Obsolescence Planning and the Value of ETCO

Part 1 of 2

The practice of equipment obsolescence planning is gaining traction with key hospital managers — especially those overseeing emergency rooms, operating rooms or sterile processing departments.

The reason is quite simple — the smartest department managers have a purpose and plan to win more than their fair share in each year’s annual equipment budget battle. We’re talking about a formal plan, with written arguments at the core of the document.

The best plans also include an especially important section related to enhanced total cost of operation, or ETCO. The point of ETCO is to increase the efficiency of the installed equipment by reducing unnecessary down time and stopping unnecessary service request calls to manufacturers.
 
This section of a skilled manager’s equipment obsolescence plan will provide a competitive advantage over other equipment requests at budget time.