6 Tips to Find the Best Medical Equipment Online
In this day and age, you can buy anything online. Its convenient, easy, and fast. For medical clinics and physician's offices, buying medical equipment online can be a huge timesaver and can make your life at work so much easier. It used to be that the only way to purchase or lease medical equipment was through speciality equipment dealers. This required time consuming visits to dealers and suppliers, as well as laborious negotiations. Those days are (for the most part) gone. Now, equipment managers can research products, review prices, and place orders online within an hour, and have all the necessary equipment shipped directly to their offices.
Buying Online: Find a Supplier You Can Trust
Now, this doesn't mean that purchasing medical equipment is suddenly a simple process. There are a lot of factors which have to be taken into consideration and there are still tons of purchasing choices to be aware of, including the most important one: who do you purchase from? With the ease of setting up websites and accessing inventory, there has been a growth of online suppliers. And this has made buying equipment online somewhat of a hit and miss. It doesnt matter what you're looking for online, whether you're purchasing a small blood pressure cuff or a larger item such as defibrillators, the risk is still the same. As the purchasing agent, the responsibility of finding quality equipment is all yours, and you need to do some research into the companies you're choosing from and the products you're looking to buy. Before you decide to finalise your purchase, check out our tips for finding the best medical equipment online, and getting the best price, the highest quality and customer service you can rely on.
#1 Check for Company Reviews
Before making any purchases, make sure that the companies you're planning on working with have a good reputation and are legally allowed to sell medical equipment. Check that they have all the proper licenses and real experience servicing medical equipment. Ask about former buyers of any retailer, and search in online forums for physicians or equipment manufacturers who have given customer feedback. If you find people online and in your professional circle making referrals for a specific retailer, then you can feel reasonably sure that they are a company worth dealing with.
#2 Make Sure the Company Has Adequate Inventory
Always make sure any company you deal with has adequate inventories of products you buy often. You want to know that when you place an order, you're not relying on a company that has no inventory of their own and has to wait on shipments to come in. If you find a retailer you are interested in working with, and they tell you they keep limited quantities on hand, then you probably want to avoid them. On the other hand, there are some companies called drop-shippers which just means that they don't hold inventory in their own warehouse, but they have agreements with suppliers to ship products immediately to their customers. If you have good feedback and they are a reputable company, then a drop-ship service is okay to work with.
#3 Ask About Discounts for Large Orders
Another thing to think about when selecting an online medical equipment supplier is whether they offer discounts for bulk orders. Many online retailers offer steep discounts, sometimes on top of already low prices, for bulk purchases. Always inquire about bulk discounts, especially for your smaller and more common purchases. Ordering in bulk is a huge money and time saver.
#4 Find Out About Shipping Coverage
Don't assume that all retailers will ship to your location. Find out which areas a prospective company covers, and ask if they have extra shipping costs for certain locations. Some retailers charge a premium to ship across borders or overseas. Suddenly that great price on stethoscopes has jumped, and is now costing you double, because it's coming from an out-of-country retailer.
#5 Negotiate
Don't always assume the price you find online is the final price. Many savvy purchasers take that as starting point for negotiating prices or shipping fees. You'll know if the price you see online is a good one, but that doesn't mean you can't negotiate on shipping or bulk pricing.
#6 Check for products on clearance
It may be worth checking if the supplier you are interested in has a clearance page as you can pick up some great deals. For example, here at Medisave we have a wide range of high quality products on Clearance, this also includes a huge range of over-engraved stethoscopes which only have a small visual defect however don't affect performance and can be under half the price of retail! its important to make sure before buying a clearance product to check if there are any defects and that you are happy with this.