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by Colby Coates

This story originally appeared in the February 2008 issue of DOTmed Business News.



Ever take wire cutters to a 440-volt line that was reported to be in power lock down mode by a hospital's maintenance staff?

But it wasn't.

The results of that miscue can be, as you would imagine, shocking, if not potentially fatal.

But such are the occasional compromising situations faced by a crew of de-installers who might be removing an MRI, Linear Accelerator, RF, CT or a bi-plane Cath Lab.

De-installing expensive, fragile and sometimes massively bulky medical equipment and then rigging, crating, transporting, re-installing and calibrating it in another location can be a very tough job, almost a heroically unsung one in the medical equipment business. And yet, it's still one clients take for granted.

Here's a quick assessment of the basics involved in a de-install, from Michael Profeta, president, Magnetic Resonance Technologies, Willoughby, OH, who views all 50 states as the region his company serves.

"It has many logistical issues. The equipment is large, requiring very special rigging and handling. There are always construction requirements to and coordination issues with general contractors, mechanical contractors for chillers and HVAC units, electricians, riggers, transportation, site personnel. The list is endless." So the de-install involves all of the above plus many variations specific to individual modalities. Bottom line: nothing's easy in the de-install trade.

Quite simply, the de-install business can be dirty, dusty, and frustrating. Often a crew will find itself navigating troughs of bundled wires and cables in the dank basement of a 100-year-old hospital at 3 am on a Saturday morning.
Other times, the pathways, door clearances and corridor routes that once accommodated the installation of a Gamma Knife or an R&F combo might now pose a huge impediment to the de-installation of the same machine.




And the boon in hospital construction, while positive from what it says about the prospects for a hospital's revenue growth, can be a nightmare for the de-installation crew working, perhaps, with outdated blueprints and floor plans.

Continue reading DOTmed Industry Sector Report: Deinstallation...

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