The situation
Kestrel Bay’s ventilators had been bought in three batches over nine years, from two manufacturers, with three service contracts and three renewal dates. The respiratory therapy department kept a spreadsheet of which units could take which software and which circuits.
The nearest manufacturer’s depot is a day’s drive away. A ventilator out for repair meant one fewer ventilator, unless the hospital borrowed one from a neighbor.
What we did
Wardmore replaced the fleet with eighteen critical-care and four transport ventilators from a single manufacturer, on a Critical Care Subscription billed per subscribed bed per month. The fee includes preventive maintenance, repairs, software updates and loaners, which are held at the hospital so that a replacement is in service within four hours.
The subscription can range between 16 and 24 beds in blocks of two, on 60 days’ notice, so that the hospital can add beds for a winter surge without a new agreement.
The old fleet was taken back by Wardmore at a fair-market value agreed in advance and credited against the first year.
The result
One agreement, one renewal date and one invoice now cover every ventilator in the hospital. In the first winter the hospital moved from 18 to 22 subscribed beds for eleven weeks and back again.
Respiratory therapy got a fleet that all takes the same circuits. Finance got one line. I got rid of a spreadsheet.
Published with the hospital’s permission. Figures are the hospital’s or Wardmore’s as stated, and individual results depend on each hospital’s circumstances.