Budget challenges attributing to revenue shortfalls and rising expenses often leave hospitals with little surplus for capital investments. That burden only worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
When they have available cash flow, hospital leaders face competing investment choices. They must consider not only the overall value of investments but also how to finance those resources.
For the last 20 years, surgeons have been adopting robotic surgery as a way of driving minimally invasive care in their practice, now the question surgeons face is: how can their hospitals afford to add enough systems for access to many of their peers?
“There's always the competitive internal dialogue that CFOs have to manage. In hospitals, surgery is one of the top-line revenue drivers,” said Nick Santore, Intuitive’s vice president of commercial solutions. “How does somebody acquire multiple robotic systems from us? For our clients to make investments like that required Intuitive to think differently.”
At Intuitive, we’re a leader in developing robotic platforms for minimally invasive surgery. We also offer a variety of innovative, in-house financing options individually tailored to help you — the hospital executive — access these assets for your team, and help hospitals develop a customized program expansion strategy using our customer alignment process.
The technical advantages that surgeons have realized from using robotic-assisted surgeries include their ability to:
These individual operating features lead to overall hospital financial opportunities. These range from increasing top-line revenues to lowering operating costs.
Access to leading-edge equipment can attract and retain high-volume robotic surgeons and, therefore, increase surgeries for the hospital. Hospitals may also realize a reduced total cost of care – by downstream impacts of length of stay, conversions, complications, and readmissions.
Along with the value proposition for an expanded robotics program, we help hospitals identify and customize their optimal financing approach.
Our in-house financing means we can create innovative and customized solutions that third-party financing can’t offer. A hospital can finance directly through us rather than using third-party financing.
From leasing to purchase to usage-based models, we work with you to craft the financing approach that works best for you. If a particular model no longer meets a customer’s financial goals, we explore other options together and revise our financing agreement to meet their evolving needs.
“We design adaptable solutions that meet our hospital’s individual needs, whether it is accounting or cashflow management,” said Santore. “It’s not a one-size fits all approach. Our ecosystem is designed to provide a customized approach to solving customers' problems when it comes to how they either expand a robotics program or enter into the robotics program.”
As hospitals continue to focus on value-based purchasing, we work with our customers to craft short- and long-term approaches according to their needs. Unlike traditional capital investments, our flexible acquisition models don’t have a break-even timeframe, and some of our risk-sharing options allow for a customer’s financial obligation to be met through their robotic surgery program’s utilization and performance.
When available, we use data such as patient demographics, surgical volume, case mix, and payer reimbursements to help our customers to identify specific fiscal opportunities and challenges. With this information, we can better craft the right acquisition models to help each hospital scale its surgical services accordingly.
“It really is this simple: we believe our product provides value and we stand behind it as our customers embark on their journey,” Santore said.
Intuitive’s flexibility and customer alignment go beyond our financing solutions. We know that expanding a robotics program requires change management.
In any organization, change can be daunting. It can mean workflow changes for your staff, securing the right infrastructure, and ensuring the necessary expertise.
Hospital leaders are aware that these changes require planning. Some of the logistical considerations include:
Intuitive has over 20 years and more than 12+ million procedures in collaboration with hospitals. Using that experience, we help hospital leaders understand the comprehensive nature of the changes required for success. Our teams and unified ecosystem of resources support you with everything from technical training to program optimization.
Santore said, “We have a great customer base and many customers who understand our products and our resources deeply.”
At Intuitive, we can connect you with key opinion leaders and peers who are willing to share their insights and best practices. Our combined resources may help you manage change and drive value, growth, and sustainability of your robotics service line.
Sharp Memorial Hospital is among this list of hospitals with a compelling story about their journey and lessons learned. We are pleased to share an overview of their experience here.
Are you interested in learning how to grow your hospital’s robotics program through flexible acquisition?
Complete the form below, and we’ll be in touch to discuss flexible acquisition models tailored to your hospital’s specific needs and goals.
If you would like, we’ll also connect you with one of our current clients. You’ll get personal insight and advice from people who’ve already taken the successful journey.
Find out how in-house financing with Intuitive can help meet your particular acquisition goals with customized terms and flexible options.
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Important safety information
Serious complications may occur in any surgery, including surgery with a da Vinci system, up to and including death. Examples of serious or life-threatening complications, which may require prolonged and/or unexpected hospitalization and/or reoperation, include but are not limited to, one or more of the following: injury to tissues/organs, bleeding, infection, and internal scarring that can cause long-lasting dysfunction/pain.
Risks specific to minimally invasive surgery, including surgery with a da Vinci system, include but are not limited to, one or more of the following: temporary pain/nerve injury associated with positioning; a longer operative time, the need to convert to an open approach, or the need for additional or larger incision sites. Converting the procedure could result in a longer operative time, a longer time under anesthesia, and could lead to increased complications.
Contraindications applicable to the use of conventional endoscopic instruments also apply to the use of all da Vinci instruments.
For important safety information, including surgical risks and considerations, please also refer to www.intuitive.com/safety. For a product’s intended use and/or indications for use, risks, full cautions and warnings, please refer to the associated User Manual(s).
Individual outcomes may depend on a number of factors, including but not limited to patient characteristics, disease characteristics, and/or surgeon experience. The demonstration of safety and effectiveness for the representative specific procedures did not include evaluation of outcomes related to the treatment of cancer (overall survival, disease-free survival, local recurrence) or treatment of the patient’s underlying disease/condition. Device usage in all surgical procedures should be guided by the clinical judgment of an adequately trained surgeon.