Medical equipment refurbishers, who once focused on smaller hospitals, now find larger institutions are also looking for cost-saving suppliers.

For example, Southwest Medical Corporation, founded in 1989 in Tulsa, OK by CEO Jeff Rogers, has until now focused on rural and community hospitals. But recently, the company has begun selling its late model, remanufactured and reconditioned hospital beds to cutting-edge hospitals at a huge cost savings.

"Depending on the application, new hospital beds can cost more than $10,000 each," says DOTmed Certified Sales Coordinator Ben Holloway. "The refurbished equipment costs a fraction of that. That equates to hospitals saving thousands of dollars for a like-new product that we can service through our warranty."

Holloway says that the DOTmed certified company takes great pride in the quality of its refurbished equipment. Each piece of equipment that passes muster with the company's biomedical service department must go through an extensive quality inspection before deliveries can be made, he says.

"The result is like-new equipment at much lower prices and the customer appreciates that." He adds, "Our biomedical department provides the necessary service and security to customers who need to save money by purchasing refurbished equipment but also require the reliability and dependability of new equipment."

Holloway says as healthcare providers' budgets continue to tighten, Southwest Medical is also seeing increased interest from privately funded surgical centers, which have also recognized the value of purchasing refurbished equipment.