The Long procurement procedures and default by suppliers often lead to erratic supply of laboratory reagents. Secondly, competitive bidding system often results in the selection of multi-brand reagents and equipment as the selection is based on the lowest evaluated Bids , which makes the implementation of quality assurance system difficult.
Due to difficulty in getting spare parts and availability of limited skills in maintenance, repair, calibration setting, etc. The current practice also gave rise to total dependence on outside vendors due to lack of manufacturing facility and limited technical know-how within the country. Even with signing of annual maintenance contract, the response from the suppliers is still not satisfactory. Add to that, high maintenance costs are incurred for maintenance and repair of equipment while high capital investment is required to purchase laboratory equipment and reagents.
Your email address will not be published. This arrangement offers many benefits for budget-conscious clinical labs with high volume testing:. Many leading lab equipment suppliers offer reagent rental arrangements to help laboratories purchase advanced immunoassay and chemistry analyzers.
The terms of the rental agreement would vary according to the instrument type and rental period which can be as brief as a month. As service costs are also covered in the rental, maintaining the lab equipment is easier. At the end of the contract, the equipment has to be returned in good reasonably condition. Purchasing considerations The decision to lease or buy a new piece of equipment for the lab is dependent on two main factors: the available budgetary dollars and the technological relevance of the equipment.
Purchasing a system over leasing is typically the best financial decision as it provides hospitals with more negotiating leverage and can lead to reduced cost over the term of the agreement.
However, there are exceptions to this rule — especially for certain technologies where advances happen so quickly that newer systems are available in a just few years. This is often the case with core laboratory items, such as a chemistry immunoassay analyzer, that are typically replaced every three to five years. In these situations, hospitals would need to decide which option is more beneficial and financially feasible for their institution. Technologies in other areas of the lab that remain largely unchanged, like tissue processors, may be in use for 20 years before they are replaced.
When analyzing the budget, it is important to remember that there is more tied to a purchase than the initial capital investment. One has to consider the ongoing costs of maintaining and running the system, such as service costs, consumable costs and accreditation testing.
It is also imperative that these costs are taken into account and vendors are transparent about all consumable costs, including reagents and calibrators, as these can increase costs substantially. Purchase options In most clinical laboratory settings, vendors offer three options for acquiring laboratory equipment — a direct purchase and two leasing scenarios, reagent rental and a cost per reportable agreement.
All three options will include a commitment to purchase reagents and consumables that are necessary to run the equipment. In a direct purchase agreement, the facility owns the instrument and related accessories. They can either choose to pay for the entire purchase upfront or finance it from either the vendor or a third party lender. The advantage of this scenario is that although the instrument may have a useful life of five to seven years, a facility can choose to use it longer if the instrument is in good working condition.
Additionally, the information provided in a direct purchase scenario is typically broken down by instrument s , service, reagents and consumables, and financing fees, if any.
The disadvantage to this purchase scenario is that negotiating each piece of the agreement is a time intensive process. Upfront capital would be required resulting in the lab going through a typically long capital approval process, and the technology may become outdated before you have exceeded the useful life of the instrument. In a reagent rental agreement, the instrument is "free" with the purchase of reagents.
The "free" instrument is a misconception, as typically this scenario has an upcharge that is tacked onto each reagent item to offset the price of the equipment and service. A reagent rental can have a simple to complex pricing structure. It is important to ask the right questions to dissect all the costs included and excluded in that number.
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