Consider Pre-Owned Marketers

Not every facility requires new, cutting-edge lighting. A thriving after-market in used systems provides the right balance of cost and benefits for many clinical applications at hospitals as well as clinics, surgical centers, and private offices.


"We buy the lights from hospitals and sell them to end users - surgery centers, some hospitals, doctors offices...plastic surgeons," says Jim Kleyman, President of ACE Medical Equipment, Inc., Clearwater, FL. The company, an independent service organization (ISO), also rebuilds and repairs lights and stocks bulbs and parts for hard-to-fix older equipment. "We completely disassemble, reassemble and rebuild the lights, pull new wire, new connections, replace bulbs, repaint the lights with durable paint, and take out dents in the domes so they're like new." ACE Medical Equipment also tests the illumination output to ensure the equipment is comparable to its new condition in terms of performance.

"The needs for refurbishing are relative to the specific lights," explains Robert Bean, Purchasing Director, DRE, Inc., which is headquartered in Louisville, KY and distributes its own brand as well as OEM lighting worldwide. (The company has the apt tagline "Operating within your budget!") "Most lights are rewired, with brushes and commutators typically replaced and connections rewired as well," Bean says. "Bulbs are replaced and our refurbished and new lights will meet or exceed the original specifications."

For hospitals trying to reduce operating costs, ISOs provide three important services-they will buy, sell, and/or service the equipment.

ISOs can liquidate hospital inventory that is expensive to store. O/R lights often sit in storage, costing money in terms of overhead when they could be resold, refurbished and moved to the asset column. Old equipment often finds a new life at smaller or rural facilities that may not have the budget for new lighting.




"I went to a hospital several years ago that had four lights in storage. I bought them, and as I was leaving the guy said, 'by the way I have two more in the trash pile'...he didn't have room in storage," Kleyman says.

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