MRI PM Only Service Agreements
Scheduled preventive maintenance on MRI systems, with the measurements and the survey paperwork, and corrective work billed at a rate agreed in advance. The cheaper of the two options, and the right one for some sites and the wrong one for others. We will tell you which you are. Veteran-owned.
What a PM Only Agreement Includes
A Visit Is Not the Same as a PM
The difference is whether anything is measured and recorded. An agreement that cannot tell you which manufacturer procedure it follows is selling you attendance. If you need corrective work inside the number, that is a full service contract.
A set number of visits a year on a calendar agreed in advance, rather than whenever somebody remembers. The interval comes from the manufacturer's guidance and from how hard the system is worked.
The PM follows the procedure for your system rather than a generic checklist. An agreement that cannot tell you which procedure it follows is selling you a visit, not a PM.
The measurements that show the system is still performing, taken and recorded so you get a trend rather than a snapshot. This is what separates a real PM from a formality.
Interlocks, emergency stops, warning indicators, table motion, grounding, and the physical condition of cabling and panels. The items that fail surveys and hurt people.
A written report per visit in a form that supports ACR and Joint Commission requirements. Most sites buy a PM agreement for the machine and end up needing it for the paperwork.
The agreement names what corrective work costs before you need any, so a breakdown becomes a scheduling problem rather than a negotiation.
What It Does Not Include
Choose This With Your Eyes Open
PM only is the cheaper option and for plenty of sites it is the right one. It stops being the right one when the system is old, worked hard, or the only one you have. Same trade-off on a CT agreement.
Anything broken is quoted and billed separately at the agreement rate. That is the deal, and it is why this option is cheaper. If your system breaks often, run the arithmetic before choosing it.
Parts are quoted per job. Nothing is held in reserve for you, so a large component failure is a capital conversation on the day it happens - including helium and the cold head.
PM only buys scheduled visits, not a response commitment. Priority scheduling can be written in, and it is not the same thing as a contractual response time.
Callouts outside normal hours are billed at the after-hours rate on the agreement. If your department runs evenings and weekends, price that in rather than discovering it during one.
Helium, filters and anything the system consumes sit outside the agreement unless written in. On MRI the cryogen line is worth deciding deliberately rather than by omission. See helium fills.
Application software, clinical packages and version upgrades belong to the manufacturer. No independent agreement changes that, and any that claims to is worth a second read.
How It Works
We look at the system and your volume
Make, model, install year, site, and how hard the system is worked. The visit count comes out of that rather than out of a template.
You get a fixed annual number
The PM visits, the reporting, and the rate card for anything outside the agreement, quoted together so nothing is a surprise later.
Visits run on a calendar
Booked in advance around your schedule rather than fitted in. A PM that keeps getting bumped is a PM that is not happening.
You get the report every time
What was checked, what was measured, what was found and what to watch. Over a year that becomes a trend, and the trend is what prevents the expensive failure.
Frequently Asked Questions
PM only buys the scheduled visits, the measurements and the paperwork. Everything broken is quoted and billed separately at a rate the agreement fixes in advance. A full contract puts the corrective labor and a named parts scope inside one number.
No, not unless it is specifically written in. Cryogen sits outside by default. On a magnet at field that is a decision worth making deliberately rather than by omission. See helium fills.
Set by the manufacturer's guidance for your system and by how hard it is worked, not by a round number. More visits is not automatically better and we will tell you when it is not.
That is what it is written for. You get a report per visit recording what was checked, what was measured and what was found. Most sites buy a PM agreement for the machine and end up needing it for the survey.
No. PM only buys scheduled visits. Priority scheduling can be written in, and it is not the same thing as a contractual response window. If you need a real response commitment, that is a full contract.
It is quoted and billed at the rate already named in the agreement, so it is a scheduling conversation rather than a negotiation. That fixed rate is most of the value of a PM only agreement.
It usually is if your failure history is light and you can absorb an occasional large repair. It usually is not if the system is old, worked hard, or the only scanner you have. Send us the history and we will quote both.
Make, model, field strength, install year, site address and scan volume. If you have the last two years of failures, send that too - it is what tells us whether PM only is actually the cheaper option for you.
Send us the system and we will quote the agreement
Request a helium quote
We reply by the next business day.
Where We Hold Contracts
Service contracts are on-site work, so they run where FDM's engineers are. These are the states. If your system is outside them, call 615-479-5572 and ask before assuming the answer is no.