The equipment that will be important to your practice will change over time. If you’re just starting your medical practice, the equipment you will need will be different to when your practice is more mature.
As your career and reputation develop, you may decide to add specialty areas, partners or change locations. As you age, you may even decide to reduce the size of your practice in preparation for retirement.
What will be deemed important for you to have in your office as a medical practitioner will also change according to advances in technology and medical techniques.
So what medical equipment do you invest in?
If you’re a new doctor, start with the basics.
1. The Basics
A doctor building a new medical practice is starting from scratch. The equipment they’ll need to buy will fall into different categories.
Diagnostic
These are where most of the “big” machines can be found. These are what help the medical professional determine what’s wrong with the patient, or help them make a diagnosis.
Diagnostic tools will include items like:
Stethoscopes – With this, doctors can assess heart rhythms, listen to your lungs and even hear blood flow through your body. For most people, this is the most recognisable piece of doctor’s equipment
Ophthalmoscopes – Doctors use this to examine the inner structures of the ear.
Otoscopes – They use the otoscope to examine fluid levels of the eye and to better see it to determine its health and based on that, ascertain whether other parts of the body may be affected by the condition.
ECG machines – This is a machine that allows the doctor to assess the electrical impulses of the heart.
X-Ray machines – These allow the doctor to see skeletal structures and to tell if the patient has broken any bones.
Thermometers – A thermometer helps the medical professional determine the patient’s temperature. This way they can tell if it’s higher than normal, which may indicate an infection is present, like flu, or that the patient is experiencing an episode with overheating or heat stroke.
Autoclaves, defibrillators, oxygen, resuscitation bags, exam tables and accoutrements should also be purchased
There are other machines such as MRIs, PET and CAT scanners and ultrasound machines. The expense of these are usually prohibitive for a medical professional just starting out. Most outsource these services to a hospital. They may decide to make an investment in these machines later in the practice if they determine it is worth the while.
Daily medical supplies
Gloves
Face masks
Aprons
Cotton wool swabs and pads
Tweezers
Disinfectants and sterilisers
Paper Towels
Medical tubing
These are some examples of what a medical professional may need on a day to day basis in their practice. It may be better to contract a medical supplies store to restock these on a regular basis, as the practice may be able to take advantage of bulk discontents.
2. Specialist Equipment
A few years into the establishment of the medical facility, the professional may decide to change specialties, or add services doctors, nurses and other personnel who have other skills they may not.
This will call for additions. For instance, a doctor decides to hire an anesthesiologist. They will need new equipment to deliver anesthetics, like GE anesthesia machines, though keep in mind, you can also purchase your equipment second hand from a reputable dealer. Other types of specialist equipment will include:
Laboratory equipment
A doctor may decide they are spending too much on outsourcing laboratory services and decide to do all their testing in house. Basics they will need include:
A centrifuge – For separation of red blood cells and plasma
Urine analysis machine
Microscopes
A freezer for specimen storage
Legal requirements stipulate there cannot be equipment on site that the medical staff is not qualified to operate. Therefore, to have the medical facility remain compliant, only purchase what staff is trained to use and keep up to date on changing regulations in your particular area of medicine.
Furniture and appliances for reception area and staff area
Even if strictly speaking, this is not medical equipment, they are necessary for any medical facility. Your patients must have somewhere to sit when they come to see you. The staff member making your appointments and answering your calls must have somewhere to sit, a computer to work on and a phone.
Similarly, you and/or staff must have an area that is away from the public to relax between patient consultations and to eat.
Unlike the average waiting area, you need to be able to easily disinfect the furniture in medical practice. Doctor’s offices are host to thousands of germs and microbes that can get those exposed very sick. You can purchase doctor’s lobby furniture to prevent this. Most are made with antimicrobial material.
Keep an eye on technological developments
Once your medical practice is established, you need to keep an eye out for technological developments in your area.
Some of the developments being predicted are indeed revolutionary. For example, the stethoscope, which has been a mainstay of modern medicine since the 19th century will be completely replaced within the next several decades by digital diagnostic tools.
The medical community also expects that bulkier machines like the ECG will become compact enough to be carried in a doctor’s bag. Several diagnostic tools are also expected to be combined into one device.
There will be greater use of telemedicine and virtual reality. In 10-20, the waiting room as described in the preceding section will be less necessary, as more patients opt to be examined and diagnosed using remote means.
New technologies are impacting every single specialty in medicine. You don’t want to find yourself buying equipment that will be obsolete in a short space of time.
Even if they are not “equipment”, it would be a good idea to invest in some journal subscriptions and association memberships to find out what’s new in your area so that this doesn’t happen.
Establishing a new medical facility requires you to be strategic about the equipment you purchase. You must not only buy the equipment you need but monitor what you may need as your practice and the technology changes.