Maximizing Profit from Cardio. When purchasing medical equipment, the purchase price represents just a fraction of the investment. More thorough analysis considers the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) the entire range of the cost of a product throughout its entire life cycle. Knowledge of the TCO enables healthcare professionals to make completely informed economic decisions, reduce unexpected costs, and achieve maximum long-term value. TCO extends beyond the original purchase price and encompasses the installation price, usage price per day, maintenance price, repair price, training price, compliance price with regulatory requirements, and, yes, even breakdown price.
A cheaper initial price may seem attractive, but if it must constantly repaired, expensive to replace parts, or has a very short useful life, it may end up being more costly over time than a more robust and reliable product. Purchase and Installation Upfront cost of acquiring the equipment, transportation, site preparation, and integration into existing systems. Proper installation ensures smooth operation right from day one. Repairs and Maintenance Periodic maintenance is crucial in keeping equipment in top shape.
Key Factors that Influence the Total Cost of Ownership
Catastrophic failures can be very costly and have serious consequences for business. Acquiring extremely reliable, low-maintenance equipment can significantly reduce these costs. Refurbishment and Overhauls Digiterm medical treatment chairs may refurbished or upgraded easily to extend their useful life, working better without replacement. Refurbishment is a cost-effective solution in the long term. Training and Support Proper user training prevents common operating errors and prolongs equipment life.
Safety and Compliance Medical equipment is under tight regulatory and safety conditions. There hidden costs in compliance updates, safety incidents, or compliance penalties. End-of-Life Cost Because it has reached the end of its useful life, there is consideration for disposal, resale brand value, or trade-in. Green teardowns can be economical. To improve the health levels of the population in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), countries should invest more in human resources, physical resources, equipment, and supplies.
Maximizing Profit from Cardio: How to Make Health Investment More Effective?
However, achieving this goal requires more money, and many of the solutions are related to greater public sector management capacity, better coordination, and complementarity with the private sector. How do we achieve this Estimates provided by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) point towards the investment gap in infrastructure and equipment in LAC countries totaling around US$175 billion. This figure grows over time, as greater investment in infrastructure also means greater demand for resources to be able to keep it in operation.
Instead, the answer is not only to increase the availability of resources, but to implement a set of measures so that investments contribute to improving the effectiveness of the health response in a sustainable manner. Since its inception, the IDB has been providing funding and technical assistance to LAC countries so they can overcome internal barriers and become more effective and efficient with investments in their infrastructure. The road remains long, but in recent years the IDB has subsidized the strengthening of project planning, preparation, and execution capacity, whether through traditional mechanisms or Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs).
Maximizing Profit from Cardio: What Role does the Private Sector Play in Health Efficiency?
Experience shows that the public and private sectors have a fundamental role to play in achieving universal, quality coverage. To be more effective, the public sector needs to focus its efforts on five coordinated lines of action with a medium and long-term vision. This type of structure will ensure the effectiveness and durability of investments. Planning One of the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic regarding health systems and hospitals in particular is the need for them to be versatile, flexible, and capable of responding to integrated networking, which makes planning necessary.
Maximizing Profit from Cardio. The simple fact that the average age of hospitals in LAC is over 60 years old, that they respond to care models that are no longer valid, or that they are deteriorating due to lack of maintenance, was what led to their collapse in times of crisis. This is likely to happen again if hospitals not designed differently. The pandemic also exposed other vulnerabilities that affect the activity of health services, such as, for example, the growth of waiting lists for services due to the aging population or non-communicable diseases, or a high risk of new, rapidly spreading pandemics, or the urgent and pressing need for available, allied human capital.
Conclusion
Therefore, comprehensive health investment planning is essential, including infrastructure, but also other components of the system. Technical teams must be trained to ensure pre-investment, design, construction, and implementation of projects, tasks that traditionally exceed one government term. This planning will steer the development of red-focused Master Investment Plans that enable one to view the overall landscape and factor in all available and potential options for resources to fill the gaps, including optimization of available infrastructure, mergers, and purchasing of services, among others.
Maximizing Profit from Cardio. At the same time, although investment still necessary, it must effective so that, within the framework of a master investment plan, solid projects designed by analyzing supply and demand capacity. Respecting the investment gap and implementation timeframe, it recommended that master plans establish projects with a 5 to 10 year horizon, ensuring a package of projects designed for maturity and to attract financiers, builders, and equipment suppliers. Regarding financing sources, it recommended to consider several sources, such as equity, external financing, private funds, etc.
