Researching a digital radiography purchase can be difficult. Other than the SHOWDOWN , there are few objective ways to evaluate a digital radiography system and there are no published reports about customer satisfaction or the prices people paid for these systems.
All veterinarians looking to purchase a digital radiography system should contact other veterinarians with a digital system or do a site visit. However, you need to ask the right questions or your research may be misleading.
Rule Number 1 - Don’t ask useless questions: The number on useless question people ask other veterinarians is “are you happy with the system?” In almost all cases, the answer will be yes! Most veterinarians do not have anything to compare to except their old crummy film processor. Any digital system will be better than that. I have seen cases where the install was a disaster, the veterinarian got ripped off, and the image quality was not what they expected but they were still telling other veterinarians that they were happy with the system. Try to ask pointed questions about issues during the install, vendor service and responsiveness, retake rates, image quality, ease of use, issues sending images for teleradiology, etc.
Rule Number 2 - Don’t talk to the person who purchased the system: There seems to be a psychological protection mechanism that veterinarians have where if they spend 100k on a system, they are going to tell you it is the best purchase they ever made even if they are not really happy with the purchase. You will get a much more objective response if you talk with the head technician or part time veterinarian who works at the practice. Interestingly, I know of one example where a practice owner who never used the system was telling people that he recommended the system. This recommendation came at the same time the technical staff was fighting with the vendor to get it to work and all the veterinarians wanted the system sent back to the vendor!
Rule Number 3 - Compare apples to apples: Be sure that you are doing a site visit at a hospital that is comparable to yours. Just because the local referral hospital has a system that works for them does not mean that it will work for you or that you need to spend as much as they did.
Rule Number 4 - Avoid using the vendors list of luminary sites: Ideally, you will search out practices that are not on the list of luminary sites. Basically, you know what they are going to tell you. If you do use a luminary site be sure to ask them if they received a discount, free equipment etc. Nobody volunteers to be included on a luminary list and having people they don’t know pester them with questions without getting something in return. Your local radiologist will likely know of other clinics in your area with digital radiography system that you could contact.
Rule Number 5 – Get your hands dirty and use the system: Don’t just stand there looking at the digital radiography system. Work with the technicians on the site visit and use it yourself. Some systems are very user unfriendly and others are easy to use. You will be asking your staff to use the system. If it is complicated for you – it will be complicated for them.