BLOG: Reliability and Customer Service Key to Injector Uptime and CT Department Workflow

In a busy hospital imaging department, maintaining high device uptime levels is critical. If an injector malfunctions or needs repair, it can affect the patient schedule, causing a ripple effect of delays across the organization. While these device malfunctions should be rare, they are inevitable in a high-use department. When they do occur, a strong relationship with the device supplier and service department is critical to repairing the device, minimizing downtime and maintaining reliability.

At NYU’sLangone Health, the twoCTscanners on the main campus are used to perform about 140 patient exams a day — all in less than 12 hours. The radiology department uses Bracco’sEmpower CTAinjector system and has a been a Bracco customer for more than 15 years. They rely on the efficiency of the Empower CTA system to support their high throughput department.

“这是一个10分钟的工作流程，”纽约大学朗格尼健康中心CT、美国和x光服务部门的助理主任Cicil Chamakalayi说。“我们需要病人在这段时间内进出病房。这就是注入器，把病人放到扫描仪上，进行扫描，把他们拿下来，打扫房间。所有这些都在10分钟内完成。拥有高度可靠的设备可能是最优先考虑的。”

The CT department atUCLA Health Systemprovides 24-hour support and imaging for trauma patients. Lead CT technologist Amelia Patterson agrees with the importance of quick and reliable service in a busy department.

“When you’re in a facility where your equipment is used constantly, service is really important,” Patterson said. And when a device malfunctions, “we want the service to be done right away — whatever needs to be fixed — because we are a trauma center.”

When an issue arises, such an injector not communicating or loading properly, Patterson says the first step is to contact their service representative for assistance. They will troubleshoot the error message over the phone, and if necessary, schedule a prompt service visit. Patterson said theirBraccoservice reps are sensitive to the department’s full schedule, even if that means the technician must arrive before the earliest appointment of the day.

“它们非常灵活，”帕特森说。“我们确实有很多病人从6点半甚至6点就开始工作，但他们还是设法来上班。”

Bracco为客户提供银级和金级的授权CTA设备服务协议计划。根据客户选择的级别，该服务协议包括优先翌日服务、停机期间的租借设备、24/7呼叫中心支持和年度维护。

“Knowing that we can call our service rep or our service engineer and have them come on site as soon as possible and have the piece of equipment back up and running next day, if not the same day, I think is vital to our workflow here,” Chamakalayi said.

Bracco服务工程师还执行例行的预防性维护，以确保设备的正常运行，并更换或维修任何可能因正常使用而磨损的部件。当需要进行常规服务时，喷射器会通过弹出警报通知技术人员。服务工程师将根据部门繁忙的日程安排预防性维护。在大多数情况下，工程师会预测哪些特定的部件需要更换，并准备好适当的部件。

"They’ll run the machine through some tests and they’ll replace parts that need to get replaced,”said Bernard Assadourian,CT quality and safety manager at NYU Langone Health. “As far as the service people, they’ve been really reliable. They listen when we have a problem. And they’re knowledgeable about what they’re doing.“

Through 2019, Bracco’s contract services had an uptime of 99.2%. “The product is reliable; we rarely call for service,” said Mabel Okyere, Lead CT Technologist for NYU Langone Health. “The last six months or a year, we’ve called once or twice. That’s very good because we use it a lot.” When they do need to call, the service reps are readily accessible and reliable.

“We have a really personal relationship with them,” Okyere said. “We call them and they respond to you right away.”

In addition to these on-the-ground services, Bracco recently launched a remote, virtual-based service solution. The program, calledHelpLightning, provides a merged reality environment to provide technical support via combined video streams — one from a remote expert and one from the onsite technician. In this collaborative environment, the expert can virtually touch what the customer is working on. In many cases, this virtual hands-on approach minimizes downtime to less than 10 minutes.

Bracco’s commitment to quality service recently earned them theNorthFace ScoreBoardaward for excellence in customer service, as rated by their customers. The award, from theCustomer Relationship Management Institute(CRMI) andMarket Intelligence International(Marketii), measures customer satisfaction with services on a 5-point scale (or an equivalent rating system) in such categories as technical support, field service, customer service, account management, professional services and other customer facing functions. Bracco’s injector service achieved a 4.0 or above out of a possible 5.0 or an equivalent rating system over the entire year.

“服务很好;毫无疑问，”帕特森说。“我见过很多来自Bracco的销售代表和专家。这是一家好公司。好人。”

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Editor’s note:This blog is part-one of a two-part series on service and support.