Abstract:

Planning for healthcare capital expenditures is a high-visibility process involving multiple stakeholders: clinicians, bioengineering, finance, purchasing, and value analysis, to name a few. It’s also a highly complex one, requiring a methodical comparison of features and functions, not to mention a careful, forward-looking analysis of costs and benefits.

But with the shift from fee-based to value-based medicine, healthcare executives face significant new financial pressures. They’ve discovered that the traditional cost/benefit calculus relied on for so long doesn’t always achieve desired budget, revenue, or quality improvement goals. A more strategic and collaborative approach is needed, one that considers
more qualitative factors such as indications for use, patient demographics, and clinical and comparative effectiveness. These considerations also include any impact upon CMS and private payer reimbursement, associated environmental requirements such as training, the status of current inventory, and—most importantly—a particular technology’s ability to show measurable improvements over other methods of care.