work with you to finance your equipment purchases, then find one
who will. There are plenty of companies out there that would love to
get your business.
Pay as you go
Our physicians were pleased with our current brand of scopes and
equipment — and most of them used that same make and model at
the local affiliated hospital — so we decided to continue using that
manufacturer and see what options it could offer our center.
After trialing the company's newest line scopes, our docs chose a
high-definition model with an articulating distal tip that provides
sharp images with a brighter, full range of colors and expanded 180
degrees of the GI tract. Along with the new scopes, we invested in
new video towers and replaced our antiquated 24-inch standard-defi-
nition bubble screens with 40-inch high-def, flat-screen monitors.
We also purchased 3 automatic endoscope reprocessors (AERs) that
had a much smaller footprint and a much greater capability than our
older models. The AERs can reprocess 2 scopes at once, making them
more energy-efficient than our old single-scope capacity reprocessors.
They also feature integrated radio-frequency identification technology,
which automatically documents the key details of each scope's repro-
cessing cycle.
There are several creative ways to reduce upfront costs when invest-
ing in new technologies, including lease-to-own agreements with
monthly, quarterly or per-procedure payments. Because we purchased
all of our equipment through a single manufacturer, we negotiated a
cost-per-case financing agreement. Paying per procedure gives us
access to large capital equipment purchases without a big upfront cash
outlay or a daunting monthly payment.
Here's how the per-click financing program works. Instead of buying
3 6 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • M A R C H 2 0 1 9