Capital equipment negotiation: a systematic checklist.

A number of systematic procedures and guidelines can be established to provide the negotiating agent with the proper tools to achieve a cost-effective purchase. The checklist presented here is an example of one such tool which offers some important considerations for negotiating capital equipment contracts. Other considerations include qualitative analysis of competing companies, analysis of the validity of the real reasons behind the purchase, the true life of the equipment, all operating costs to be incurred, biomedical review, renovation costs, code requirements, and much more. No matter what the considerations, the purchasing agent is responsible for critiquing the overall purchase, and for performing a good value analysis. These activities can help protect the hospital from excess expense and ensure that it receives the maximum value over the life of the capital equipment purchased.