Collaboration leads to better outcomes for imaging equipment at Portland District Health

A single medical imaging system can cost millions of dollars and is critical to the operations of the health service. 

Support from HSV made a significant different when Portland District Health recently purchased a Philips Incisive 128 slice CT scanner.

“We were surprised because we didn’t think our budget could get us the scanner we now have,” says Bethany Scott, Acting Chief Medical Imaging Technologist at Portland District Health.

“It has been in operation for two months and we are delighted with it. Referrals from local GPs have increased and it is saving a lot of local patients travel time to other hospitals,” Bethany says.

“As a clinician in a remote hospital the reliability is a relief – there are no more delays in results.

“The machine has improved our current services and future-proofed our imaging and technology because it gives us the potential to offer a wider range of services in the future,” says Bethany.

HSV Head Equipment Sourcing Mark Lennen says the value and complexity of this equipment means procurement in this area requires a specialised approach.

“The first and most important step we take is to understand what a health service needs to provide the best service to their patients and we expect suppliers to work very hard to meet these needs,” Mark says.

“With capital equipment of this nature our role is to guide and support health services throughout the procurement process and drive the negotiations with suppliers,” he says.

“We are focused on being more agile and adaptive and in the past 12 months we’ve achieved some very pleasing outcomes in a number of sourcing events.”

The Equipment Sourcing team has access to national and international pricing and individual cost component data, as well product catalogues, tools and templates to expedite the process and improve health service outcomes. Benefits to health services include:

• lowest possible pricing
• quotation extensions
• improved specifications
• contractual enforcement
• procurement of service maintenance and software.

HSV is committed to an interactive approach with health services offering advice, guidance and negotiation on an ongoing and as-required basis, irrespective of what stage a procurement is at or if it is part of a group buy.

“We are here to help with one-off capital purchases at any stage in the process, whether that be technical expertise, procurement guidance, price benchmarking or assistance with supplier negotiations,” says Mark.

“The more opportunity we have to be involved in sourcing events, the greater the benefits for the health sector,” he says.

An experienced Senior Biomedical Advisor is part of the team and up-to-date technical expertise and procurement considerations are maintained through a specialist equipment subscription.

For more information about support for capital equipment procurement, please contact a HSV Customer Relationship Manager or the HSV Help Desk at helpdesk@healthsharevic.org.au or phone 03 9947 3900.