The power of a long-term strategic partnership

According to the New South Wales government, Illawarra Shoalhaven’s (ISLHD) population is growing steadily and projected to reach 470,000 by 2031 with at least 100,000 more people expected in the region by 2041. The ISLHD needed to serve this population while driving savings in its medical imaging equipment, ongoing maintenance and total cost of ownership – as well as enhancing operational efficiencies. A key step to achieving this was to effectively manage the existing fleet of equipment, including lifecycle management, maintenance support, uptime, fit-for-purpose assessment and procurement. Underlying challenges were funding and the need to create a strong, overarching governance structure.

ISLHD engaged Philips in a long-term Managed Equipment Services partnership, which procures, maintains, funds, manages and upgrades all medical imaging equipment regardless of manufacturer. Through the contract, the partnership ensures funding for replacing the district’s fleet of imaging equipment until 2038.

“We are building a service that is able to deliver high-quality technology that is very safe, very fast and can be replaced along the equipment roadmap,” says Peter Turner, District Manager, Medical Imaging, ISLHD.

The Managed Equipment Services partnership, designed with a high degree of flexibility, takes into account future expansion of the hospitals’ equipment fleet to cater to the projected population growth and increased patient demand in diagnostic imaging. One of the key benefits of the partnerships is that it ensures the availability and uptime of the modern medical imaging equipment within the district’s six hospitals enabling the ISLHD to continue offering high-quality healthcare to its residents.

Philips constantly adds value to the service by closely monitoring, evaluating and adapting the solutions. Dedicated teams meet on a regular basis for detailed operational planning and collaborate to assess and identify challenges, define priorities and build realistic action plans.

To help the ISLHD minimize its administrative burden and to allow clinical and management staff to focus on clinical care delivery, Philips shoulders the responsibility of dealing with equipment suppliers to ensure medical imaging equipment is available when needed. All recommendations relating to equipment purchasing, installation, maintenance and replacement are vendor-neutral enabling the ISLHD to maintain complete control at all times.

The partnership has achieved these results (regardless of the manufacturer):

With a new hospital infrastructure being built to accommodate the high patient flow and two new facilities set to come online within the remaining term of the partnership the ISLHD is poised to be able to provide best-practice care and programs that promote the health and wellbeing of people in Illawarra Shoalhaven.