Welch Allyn has just introduced new customer service plans for its portfolio of patient monitors, cardiac care technologies and other products. The Partners in Care Services program covers support, education and professional services. This is the company's first comprehensive service program to assist customers with installation, integration, training and ongoing management of all Welch Allyn systems.

The plans serve customers in both acute and ambulatory care settings and range from those hospitals with full in-house biomedical support teams to settings like doctors' offices that depend fully on the company's service program.

"Self-sufficient customers do everything in-house so through our program we provide parts, online technical training, updates, upgrades, accessory protection and a loaner at times, if needed. The goal is to enable the biomed to keep all our devices and themselves in house and on site," said Jason DiFraia, senior global category manager for services and solutions.

On the other end of the service spectrum is a customer such as a doctor's office or a small clinic with few technical resources that are entirely reliant on the company's support. This customer would have the option of a comprehensive partnership program, which entitles them to faster turnarounds times, updates and upgrades, accessory protection, loaners and many other features.

Partners in Care Services also covers customers in between with varying levels of self-sufficiency for their technologies.

Automated complaint hotlines are now a thing of the past, DiFraia told DOTmed News. As manufacturers like Welch Allyn develop more sophisticated, interconnected devices that feed into health information systems, they must raise their service support levels to keep customers up and running.

"In the past there was a 'break and fix' service model. Now we are moving from a product perspective toward a platform business model," DiFraia said, noting that the platform model provides more integration and design consistency across the product portfolio. "An example would be the automotive industry where a manufacturer may make just four chassis and 20 models of cars," DiFraia said. Increasingly and by necessity, medical technology is being designed with interchangeable components such as probes, power cords and other key parts to make service simpler and also to support automated delivery of service through proactive reporting and remote diagnostics. For instance, Welch Allyn can provide software and training to enable biomedical engineers to validate and calibrate devices in house.

As health IT adoption advances, providers must rely on diverse yet integrated systems. As a result, the company is opening up its patient monitoring platform and product portfolio so that third parties can integrate their applications or hardware into Welch Allyn systems and provide the gateway to electronic medical records.

"Sophistication, integration, connectability and scalability. As facilities become more reliant on technology, and as more companies and third parties interact, service now becomes more mission critical and a core element to the overall solution," DiFraia said.

With the new Partners in Care Services program, customers can choose from different support service options to aid in maintenance, and each program can be tailored to fit the specific product in any environment. The program was developed with common customer service pitfalls in mind, so it provides not only one-on-one product counseling, but also access to service tools, the support center and new discounts. Education and online technical training are also critical components to the WA Service strategy.

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