MR equipment acquisition parameters.
Arguably, MR is the most costly and sophisticated diagnostic imaging equipment in wide use today. Since its inception in the mid 1980s, much has been written regarding the purchase criteria for this million-dollar-plus capital investment--most of it pitting one technological advantage against another. Expectedly, the lion's share of this information was directed at radiologists. Today, it is universally accepted that, as far as the MR purchase decision is concerned, the "buck stops" at increasingly higher administrative levels in the healthcare organization. However, it has been our experience that the most satisfactory MRI acquisitions are not made strictly in the executive conference room. They encompass teams of buying influences from the various areas of the hospital that will be impacted by the MRI system. Knowing that institutions have utilization differences, different patient demographics, varying reimbursement agreements and other pertinent areas of definition, this article does not offer a cookie cutter checklist for an MRI purchase. Instead, it profiles the true-life decision-making processes undertaken by four MRI customers. The article's objective is to provide the reader with an understanding of various approaches to the same process from which the reader can glean ideas relevant to his or her own situation.