In-house CT service: the next clinical engineering crossroads.

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.