BHN Healthcare Blog

Providing an effective field service is one of the key responsibilities of medical device companies.

Traditionally, field service agents have been technical support staff with little to no background in medical sciences. Today, however, there is an increasing trend toward incorporating nursing staff, particularly nurse educators, in medical device field service.

Any industry thrives on customer satisfaction, and this applies equally to medical device companies. For medical device companies, customers are typically healthcare professionals who are fully satisfied only when they are able to use a device correctly and to its maximum efficacy, and can summon support to troubleshoot problems as soon as they crop up. Hence, the need for a reliable and readily available field service that can handle problems related to medical devices quickly.

What is expected from a traditional field service?

Field service is required after the sale of medical devices and field staff from the medical device company visit customer premises—usually a hospital or clinic—for this purpose. The general expectations from a field service are:

There has been a recent trend on the part of both pharmaceutical and medical device companies to employ nurses and then deploy them in the field in different roles to support their products—the products being drugs and devices, respectively. Given the clinical background and medical knowledge of nurses, this has been a win-win situation for everyone, including the end users of the products, such as patients and healthcare teams and professionals. For medical device companies that have overlooked the trend, it’s something that needs to be given some serious thought since nurse educator services can have a meaningful and lasting impact on medical device utilization rates.

If you ended up on this blog post, you are probably thinking about buying urodynamic equipment or are evaluating purchasing options. If you are, I am going to lay out an argument for not buying it.  As with purchasing any medical equipment, there are many hidden pitfalls. I want to lay out some of these pitfalls and detail an alternative to buying urodynamics equipment.

Providing top-notch medical device field service can sometimes feel like a logistical nightmare. The problems can seem too large to tackle, leaving you and your team in the proverbial “analysis paralysis”.

We've compiled a comprehensive list to assist you in improving your current service level and keep your customer satisfaction score at an all-time high:

The effective provision of medical device field service is not a simple process to optimize. There are many factors that influence operations, from resources and technology to staff management and coordination. Field service organizations that keep track of all of these different factors manage to provide a seamless and efficient service and keep their customers satisfied.

But no business is perfect from the get-go. In most cases, a period of trial and error is unavoidable while getting a grasp of the intricacies of running and managing field service operations, especially when it comes to medical devices. Being aware of the most common mistakes made in the delivery of field service support can significantly shorten the learning curve.

With that in mind, here are some of the most common errors that medical device field service organizations commit while providing and managing their service:

Field service management is a vital part of any organization's business strategy. No business can enjoy continued success without providing high-quality field service, while a remarkably good field service raises customer satisfaction and brand reputation. Offering a great field service not only removes the risk of tarnishing the brand image that goes along with a poor service, but it also increases customer loyalty and revenue as a consequence.

Background

A Medical Device: Field Service - Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a contractual agreement between a field service provider (“Service Provider”) and a Customer (typically a medical device company) that contains the terms and conditions that govern how the Service Provider will perform field service tasks for the Customer; how the parties will communicate with one another; how the parties will modify the agreement over time to fit their ongoing business relationship; how the Customer will pay the Service Provider; and all other details governing the relationship between the parties. 

Bringing a new medical device to the market is a Herculean task. It requires all of the standard start up work such as determining product market fit, product design, manufacturing and production, marketing message, and much more. In addition to these, since it is a medical device it requires layers and layers of FDA approval, which is akin to hiking up a mountain carrying an 800-pound backpack.

Once a startup medical device company gets beyond its FDA approval, it must determine how to best sell and deploy its medical device into the field. This requires much more than just hiring sales reps. Such companies have to figure out how to get their device installed, have customer staff members trained on how to use it, and service it once it is in place. All of this equates to complicated logistics and scaling difficulties.

While our blog is typically rather serious, we thought we would switch gears, have a little fun, and post a few jokes about urology. Hopefully they will make you smile.  

National listing of the largest urogynecology practices operating within the U.S.

Urogynecology practices across the U.S. have changed considerably over the last decade. Many practices have merged and increased in size in order to be more competitive and deal the complexities of insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid reimbursements. Additionally, these practices have starting taking on more diagnostic and treatment services that were traditionally done in hospital settings. These services include minor surgeries, CT scans, urodynamics testing, and more. A listing of the largest urogynecology practices in the U.S. is provided below: