- AI
- Molecular Imaging
- CT
- X-Ray
- Ultrasound
- MRI
- Facility Management
- Mammography
Siemens Healthineers Unveils More Convenient Customer Service Model
New portfolio for imaging systems could reduce impact on patient care.
Institutions with Siemens Healthineers products can now select a service contract option that best matches their operational schedule, limiting the impact of routine maintenance on patient care activities.
With CentriCare – a new, patient-centric service contract portfolio – Siemens allows customers to select the most convenient time period for company personnel to address non-urgent service requests. Doing so addresses the issue of existing service contracts frequently overlapping with operational hours, the company said. It's a problem that can result in preventive maintenance infringing on patient care.
According to a press statement, CentriCare offers three flexible service plans – Signature, Benchmark, and Balance – that offer more system availability and uptime while limitng clinical disruption during time periods where machines are needed most for patient care.
“Customers have asked us to align with their priorities so that they can provide an optimal patient experience free of offline imaging systems and extended patient wait times. These customers also want to avoid related out-of-scope service expenses, such as overtime, spare parts, and expediated shipping charges,” said Michael Wendt, senior vice president of customer services at Siemens Healthineers, in the written statement. “The CentriCare service portfolio is a direct response to these customer requests.”
Each plan offers Protected Care Hours during which Siemens guarantees 100-percent uptime, according to the company statement. But, if service-hour interruptions do occur, the CentriCare Entrust Program offers per-hour credits that can be applied to current or future invoices for other Siemens products and services. Other CentriCare components can include single vendor point-of-contact, including dedicated VIP phone line or a clinical or technical concierge expert, to help with onboarding to service escalations and incident reporting.
Currently, CentriCare service contracts are available in certain parts of the United States, including the Northeast.
Can Portable Dual-Energy X-Ray be a Viable Alternative to CT in the ICU?
September 13th 2024The use of a portable dual-energy X-ray detector in the ICU at one community hospital reportedly facilitated a 37.5 percent decrease in chest CT exams in comparison to the previous three months, according to research presented at the American Society of Emergency Radiology (ASER) meeting in Washington, D.C.
New Meta-Analysis Examines MRI Assessment for Treatment of Esophageal Cancer
September 12th 2024Diffusion-weighted MRI provided pooled sensitivity and specificity rates of 82 percent and 81 percent respectively for gauging patient response to concurrent chemoradiotherapy for esophageal cancer, according to new meta-analysis.
Study for Emerging PET/CT Agent Reveals ‘New Standard’ for Detecting Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma
September 11th 2024Results from a multicenter phase 3 trial showed that the PET/CT imaging agent (89Zr)Zr-girentuximab had an 85.5 percent mean sensitivity rate for the diagnosis of clear cell renal cell carcinoma.
Can Radiomics and Autoencoders Enhance Real-Time Ultrasound Detection of Breast Cancer?
September 10th 2024Developed with breast ultrasound data from nearly 1,200 women, a model with mixed radiomic and autoencoder features had a 90 percent AUC for diagnosing breast cancer, according to new research.
