Major Healthcare OEM teams with Quest International to provide a comprehensive set of services and support for its PACS customer base

Challenge

Today’s digital medical imaging revolution has been accelerated by the advent of Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) that provide authorized users (inside and outside) of the radiology department with real-time access to patient imaging data.

With an increase in demand for on-site support of legacy hardware systems from its customers, a major healthcare OEM had to re-evaluate its internal capabilities. The company wanted to provide valuable customer service without having to ramp up costly infrastructure to support the fluctuating demand of its customers.

Solution

Companies have deployed thousands of these systems worldwide, enhancing patient care while enabling customers to maximize efficiency, workflow, and profitability. As the latest generation of web-based systems move beyond large medical centers to smaller community hospitals and imaging centers that don’t have dedicated IT departments, the manufacturer’s customers are increasingly demanding that they ensure continuous uptime for what can often be hundreds of PACS-related hardware components in their facilities. To meet this need, the OEM established a partnership with Quest International that puts skilled ‘on-the-ground’ technical support for any PACS hardware issue within no more than a four-hour response window for each of their customers – an industry first.

“We’re primarily focused on delivering advanced PACS software solutions, including a complete set of workflow tools that enable easy, web-based system access and administration from any location,” said a remote operations center manager for the manufacturer. “Although our business is software, our goal is complete customer satisfaction, not only with our PACS solutions but also with the associated hardware components from third-party vendors.”

Results

With Quest’s support, customers can now choose to maintain all these hardware resources themselves and work directly with individual vendors as required. Alternatively, more and more of their customers, especially at smaller facilities, are asking to lighten this maintenance load for them and provide a complete support package, not only for their software but also for the various hardware components that comprise the system.

In the manufacturer’s case, this meant managing approximately 3,500 total hardware assets for roughly 400 customers in its rapidly expanding PACS business throughout the U.S. The company leveraged its contract with Quest International to provide a comprehensive set of services and support for its PACS customer base, including installation, depot repair, exchange services, healthcare IT on-site services, and managed services. Quest International has hundreds of field technicians throughout the U.S., and also gives the customer complete visibility into all service activities. This live data includes the real-time status of all tickets, through a single provider, which streamlines communication, reporting, and management while enabling the company to perform root cause analysis of recurring issues.

Quest International also documented all tasks performed on behalf of the OEM’s customers and tracked every part through installation to removal, as well as time on site and other metrics required for audits, reporting, and compliance. Additionally, the manufacturer provides its customers with end-of-life support on various hardware products, managing everything still under warranty. This end-to-end solution eliminates the hassle of working with multiple equipment vendors. This solution is not short-lived. The global market for medical imaging equipment services is expected to surpass USD 27 Billion by the end of 2025, according to Global Industry Analysts Inc.

The remote operations manager concluded, “Quest International has been a valued supply partner for nearly a quarter of a century. The resources were right there; we didn’t think about what we already had in our backyard. None of our peer companies can offer the same nationwide footprint or level of responsiveness as we can through this support partnership with Quest International. Our customers are satisfied, and we can now be much more proactive about hardware maintenance as well so that we can preempt equipment failure and better manage equipment end-of-life cycles to maximize uptime and deliver the optimal customer experience.”