Montana Health Network in partnership with Northland Healthcare Alliance in North Dakota created the MonDak Imaging Services LLC. Their purpose was to provide mobile imaging services, specifically MRI, to rural facilities who either did not have adequate volume or could not afford to purchase their own equipment. Using this mobile structure, people in these rural communities no longer have to travel for MRI’s. The MonDak Imaging Services LLC started with one machine and in 10 years grew to five MRI’s. To remain flexible and competitive, MonDak also offers long term leased placements and financing services for other equipment, such as CT’s.

Maintaining high quality mobile imaging services requires constant equipment upgrades. MonDak was in a position where it needed to change out a trailer for a mobile unit. Based on expected downtime, it was more affordable to purchase a new MRI and sell the one needing the trailer replacement. Once a quote was received, MonDak contacted Brian Baca at EMTS, a regional partner of NCHN, and asked for a pricing review. EMTS then contacted the vendor directly to further negotiate the price. The vendor was not particularly receptive to this arrangement but MonDak and EMTS together, were able to reduce the price by $15,000. While in discussions with the vendor, EMTS contacted another vendor to see if they would buy MonDak’s machine instead of including it as a trade-in with the original vendor. Brian’s interest and efforts saved MonDak an additional $23,750 because of his contacts in the marketplace. The total savings were $38,750.

This entire transaction with EMTS took approximately one week. Brian researched the market and brought back viable solutions. MonDak could have broken a long term, valued relationship with a vendor and saved another $10,000 but wished to maintain that partnership. There was no pressure from EMTS to change vendors.

MonDak learned two things from this process. First, there is room for negotiation especially when a company like EMTS has such broad marketplace information. Second, to make this work MonDak and EMTS had to be a team and that made all the difference.

In a separate project, Montana Health Network was in the final stages of purchasing a patient simulator for educational purposes. Larry Canterano from EMTS worked on that project and MHN saved the staff training costs which amounted to approximately $3,000. The lesson on this transaction was that even small purchases should be considered as an opportunity to better negotiate and save resources with the help of EMTS.

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