SOMERSET, PA – May 8, 2015 – A recent market research study, conducted by DeVilbiss Healthcare, reveals what product attributes are important to home care providers when considering 5 Liter Concentrators:
Failure rate (36.09 percent), price (25.53 percent), warranty (19.43 percent), energy savings (11.05 percent) and maintenance tools (7.9 percent).
“We wanted to better understand the needs of customers and set out to identify which product attributes are most important to our customers,” said Wally Haddick, vice president of sales (Canada and Latin America) for DeVilbiss Healthcare. “It is clear from our research that more and more providers see the value of a product that is built to last beyond just the acquisition price. When a manufacturer can minimize post-purchase costs, it allows the provider to focus more efficiently on what they do best – deliver oxygen therapy service.”
Declining reimbursements and increasing product costs have changed the landscape of oxygen business over recent years, and many providers have had to make difficult decisions on how to more efficiently and effectively utilize their expense and service resources.
“Increased failure rates were driving up our operational costs,” said the national procurement manager for RHS Canada, “and with lower reimbursement, we really have to work closely with manufacturers to attain effective, safe and reliable equipment at a price point that works for all individuals in the industry. Reliable equipment in the field is crucial to the success of our business and to providing quality patient care.”
To elicit preference for 5 Liter Concentrators, DeVilbiss Healthcare polled 29 home care providers in Canada and Latin America using a conjoint analysis questionnaire with the support of Dr. Oded Netzer, associate professor of business at Columbia Business School in New York City.
Many respondents found failure rates and the added burden of replacing failed devices to be of greater importance than price. In fact, for some respondents failure rate was the most important attribute for oxygen concentrators reviewed. In the study, it was found that the reliability of an oxygen concentrator in most cases outweighed the length of the warranty by a wide margin.
For a complete hard copy of the study results, contact DeVilbiss Customer Service at (81) 443- 4881 or toll-free at (800) 338-1988.
