Tell Congress: Give hospitals the right to repair lifesaving equipment
Hospital technicians are being restricted from repairing the medical equipment that saves lives — and patients are suffering because of it.
According to a study by U.S. PIRG Education Fund, almost 70 percent of more than 200 medical repair professionals surveyed said their hospital has had to delay a patient procedure while waiting for a manufacturer service representative to repair a device.
There’s no reason that trained technicians should have to wait for a manufacturer to service a piece of potentially lifesaving equipment that they’re qualified to fix themselves — especially in the midst of a global pandemic.
So we’re calling on Congress to pass legislation ensuring that hospitals have the right to repair their own equipment. Will you stand with us, Friend?
Medical equipment manufacturers often put proprietary restrictions on service information and materials for the devices they make, and these restrictions are often driven by profit, as manufacturers tend to charge significantly more for repair service.
Moreover, the companies’ claims that their repair restrictions exist for safety reasons are unfounded — an FDA study concluded that hospital technicians provide perfectly safe and high-quality service on the medical equipment they use. And as it turns out, U.S. PIRG Education Fund also found that two-thirds of surveyed medical repair professionals reported that they fixed a device that the manufacturer itself could not repair.
Congress is working toward passing a new coronavirus relief package before the end of 2020. We need to make sure that medical right to repair makes it into this legislation — it could be lifesaving for sick patients across the country.
As COVID-19 cases surge across the U.S., the stakes couldn’t be higher — we need to eliminate these unnecessary restrictions on medical device repair so that hospitals can focus on saving lives.
Take action today by telling your U.S. representative to support medical right to repair legislation in the next coronavirus relief package.
While we have seen some progress — namely a handful of ventilator manufacturers who released previously restricted service information for their devices last April — there’s much more work to be done. And to compound the problem, many manufacturers that have maintained repair restrictions on their equipment are now no longer sending representatives to hospitals for repairs due to coronavirus travel restrictions.
But repair of medical equipment can be a matter of life or death for a patient in need -- and that’s why it’s so crucial that hospital technicians are allowed to put their skills and training to use maintaining the devices that help them save lives.
Tell your U.S. representative: Support legislation giving hospitals the right to repair their own equipment in the next coronavirus relief package.