19/07/2012

Kimal Moves Service To Hugo

Kimal - one of the UK's largest privately-owned and leading healthcare providers - has outsourced its service and support to medtech specialist, Hugo Technology.

"We know our core strength is innovating - finding new services and new products for the healthcare market," said Kimal's managing director, Mark Pettitt, "but we also know Kimal's service is mission-critical.

"Having experienced a step change in our growth curve," said Pettitt, "we had to choose between either investing in our in-house service facility or outsourcing.

"To be frank, initially we thought in-house was best because no one could service our devices as well as we do but then we met Hugo. They showed us how they'd not only match our service standards but could enhance them by offering faster response times, additional services and generally be more flexible.

"But the crucial difference is that our client base has become increasingly geographically-spread. Hugo has more people in the field than we could possibly justify so we believe Hugo will not only maintain the performance and professionalism of our service but will also raise our service game as the business grows."

[Warwick Oakey/Andrew Parton], joint managing director of Hugo Technology said, "Kimal's drive to make a difference by being excellent means their service reputation is now firmly in our hands - it's something we don't take lightly. We've also taken on their engineers. But more importantly than both of these is that we're ensuring Kimal devices perform at their optimum so patients get the best treatment."

Independent life sciences champion, Medilink WM, awards Hugo for outstanding growth in sector.

17/01/2012

Outstanding Growth for Hugo Technology

The UK's leading independent medical equipment maintenance and management company, Hugo Technology, has won the MedilinkWM award for 'outstanding growth in sector'.

Since being established a decade ago, Hugo Technology has become an approved service provider for many of the world's leading manufacturers such as Augustine, Moog, Nutricia, Therapy Equipment, Physiological Measurements, AND, Cosmed, GE Healthcare and B Braun equipment. Recent years have seen the company experience year on year growth averaging 50%.

Andrew Parton, co-founder of Hugo Technology, says: "by outsourcing service requirements, manufacturers have found that equipment is more reliably maintained and a more cost- effective option. This is because they're provided with a greater resource, more locally, than the manufacturer would be able too, ensuring there is no compromise to its world-class service standard.

"We've found that by running one nationwide team, covering an entire portfolio of different manufacturers' equipment, we can assign an engineer to a particular area of the country, eliminating the need for them to travel extensively. This means the engineers spend more 'quality' time fixing medical devices rather than 'unproductive time' travelling to them."

Lucy Watkins at MedilinkWM, says: "Hugo Technology has demonstrated a significant increase in turnover and market share of its independent service for the maintenance, calibration and repair of patient-connected biomedical equipment. Hugo Technology's growth is a huge accomplishment and it's e a deserving candidate for this year's award."

Hugo Technology provides an independent service and manages every type of biomedical equipment from blood pressure machines and defibrillators, infusion devices and multi- parameter monitors. Its field service team operates nationwide and Hugo Technology's workshop is centrally-located in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire.

03/05/2011

How Fit Is Your Kit?

Hugo's contribution to MedTech's feature examining three different approaches to keeping medical devices in good working order.

Equipment maintenance is a crucial priority for hospitals, and affects their purchasing decisions and product use. But whose responsibility is it? We talk to three companies that offer different approaches to the task of keeping medical devices in good working order.

Keeping medical devices in good working order after purchase is an essential priority for hospitals when they procure equipment. A range of options for product maintenance exists for customers to choose from. We talked to three companies that approach equipment maintenance from different angles:

• B. Braun offers hospitals a maintenance contract for a number of key product types that it supplies.
• Asteral offers a vendor-independent managed equipment service, meeting all the product supply and maintenance needs of a hospital or department.
• Hugo Technology works with OEMs that outsource the maintenance, repair and calibration of their products after purchase by a hospital.

HUGO TECHNOLOGY
Andrew Parton and Warwick Oakey, Joint Managing Directors, Hugo Technology, answered our questions:

What are the advantages to a hospital of a specialist equipment maintenance service? We work closely with OEMs who outsource the maintenance, repair or calibration portion of their service business process. We will take on the liability for any medical device. By contrast, vendor-independent providers are generally not officially approved by OEMs.

Operating in this way has several advantages for the hospital. There are economies of scale because we are able to service several different OEMs' medical devices while we visit a single medical establishment. Also, the Hugo service is carried out to the OEM's standards. In most cases the Hugo engineer originally worked at the OEM, because we've taken the OEM's engineers into our team under the TUPE regulations.

To perform to the OEM's standards, we need to be totally integrated into its technical back-up, so we're aware of every element of how that develops. We have the same training, access to spares inventory and service information that an OEM's in-house engineer has.

Another advantage for a hospital in using a specialist service operation is that it affords greater accountability. A global corporation with thousands of medical devices on the market can pass on the responsibility for a specific product or range of devices to a third party who they trust to do the job as well as their own team - if not better. OEMs trust us not only with their legal responsibilities but also their reputation which we carry on their behalf.

You will also get a more personal service from a specialist maintenance provider such as Hugo than from an OEM engineer, who may be more focused on sales than on service. Our figures show that Hugo achieves a higher rate of conclusive repairs than OEM teams.

Who are your major UK customers in healthcare? What benefits have they derived from your service?
Rob Booth, Modality Performance Manager - Patient Monitoring, Philips Healthcare, said: "Patient care is paramount to Philips Healthcare, and therefore to ensure the best service levels for our patient monitors we have enlisted the support of Hugo Technology. We initially began working with Hugo Technology in 2006 on a smaller contract and were subsequently supported by them on additional projects up to 2010. During this time Hugo Technology has constantly demonstrated commitment to delivering the high quality that is associated with Philips Healthcare." Andrew Churnside, International Sales Director, Moog Medical Devices, said: "Since 2007, Hugo has been the UK service provider for our enteral feeding pumps. They also recently started to provide the support of our range of ambulatory infusion pumps. We consider Hugo an asset to our organisation because they're professional, reliable and come up with innovative new ways of supporting our products."

How will the anticipated NHS reforms affect the UK market for equipment maintenance solutions?
One implication of the NHS reforms will be a move towards telehealth and home- based care, driven by the need to cut costs and reduce risk. That move will suit the Hugo model: a nationwide fleet of engineers maintaining many different OEMs' devices over many postcodes.

Whatever happens, the underlying trend will be a competitive upward spiral: healthcare providers vying to treat more patients, better and faster. That calls for great equipment that is regularly maintained.

Source: Medtech Business

24/03/2011

Teleflex Hands Mission-Critical Service to Hugo

Teleflex has signed a service partnership with Hugo Technology to maintain, calibrate, repair and warranty its intra aortic pumps, AquaTherm and ConchaTherm Neptune heated humidifiers.

"Although we're mostly known for our consumables, we needed a highly credible field service team in the UK to look after our intra aortic pumps," says Gideon Lake, national sales manager - surgical and cardiac assist at Teleflex.

Teleflex as an organisation is dedicated to providing products and services that save lives, reduce costs and deliver superior patient outcomes by reducing infections, enabling less invasive procedures and improving patient safety and comfort.

"The intra aortic balloon pumps are mission-critical pieces of kit which inflate and deflate in microseconds to reduce the heart's workload after a myocardial infarction. Balloons which are inserted through the femoral artery can make the difference between life and death. The patient is critically ill so there's little room for manoeuvre if the device failed.

"Although we're a large organisation, it's not practical for us to build an in-house team of engineers - endorsed by the fact that Hugo also acts for the likes of Philips and Nutricia. We've agreed a three-year contract and trained both Hugo's field service and their service centre engineers.

"I asked those in the industry - especially hospital EBME contacts - which companies they rated. Two names consistently came up but what swayed me towards Hugo was not only their impressive facilities - which were another tick in the box - but also their website. We're a large organisation and their website shows they take their reputation as seriously as we do ours.

"They may be a young organisation but they operate in a big corporate way. It's little things like they understand the importance of NDAs and being internationally-accredited.

"We believe our product range has tremendous growth potential and that Hugo will grow with us."

Joint managing director of Hugo Technology, Andrew Parton said, "it's the scale of economies which Teleflex gains from working with us. Without compromising the consistent performance of their devices to international standards, Teleflex now has a nationwide, tailor-made, engineering force at their disposal. Their investment is a fraction of what it would take to fund an in-house team and they've even greater peace of mind because we underwrite our service to their specification."

Philips partners with Hugo to service patient monitoring in UK until 2013.

13/01/2011

Hugo Announces Partnership with Philips Healthcare Patient Monitoring Systems

Philips Healthcare, a leading healthcare company, has appointed Hugo Technology as its service partner for its patient monitoring system in the UK until 2013.

Hugo Technology will support Philips Healthcare across its customer base, servicing and maintaining all of its patient monitoring systems, operating in over 900 NHS and private hospitals in the UK.

"Patient care is paramount to Philips Healthcare and therefore to ensure the best service levels for our patient monitors we have enlisted the support of Hugo Technology. We initially began working with Hugo Technology in 2006 on a smaller contract and was subsequently supported by them on additional projects up to 2010. During this time Hugo Technology has constantly demonstrated commitment to delivering the high quality that is associated with Philips. I am pleased that Hugo Technology will be supporting Philips Healthcare for the next three years," comments Rob Booth, modality performance manager - patient monitoring, Philips Healthcare.

Hugo Technology is embedded within the Philips customer service department and is fully aligned with Philips' operating systems. Responding to this new partnership the Hugo Technology service team has expanded with Philips Healthcare engineers joining Hugo Technology.

Andrew Parton, joint founder of Hugo Technology, said: "we know it could easily be a friend or family member relying on the performance of the medical devices we maintain. That's why we ensure all of our technicians are rigorous in their work, whether servicing 100 or 1,000 devices. It's the patients whom we're really accountable to and we instill this into the entire team."

Hugo Technology is an independent medical equipment maintenance and management company which services every type of biomedical equipment from blood pressure machines and defibrillators, infusion devices and multi-parameter monitors. Its field service team operates nationwide and Hugo's workshop is centrally-located in the UK in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire.

Hugo Technology is also an approved service provider for Augustine, Moog, Nutricia, Therapy Equipment, Physiological Measurements, AND, Cosmed, GE Healthcare and B Braun equipment.

For the 7th year running, Nutricia's chosen Hugo to maintain, repair and calibrate its pumps.

02/12/2010

Nutricia partners with Hugo Technology for seventh year running

Europe's largest medical nutrition company, Nutricia, has renewed its contract with Hugo Technology to manage the maintenance, repair and calibration of their pumps, for the seventh year running.

Hugo Technology is the sole service partner for Nutricia pumps in the UK.

Darren Greenman, supply chain operations manager at Nutricia, said: "our pumps are distributed across the country and ensuring each one is fully functional at all times is a huge job. Hugo Technology's tailor-made service and team of engineers has provided a swift and reliable service, with rigorous QA standards, every time. They've also helped identify opportunities to save costs, with a recent project to reuse plastic drip-stands saving the company in excess of £50,000 in a year."

Warwick Oakey, co-founder and managing director of Hugo Technology, said: "Nutricia's specialised nutrition plans are essential for those people who depend on a specific diet to combat disease. They required a comprehensive, competitive and, most of all, a dependable maintenance service that would ensure every single pump's performance was optimised. Keeping Nutricia's business has been all about trust. So seven consecutive years of service speaks volumes."

Nutricia is the medical division of the international food company Danone and specialises in the delivery of advanced medical nutrition for the very young, the old and the sick. As well as being the largest specialist nutrition company in Europe, Nutricia is the market leader in the UK. Supplying high quality feeds, systems and support services to patients and health care professionals via their Nutricia Homeward service, they deliver nutritional feeds, enteral feeding systems and nursing care directly to patients' homes.

Hugo Technology is the industry leader in the maintenance, repair and calibration of biomedical equipment. Hugo Technology's specialist UK service centre, rigorous quality assurance and tailored, cost-effective solutions have made it the approved partner for many of the world's biomedical manufacturers.

Tom Collett brings with him a wealth of experience from the component and electronic manufacturing services industry as he joins Hugo.

09/11/2010

Hugo Technology recruits leading business development manager

Hugo Technology - specialists in the maintenance, calibration and repair of biomedical equipment - has recruited sales and business development manager Tom Collett to raise the company's profile and boost turnover.

Tom has a proven track record in sales and business development, having previously worked in a similar role at Molex and Hansatech EMS. Over his 36 year career, Tom has gained extensive experience in the component and electronic manufacturing services (EMS) industry.

Tom said: "Hugo Technology has ambitious but achievable targets to more than double turnover over the next two years. We've already put in place an extensive plan to expand our customer base, streamline our internal and external communications and boost our profile within the market."

Warwick Oakey, co-director and founder of Hugo Technology, said: "Tom has extensive knowledge of the industry and a respected track-record within the EMS and components market. Although he's got a big task in front of him, we're confident he'll help us meet our goals"

Hugo Technology is the approved partner for many of the world's leading biomedical companies. It has recently gained approved partner status from Philips Medical.