How Medical Equipment Planners Have Embraced Change – and Managed It Positively – In Healthcare Construction Projects

Part three of a three part series on how equipment planners—backed by Attainia’s powerful medical equipment planning platform—can manage change to a positive clinical and financial outcome during healthcare construction and renovation projects.

• Read part one here
• Read part two here
• Download the complete guide, Embrace Change When Planning Medical Equipment, here

To a medical equipment planner who is driving toward two specific goals—completing projects on budget and on time—change within a project represents a significant threat:

• Change costs money.
• Change causes delays.

But while change—usually manifested in construction projects as change orders—often brings about a negative reaction, there is a critical point to consider: not all change is avoidable, and not all change is bad. Construction projects are inherently organic, dynamic endeavors that must manage both expected and unexpected changes throughout their duration.

The key is for equipment planners to leverage their skills—and the right tools—to manage change as effectively as possible.

Here are four real-world examples where equipment planners, backed by Attainia’s powerful medical equipment planning software, have embraced change and managed it to a positive clinical and financial outcome during healthcare construction projects.

1. Navigating a Product Recall

THE PLAN: The project plan called for 450 IV pumps to be used by departments throughout a new facility.

THE CHANGE: During the procurement phase of the project, an FDA recall was issued for the specified model of the IV pump, which could have delayed availability and shipping past the project completion date. By accessing the Attainia catalog’s product comparison feature, the project team quickly reviewed options for alternate IV pumps—including each product’s specs, costs and lead time—and was able select a replacement model with similar capabilities.

THE OUTCOME: The new models were ordered in a matter of hours with no increase in project cost and no delays to the project schedule.

2. Identifying a Pre-Planning Opportunity

THE PLAN: The original design for a project called for two operating rooms. OR Room 1 will be equipped, and OR Room 2 will be shelled space for future use.

THE CHANGE: While planning for OR Room 1, the equipment planners determined that cost savings could be realized by pre-planning for equipment integration between the two ORs, and incorporating the appropriate integration backbone equipment as part of the completion of OR Room 1. To facilitate this change, the equipment planner documented the change, cost and specification impacts in the Attainia platform, which provided immediate transparency to the rest of the project team.

THE OUTCOME: The resulting change order increased the budget for the OR Room 1 equipment by $20K—but reduced the cost to equip OR Room 2 by $40K. This resulted in an overall equipment cost reduction of $20K.

3. Identifying Cost Savings through Equipment Standards

THE PLAN: A project plan included six units of the latest version (C5) of an automated RX/supply distribution cabinet.

THE CHANGE: While reviewing previous project standards in the Attainia platform, the equipment planner identified that the organization was standardized on the previous C4 version of the cabinet. However, the hospital had planned a system-wide conversion to the C5 cabinets over a period of two years. The project team decided to equip the new project with the less-expensive C4 cabinets, which allowed the organization to blend those six units into their system-wide C5 conversion program. The Attainia platform supported the conversion to the C4 models by providing real-time access to the revised cost and specification implications. The modification was managed in the single source of truth—the Attainia platform—which ensured the necessary data was adjusted.

THE OUTCOME: By purchasing the standardized C4 RX/supply distribution cabinets, the equipment planner reduced the project cost by $80K—and avoided temporary IT infrastructure incompatibility issues.

4. Group Buy Discount Becomes Available

THE PLAN: The project equipment plan included multiple versions of imaging systems to be purchased from the same manufacturer. The budget for these systems was based on the group purchasing organization (GPO) contract pricing that was visible in the Attainia catalog.

THE CHANGE: Prior to issuing the final purchase order, the equipment planning team noticed in the Attainia catalog that the GPO announced a special “group buy” price discount. The equipment planner quickly assessed whether the project could accommodate the schedule implications of a group buy—and determined they could take advantage of this offer.

THE OUTCOME: Taking advantage of the group buy discount resulted in more than $1M in cost reductions for the equipment, in addition to enhanced warranty and service features.

Ready to Learn More?

If you’re ready to hear how Attainia’s industry-leading tools can empower your teams through successful change, let’s talk.