage of records, alerts and notification of changes, anytime anywhere access.

Access Anytime, Anywhere

Whether at home or in a hotel room, having total access to the data plays an important role in the productivity and maximum utilisation of time.

Practice Synchronisation

Working with the documents and content when travelling is important as it can help in finishing your backlogs and urgent tasks without the regular bustle of an office environment.

U-Tech Medical is ISO 9001:2015 certified, iPRO Smartek and JAS-ANZ certified.

ISO 9001 2015 is the world’s most widely recognised Quality Management System. This means you are employing the world’s best practice methods, policies and procedures, it helps dental practitioners to meet the expectations and needs of their patients

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