Researched Argumentative Essay - Final Submission

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Outline

Introduction

Replacement of the old equipment with the new ones is the most common capital budgeting decision made by most medical and healthcare organizations. Every organization needs to have up-to-date equipment for them to operate to its full potential. Since every piece of equipment has a life cycle, and while the companies want to get the most out of it, going beyond the life cycle of equipment can harm the business and profitability. This is one of the key reasons why the medical facilities need to decide when and how to replace the old equipment with the new ones. Additionally, when the medical equipment breakdown due to old age or other inefficiencies, productivity decreases, and both the patient and the healthcare provider's safety is put at risk. At times it tough to decide when to replace this equipment or realize when one needs to invest to meet the future growth and targets. Due to the cost associated with replacing the old equipment with the new ones, healthcare organizations usually opt to repair the equipment.

Nonetheless, the repairing cost is usually high compared to the cost of replacement. This is because repairs can increase the damage of the equipment and increase their life cycle but a just a few months. The paper discusses whether it's a good idea to replace the old equipment with new ones in the medical facilities.

First Paragraph

One of the essential barometers on replacing an item is whether the carrying costs of the older equipment. Studies on reducing the cost of medical equipment claim that if the facilities are spending a lot of money repairing the items, the best decision is to replace them to reduce costs (Akararungruangkul et al., 2018). At some point, the medical equipment whose life cycle has expired gets too expensive to replace. This supports the decision on better replacing than repairing an item whose maintenance cost is high. There are reasons for replacing than repairing.

Second Paragraph

The decision to repair an item can turn out to be obsolescence. Some parts of the machines, such as the magnetic resonance machine, may not be available in the market. This makes repairing difficult as some of the defective parts can be replaced with fake ones, which reduces the function and poses dangers to the patient and the healthcare providers (Avci et al., 2019). This supports the decision to replace with a new machine whose spare parts are available in the market.

Third Paragraph

Acquiring the latest equipment shows your current patients that you care about their safety and their wellbeing. Studies have shown that new and well-serviced machines improve patient safety and reduce the incidents of compromised care (Wang, 2018). since the patients prioritize inpatient care, this supports the need to replace machines rather than buy them items.

Fourth Opposing Paragraph

On the other hand, replacing machines without rational decision-making and evaluating the benefits and the risks accrued can cause an enormous cost to the organization. Some machines are expensive, and replacing them without planning can cost the facilities (Hayhurst, 2019). At times it rational to repair as some proper plans are underway for replacing. There are so many factors that need to be considered, such as life cycle, efficiency, and equipment effectiveness.

Conclusion

In conclusion, replacement of the equipment is better than repairing due to patient safety issues and increased profitability and production. The benefits of replacing outweigh the risks, and therefore it's good to replace equipment whose life cycle is diminished. The medical facilities should always do proper planning in replacing equipment whose life cycle is diminished.

References

Akararungruangkul, R., Chokanat, P., Pitakaso, R., Supakdee, K., & Sethanan, K. (2018). Solving Vehicle Routing Problem for Maintaining and Repairing Medical Equipment Using Differential Evolution Algorithm: A Case Study in Ubon Ratchathani Public Health Office. Int. J. Appl. Eng. Res, 13, 8035-8045.

Avci, O., Bhargava, A., Al-Smadi, Y., & Isenberg, J. (2019). Vibration’s serviceability of a medical facility floor for sensitive equipment replacement: evaluation with sparse in situ data. Practice Periodical on Structural Design and Construction, 24(1), 05018006.

Hayhurst, C. (2019). Powering down retirement strategies for medical equipment. Biomedical instrumentation & technology, 53(1), 12-23.

Wang, B. (2018). Medical equipment maintenance: management and oversight. Synthesis Lectures on Biomedical Engineering, 7(2), 1-85.