Medical Device Company Tells Hospitals They’re No Longer Allowed to Fix Machine That Costs Six Figures
Hospitals are increasingly being forced into maintenance contracts with device manufacturers, driving up costs.
The manufacturer of a machine that costs six figures used during heart surgery has told hospitals that it will no longer allow hospitals’ repair technicians to maintain or fix the devices and that all repairs must now be done by the manufacturer itself, according to a letter obtained by 404 Media. The change will require hospitals to enter into repair contracts with the manufacturer, which will ultimately drive up medical costs, a person familiar with the devices said.
IIRC this is the reason McDonald’s ice cream machines were always down, because the Taylor company that made them had this exact same contract, but they finally reversed that policy a few years ago. Now Terumo Cardiovascular is doing the exact same shitty practice, likely with the exact same outcome: broken machines that don’t work when you need them to. One step forward two steps back in this fucking dystopia
Even worse, the McD ice cream machine issue was caused my McD themselves, by having requirements around cleaning cycles that were tighter than the machine could do.
The same machines worked fine at other companies.
Taylor/McD goes deeper than that. Tit for tat bs.