Step by Step

Though procedures vary depending on exactly what is being shipped and where, (and anything with hazardous material as a component precipitates additional levels of due diligence into the process), there generally is a series of "starter" steps that transpire before the equipment ever goes to or from a hospital, clinic, private office or other specialized medical center.


DOTmed Certified companies plus many others who specialize in moving equipment initiate the process with a series of phone calls to establish all the particulars. Sometimes site surveys take place. It's not just a question of what's being shipped but how many accessories are part of the shipment and what are the special packaging and crating requirements, who is handling de-installation, where does it fit in a hospital's schedule so as to prove least disruptive, when is the shipment due at destination, which company is handling reinstallation, any particular physical challenges at the offloading site, what are the special demands that accompany the reinstallation procedure.

And that's just for starters. There's myriad other questions about insurance, the dialog between the number of outside vendors involved and, of course time sensitivity. Though it's clear that there's never anything absolutely set in stone when moving valuable medical equipment, Frieda Ambrose, of PA based F. Ambrose Moving & Rigging, estimates that from start to finish, such moves "take anywhere from 8-12 weeks" to complete.

Another example of timing being everything might involve, for example, a magnet that's being shipped via water. Generally such expensive magnets are packaged in helium, which has a shelf life of 21 days. But what happens when the ship encounters turbulent weather at sea or, upon arrival at port, encounters a wildcat work stoppage. The stakes are enormous, particularly when a buyer is faced with the loss of a $40,000 magnet and didn't know enough to purchase all the necessary marine cargo insurance on top of the routine risk management policies already in place.

"Marine law is very antiquated," says Mark Fromm of Fromm America, a New Jersey logistics company. Moreover, Fromm cautions that in such complicated insurance situations, "the big print giveth while the small print taketh away." There's the added fillip that when shipping used medical equipment over water obtaining reasonable insurance is an adventure.

"It gets very, very tricky, " says Pilot's Duff Law, especially when relatively small operations are involved at both ends of the transaction. "Two sets of inexperienced parties are trouble," he says.

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