Donald Johnson

Hospitals' CapEx Cautions May Be Limiting Intuitive Surgical Growth, For Now

Here are some questions that ISRG needs to answer:

1. How many of your da Vinci machines are in hospitals owned by the publicly-owned hospital chains?

2. Does ISRG have multi-machine contracts with any of the investor-owned or tax-exempt multi hospital systems or the group purchasing organizations such as Premier, VHA, etc.? Any pending?

3. Will ISRG publish a list of American hospitals that have the machine?
Has anyone published such a list and kept it up to date?

4. Will ISRG publish an economic analysis of how having the da Vinci will help hospitals and physicians make money and insurers, patients and employers save money by having surgery done with the da Vinci?

5. Is there a study with recent data that shows of the economics of da Vinci minimally invasive surgery versus laparascopic minimally invasive surgery for the same procedures in the same institutions?

6. What are independent consultants and advisory firms such as the Healthcare Advisory Board recommending about the da Vinci?

7. Since some insurers are going to outcomes-based payment schemes, are any using outcomes such as length of stay, patient recovery times, infections and blood loss in ways that would make minimally invasive surgery more financially attractive to surgeons, hospitals and patients?