Success Story: Novant Health
7/1/2010 12:00:00 AM by: Jennifer Patterson Lorenzetti
When Novant Health was looking for a partner to help provide service
for their ultrasound equipment, they initially cast a fairly wide
net. Considering the nonprofi t healthcare system’s expansive reach
throughout the Southeast, their decision could potentially affect thousands
of patients. In other words, it was time to bring out the big guns.
Novant Health encompasses several major facilities, including
Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C.; Presbyterian Hospital
in Charlotte, N.C.; Rowan Regional Medical Center in Salisbury,
N.C.; Prince William Hospital in Manassas, Va.; Thomasville
Medical Center in Thomasville, N.C.; Upstate Carolina Medical
Center in Gaffney, S.C.; and Franklin Regional Medical Center in
Louisburg, N.C. Novant employs 26,500 people and has approximately
1,100 physicians in its medical group. Clearly, a system of
this size needs a robust and responsive service system to keep its
equipment in top shape.
“We do an analysis once a year,” says Alan Koreneff, MBA,
CBET, director of corporate clinical engineering at Novant Health.
“Our strategic sourcing group put out a request for proposal for
service,” he explains. Novant considered several different vendors
before narrowing the fi eld to the top three. One of these was Global
Medical Imaging (GMI), LLC, based in Charlotte, N.C. Established
in 2002, GMI’s overarching goal is to be an advocate for the ultrasound
consumer. Among their specialized services are training,
probe repair, and part sales.
Novant needed a partner that would be able to handle service
for some of the outlying imaging centers, while they handled service
for their hospitals. “We do a lot of our own service, but we
have a lot of clinics and imaging centers that they would help us
with,” Koreneff reveals.
COST SAVINGS AND IMPROVED TRAINING
The eventual selection, GMI, was chosen for its ability to meet Novant’s
needs. “We selected them on their breadth of service. They
rebuilt probes on site, [were] local, and their three-state footprint
matched ours,” Koreneff says.
After contracting with GMI, Novant realized several other benefi
ts. One advantage in particular seemed to truly resonate with
the times. “We have had major successes in cost savings,” Koreneff
states. “They track the cost savings
on repairs [and give us a]
report by center.” This regular
reporting, Koreneff says, has
allowed Novant to identify issues
with certain lines or types
of equipment and to better
understand their repair and
spending patterns.
Koreneff also notes that
GMI “helped us on internal
expertise.” While Novant secures
training on the major
brands and types of machines
currently in use, they occasionally
have a unique or relatively
uncommon piece of equipment
on which staff needs to
be trained. GMI offers “training
on some machines that we
only have one or two of,” explains
Koreneff. “They helped
us close the loop.”
WORKING TOGETHER FOR GREATER EFFICIENCY
Ultimately, having GMI available means Novant can operate with
greater effi ciency. “They help us with availability [of equipment],”
Koreneff says. He notes that they have a response time that is much
faster than that provided by OEMs, with responses typically on the
same day and even within an hour or two. Suffi ce it to say that time
was truly on their side.
The organizations have also developed a system to deal with
any problems that arise. “We meet quarterly to review trends and
repairs,” says Koreneff. After all, he admits, “We do have occasional
missteps in problems taking too long.” These issues, which are discussed
during the periodic meetings, often involve the timing of
escalation of the problem to the original manufacturer. Fortunately,
GMI and Novant’s open lines of communication ensure that any
potential problems don’t have an adverse impact on patient care.
In addition to expediting service and implementing regular
checks and balances, GMI is also helping Novant expand the way
it deals with problems internally. “We’re expanding our use of hero
kits with a full set of boards,” Koreneff says. This allows for even
quicker response to repair the problem.
FORMING A RELATIONSHIP
Without a doubt, Novant is pleased with its relationship with GMI,
and the feeling is mutual. “It has been a privilege for GMI to work
with Novant Clinical Engineering,” says Ryan Dienst, CEO of GMI.
“They are leading the industry in a very positive direction, and we
appreciate the opportunity to utilize our resources to help them
succeed in their mission.”
Koreneff shares Dienst’s sentiments and imparts some advice
to other organizations looking for a partner in service, such as
GMI. “We visited a number of vendors,” he reiterates. “Some
will represent themselves as doing repairs when [actually] they
are using a third party. Ask them what can you and can you not
work on.”
With this sort of due diligence up-front, Novant Clinical Engineering
and GMI have forged a partnership that has a positive
impact on responsiveness to both patients and the bottom line. A
true success story, indeed!
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