Is Your Hospital Paying to Rent Equipment It Already Owns?
by Isaiah Silva
Most hospitals know what they spend on equipment rentals. The harder question is why they are renting in the first place.
A rental is usually treated as a supply problem. A unit needs a bed, a stretcher, or specialty equipment, none is available, and a call goes out to the vendor. Sometimes that is the right decision. For many hospitals, certain bariatric and specialty equipment is not requested often enough to justify owning it.
When we review rental activity, though, the pattern often tells a different story. The hospital already owns the equipment, and it is in the building. It is waiting in a soiled utility room for cleaning, parked in an alcove on another floor, or held on a unit because staff have learned they may not get it back when they need it. When a unit calls for a specialty bed at 4 p.m. and no one can locate one quickly, renting becomes the fastest way to take care of the patient.
The invoice is only one part of the cost. The rest is harder to see:
Most hospitals know what they spend on equipment rentals. The harder question is why they are renting in the first place.
The invoice is only one part of the cost. The rest is harder to see:
• Time nurses and unit staff spend searching for equipment instead of caring for patients.
• Rentals that stay on long after the need has passed, because no one clearly owns the return.
• Short-term rentals that quietly become long-term, where buying would have cost less.
• A room (bed) that is clean but not truly available, because the right equipment is not there.
The hospitals that control rental spend do not do it by telling units to stop calling vendors. They know what they own, where it is, and whether it is clean and ready. They review every active rental on a set schedule, with someone accountable for ending it. They also treat long-term rentals as a buy versus rent decision, not a bill that keeps coming.
A rental invoice is often a report on equipment flow, and it is worth reading that way.
What does your organization look at first when rental spend starts to climb?
About the Author:
Isaiah Silva is the founder and president of HealthOps, where he draws on more than two decades of healthcare operations experience to help hospitals streamline support services and improve patient care.