Strategic Budget Planning for Complex Medical Devices: A Case Study on Surgical Microscopes

Abstract

Dramatic developments in medical device technologies significantly influence the cost of equipment acquisition and operating expenses. Sometimes the budget estimation needed for rudimentary medical equipment can be complicated, even more so for a complex device with several add-on features. In Canada, the budget allocated to capital equipment purchases is challenging because the budget comes from the provincial government to the hospitals. The capital equipment budget amount is challenging because of the public healthcare funding model, whereby fiscal budgets come from the provincial government to the hospitals. The capital equipment budget allocation is limited and restricted in hospital as “big ticket” items compete with other capital requests. Having a strategic budgeting plan, completed by a clinical engineer, ensures a sufficient budget for the capital request. A strategic budgeting plan was central to this study to estimate the required funding for replacing aged existing surgical microscopes at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. This study demonstrates the development of a methodology to guide budget planning and includes inventory assessment, market analysis, the identification of clinical requirements, cost analysis, and the utilization of the outputs of these steps for capital planning requests. A basic step-by-step approach can be followed by any clinical engineering department before submitting a capital planning request for complex medical devices.