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Most acute-care hospitals in the United States own at least one computed tomography scanner. Service contracts offered by scanner manufacturers cost approximately 10% of the equipment's purchase price. Equivalent service support can be provided at a lower cost to scanner owners by a CT scanner service group, in which a program director and a senior biomedical equipment technician in a central office oversee purchase of replacement parts and supervise and train biomedical equipment technicians assigned to each participating hospital. The service group saves money by purchasing replacement parts in quantity from a less expensive source than the CT manufacturer, and by employing a technician at each hospital rather than having one BMET travel between several hospitals. Scanner downtime is significantly reduced because the staff technician is available immediately in the event of equipment failure and routine preventive maintenance tasks can be performed after business hours. By encouraging communication and cooperation the service group enables the technicians to keep abreast of the latest technology.

A fully developed in-house clinical engineering program has much to offer to a large community hospital. In the southeast U.S., many community hospitals-600 beds or fewer-have implemented partial programs and, as a result, have received only a partial return on their investment. A comprehensive program extends maintenance support to all patient-care devices, is intimately involved in the new device specification, evaluation, and selection process with the medical staff-standardizing whenever appropriate- and significantly involved in the continuing education program for in-house users of devices.