Endoscopy Managed Services

With the pressure of growing demand and a higher ‘best practice’ tariff now is the perfect time for Endoscopy departments to use a managed service solution as a way of funding the re-design of decontamination facilities and the procurement of new scopes, camera stacks and cleaning equipment.

Endoscopy

Our Endoscopy managed service ensures sustainability, scalability, and a high-quality clinical output whilst supporting an increase in procedure numbers at best practice tariff rates.

Services can either be provided through the re-modelling of existing footprints or through the full outsourcing of decontamination and cleaning facilities to an ALTHEA-run off-site facility.

Design, build and implementation

We are unique in having a dedicated, in-house design and implementation team which has unrivalled experience in the planning and delivery of clinical facilities, integrating technology from multiple suppliers and future-proofing designs to accommodate changes in the scope and scale of operations.

Our methodology is geared towards reducing the burden on clinical and operational staff, minimising disruption to patient services and ensuring that any new equipment and environment improves operational efficiency and ultimately patient care.

The vendor-independent selection, procurement and installation of all decontamination equipment (e.g. washer disinfectors, reverse osmosis plants, drying and storage cabinets) and endoscopic equipment (e.g. scopes, stack systems and ancillary equipment) will be managed by our in-house experts and installed on time with minimal disruption to ongoing clinical services.

Our design and build expertise will ensure the re-modelling of existing or new Endoscopy departments create an optimised workflow which meets the growing demand for reprocessing and exceeds all national standards such as:

New Joint Advisory Group standards published in June 2016 and the requirement for ‘pass-through’ facilities
NHS Bowel Cancer Screening programme
Care & Quality Commission

Clinical & Operational Consumables

With Endoscopy departments spending up to £5M per annum on clinical and operational consumables our managed services provide hospitals with the opportunity to reclaim the VAT as part of our integrated consumable management service resulting in savings of up to 15%. These savings can be an enabler for re-investment in improved service capacity to meet growing demand.

Our operating mechanism includes significant investment in stock management IT systems and an on-site staff resource in order to deliver cost controls, eliminate stock out events and stock loss. The service will reduce non-clinical activities for the clinical teams in the areas of stock management and re-ordering, while ensuring they retain full control over the selection and choice of clinical consumables.

Endoscopy Maintenance

Our Endoscopy workshop, including research and development laboratory, is a quality-controlled environment based in Southend-On-Sea (Essex) which repairs and maintains more than 9,000 devices a year on behalf of 300 hospitals.

The facility is manned by 60 technical staff with over 500 years of combined experience in endoscope repairs.

Within our workshop we have the experience and expertise to maintain the earlier generation Olympus 240 series and 260 series devices as well as the latest 290 series instrumentation, stack systems and ancillary equipment. Other equipment will be maintained by the original manufacturer.

We are dedicated to providing the highest quality of customer service and support. Whilst our endoscopy client devices are away for maintenance, our value-added service includes the supply of a loan device against an incoming repair.

Decontamination Servicing

All washer disinfector servicing as well as quarterly and annual validation tests will be managed by ALTHEA with no change to the current service level agreements held with suppliers. Planned preventative maintenance and validations will be rigorously managed with a single point-of-contact for all staff for the proactive performance management of all service-related issues.