Archive for October, 2010

A Trend toward Home Based Health Care Opens New Markets for Medical Equipment

Hospitals have been scrutinizing their finances like never before, and finding ways to cut costs across the board. One key way they are doing this is buy purchasing used medical equipment, so it has been increasingly difficult for manufacturers to sell new medical equipment. As a result, many suppliers have broadened their portfolio of products to include home medical equipment as well.

As technology advances, chronically ill patients are able to manage more of their healthcare needs from home, which has created new markets for telemedicine and imaging equipment. The suppliers who are benefitting from this trend the most are aware that a different marketing strategy is needed to reach consumer markets, and many are looking to the Internet.

People suffering from chronic illness may need to undergo regular treatment at an outpatient facility, but the next generation of durable medical equipment has made it possible to treat certain conditions without making regular trips to a hospital. Not only does this make their life more convenient, it also represents a major cost savings for insurance companies and patients. Medical equipment that is being sold today includes ultrasound scanners, home oxygen equipment, diabetic testing equipment and heart monitors, to name a few. The type of equipment that is available today is much more sophisticated and easier to use, even for people with no prior medical training.

The latest home medical equipment can now be purchased directly from the supplier or from online medical equipment retailers. These developments have revolutionized home based health care. Also, as these systems become more advanced, the cost of making them actually decreases, which means more people can afford to buy them.

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Medicare Competition May Reduce the Cost of Home Medical Equipment

Medical equipment costs have been skyrocketing for decades, but as technology continues to advance, hospitals are under pressure to keep up with the latest machines. While a healthcare facility has the option to buy used medical equipment, the general public doesn’t always have that option. As a result, Medicare has made some important changes that will help decrease the cost of medical equipment for consumers.

Nationwide, ten metropolitan areas are rolling out a new Medicare program that requires competitive bidding for leasing durable medical equipment (DME). This equipment can include everything from hospital-style beds to oxygen equipment, diabetes supplies and respiratory devices. The program simply aims to help consumers pay less for the rental of medical equipment than they may have been paying before.

How is Medicare able to reduce the cost of home medical equipment? Medical advances have made it possible to create equipment that is cheaper and more efficient than ever, not more expensive. But since the prices for medical equipment have not been adjusted account for this, the government has been overpaying for several years.

Instead of re-regulating the Medicare prices, high-end suppliers will now have to bid against other companies who make the same equipment for less. This essential prevents these companies from inflating their prices for the government. Since most Medicare plans only cover 80% of the cost of DME, competition among suppliers also benefits patients.

As the new Medicare regulations go into effect, it should be interesting to see how this affects the medical equipment industry, and whether it will cause further consolidation among suppliers.

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Hospital Budget Cuts? Learn How to Save Thousands with Used Patient Monitors

As healthcare costs continue to rise, hospitals today are under extreme pressure to save money on medical equipment, overhead, supplies and salaries. One of the easiest – and least painful – ways to reduce costs is by buying used medical equipment. However, it is important to keep safety at the top of your list when buying used patient monitors.

Here are some important tips to help ensure the used patient monitor you buy will provide your hospital with the best value for the longest period of time.

1) Determine what type of system you really need. Patient monitors are made in low, medium and high acuity models, which represent the medical setting where they should be used. Low acuity, for example, is used for basic monitoring of a patient’s vital signs or for outpatient surgical procedures, while medium acuity can be used in the ER, ICU and even in hospital surgical units. High acuity monitors are much more sensitive and are designed for use in critical care situations or in the operating room itself. Both medium and high acuity machines can be configured as add-on or modular units.

2) Be sure the used monitor you buy has a LAN-based system that allows for easy connectivity with central monitoring stations as well as at the patient’s bedside. Most monitors on the market today also will display information from another patient’s bedside monitor when necessary.

3) As with any used medical equipment purchase, hospitals should access their current resources and projected patient population, as well as current ability to troubleshoot the equipment before making a purchase decision.

Patient monitors are just one of many types of used medical equipment available for sale today. The best way to locate the right machine for your facility is to look online. Here, you will be able to compare prices and features side by side and make the most responsible decision.

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Researchers Develop New Technique to Inject Fluid into Individual Cells

Medical equipment developers and scientists will be interested to note that the world of cellular level technology just took a giant leap forward. Physicists from Duke University recently developed a new method of injecting material into a single cell.

The new technique produces sharp jets of fluid that are able to deliver drugs with extreme precision at the individual cell level. Stem cell researchers and other researchers who study biological reactions with medical equipment at the cellular level will undoubtedly be very interested in this achievement.

By focusing lasers into the fluid that surrounds an individual cell, physicists were able to produce jets that target that specific cell. Lasers heat up molecules of blue dye within the liquid, which create tiny bubbles, which individually create shock waves in the cell, but when two adjacent bubbles are produced in rapid succession, the shock waves result in small yet powerful jets, which are capable of poking holes in the membrane of the cell, each one measuring only 0.2 millionths of a meter across.

By checking for indications of blue dye within the cells that were pierced, the researchers were able to confirm that the introduction of fluid into the targeted cells. Because the dye itself is toxic, the pierced cells in this study died. However, the holes created in this study were small enough that they offer a way to use non-toxic substances in an injection without causing significant damage.

This development is a major breakthrough for researchers who work at the cellular level, and its implications could play an important role in the medical equipment industry. For more information on the Duke research, consult the current edition of “Physical Review Letters”, and APS Physics journal.

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