Survey forecasts drop in capital purchasing

Dec 17, 2008

A new survey of radiology department managers regarding their imaging equipment purchasing plans in 2009 indicates that a majority are planning to reduce spending on equipment in response to the economic downturn.

In a survey of more than 150 department managers conducted by the MarkeTech Group of Davis, CA, 37.7% said they plan to decrease their purchases of imaging equipment by 20% or more in 2009. Another 19.5% said they plan to reduce spending by 10% to 19%, while 9.1% said they plan to reduce spending by less than 10%. Only 7.1% said they plan to increase spending.

The news isn't any prettier when it comes to imaging utilization. Of survey respondents, 37.6% said they are "very likely" to reduce utilization of imaging services, while 44.6% said they "may" reduce utilization. Some 8.9% said they do not expect the economic crisis to have any impact on utilization, while 5.1% said they "may" increase utilization and 3.2% said they will "very likely" increase utilization.

Survey respondents also indicated that they believe the downturn will negatively affect all imaging modalities equally. The MarkeTech Group survey was conducted shortly before this month's RSNA meeting.

MarkeTech Group said that interviews with its ImagePRO survey advisory board indicated that chief financial officers are freezing all capital expenditures and are taking a wait-and-see approach to future purchases. The credit crisis is also tempering many capital budgeting requests, the firm said.

R.L. Johnson, MarkeTech release PACS report, April 18, 2003