Cohealo Surpasses 2,500 Shares of Medical Equipment for Health System Partners
Cohealo, the industry leading company that enables hospitals to share medical equipment, announced a milestone today.
BOSTON – Cohealo, a platform for health systems to track and share medical equipment, marked a significant milestone this month when it facilitated its 2500th share of equipment between its clients’ hospitals. Health systems spend $45 billion per year on perioperative equipment that often sits idle for up to 90% of its useful life. Shared equipment enables hospitals to avoid expensive equipment rentals and decreases the need to purchase multiple units of the same equipment.
At HIMSS19, Dr. Ronald Loo of Kaiser Permanente Medical Group presented their two-year savings outcomes from sharing equipment in Southern California, which have totaled more than $8 million. “Sharing equipment is a win-win for Kaiser Permanente. Patients win, because we can provide them with the highest quality of care at the most affordable price, and our surgeons win by gaining access to newer equipment, faster.”
There is a clarion call for hospitals to identify unique opportunities for savings as never before. Evolving regulations, fluctuations in the economy, and changing expectations around patient care are adversely impacting hospital operating margins, which have fallen to a low of 1.6%. Hospitals are closing at a rate of 30 per year, leaving patients in rural areas vulnerable.
“The sharing economy has empowered thousands of consumers to tap into the excess capacity of their cars and homes, delivering value from idle resources. Sharing medical equipment is an eight-figure per year savings opportunity for health systems,” said Cohealo’s chief executive officer, Todd Rothenhaus, M.D. “Our 2500th equipment share demonstrates that collaborative equipment management can be accomplished at scale, without asset damage or disruption to clinical workflows.”
Medical equipment is one of the largest expenses for health systems. A single piece of perioperative equipment can cost more than $500,000. However, that equipment is typically only used at the facility for which it was purchased, limiting the potential for return on investment. With a single equipment share, Cohealo has impacted as many as 62 cases at the borrowing site, providing a cost-effective alternative to buying new equipment.
About Cohealo
Based in Boston, Cohealo finds savings for health systems by increasing the utilization of their medical equipment through proactive data analytics and equipment sharing. With deeper insights into equipment usage, hospitals can pinpoint redundant equipment, opportunities for rental avoidance, and ways to share equipment between facilities. As the program scales within a health system, the network effect drives increasing levels of savings by reducing redundant purchases and decreasing rental expense. Cohealo has been named to Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies List and CNBC’s Disruptor 50 and is recognized as the first solution of its type to bring the sharing economy to healthcare. To learn more about Cohealo, visit www.cohealo.com.