As hospitals brace for another surge in COVID-19, medical device companies have to worry about more than temporary reductions in elective surgeries.

Hospitals struggling to account for every dollar are beginning to push for new ways to select and pay for new medical technology, particularly large capital items like robotic surgery systems, according to a review by a consulting group affiliated with the health care organization, Vizient.

In this week’s DeviceTalks Weekly podcast, Henry Soch, vice president at Sg2, a Vizient consulting group, says capital budgets for most health care organizations are “very constrained,” making it difficult for hospitals to commit dollars for large capital purchases. In addition to the diminishing revenue, hospitals also are spending up to 75% of capital dollars on updating technologies to accommodate the growing telemedicine and other remote connections, leaving less for new medical equipment.

Read the entire article here at our sister publication Medical Design & Outsourcing.