Our biomedical service company went out of business. What should we do first?

Recover your records before anything else — equipment inventory, service and PM history, calibration certificates, and electrical safety test results — because they become much harder to obtain as time passes. Then triage by risk, starting with life-support and critical-care devices and anything already overdue, and engage a replacement provider to complete a documented baseline inspection. Zoetek Medical can typically begin onboarding within days; call (800) 388-6223.

What if we can't recover any service records from the closed provider?

Document that the records are unrecoverable and the date you established that, then rebuild from a documented baseline: a full asset walkthrough, an inspection and electrical safety test on every device, and a fresh PM calendar based on manufacturer guidance and AAMI recommendations. Surveyors respond far better to a clean, dated restart you can explain than to an unexplained gap.

Will a gap in equipment service affect our accreditation or survey results?

Changing providers does not itself affect accreditation, but overdue preventative maintenance and missing documentation during the gap can become survey findings under CMS F908 and NFPA 99 / K0921. Closing the gap quickly with a documented baseline inspection and a rebuilt PM schedule is the practical protection.

How quickly can a new provider take over our PM schedule?

With whatever records you have in hand, a provider like Zoetek Medical can complete an asset walkthrough and prioritized baseline inspections within the first 30–60 days and have a full PM calendar in place shortly after, with overdue devices addressed first so compliance gaps close quickly.

When Your Medical Equipment Service Company Closes: A Continuity Checklist

A retiring technician gives you months of warning. A service company that shuts down usually does not. One day the phone number works and the PM visits are scheduled; a few weeks later the contract is void, the work orders are inaccessible, and nobody can tell you which devices were due last month. If that has just happened to your facility, the good news is that the recovery path is well-worn. The bad news is that the clock started when the doors closed — surveyors expect a continuous maintenance history, and a gap is a finding regardless of whose fault it was.

First: Understand What You Actually Lost

When a service provider closes, three separate things can disappear, and they matter in different ways:

- Coverage. Nobody is scheduled to perform your next PM, and nobody is on call when a device fails at 2 a.m.
- Records. Work orders, PM completion records, calibration certificates, and electrical safety test results may have lived in the provider's system, not yours.
- Institutional knowledge. Which devices are quirky, which are near end of life, which have open parts issues, and what the real inventory is — often carried in one technician's head.

Coverage is the easiest to replace and the least urgent. Records are the most urgent, because they get harder to recover with every week that passes.

Step 1: Recover Your Records Immediately

If there is any remaining contact — an owner, an office manager, a technician who is now working elsewhere — ask for copies of everything held on your behalf, in whatever format they can produce:

- Equipment inventory — asset list with manufacturer, model, serial number, and location
- Service and repair history — work orders, parts replaced, and failure history per device
- PM schedules and completion records — what's due, when, and proof of past completion
- Calibration certificates — especially for devices requiring traceable calibration
- Electrical safety test results — required documentation under NFPA 99

A closing business will often hand these over freely in the first weeks and be unreachable in three months. In Pennsylvania, note that a DEP-registered X-ray service provider is required to retain service records for five years under 25 Pa. Code § 216.2b — that obligation is a reasonable basis for asking, even after a shutdown.

If nothing is recoverable, say so plainly in your own records and move to a documented baseline. A clean, dated restart that you can explain is far better than a silent gap.

Step 2: Triage by Risk, Not by Alphabet

You do not have to re-inspect everything in week one. Prioritize:

Life-support and critical-care devices — ventilators, defibrillators, infusion pumps, anesthesia machines
Anything already overdue for PM or calibration under your last known schedule
Devices with a known fault history or open repair tickets
Regulated equipment with external registration obligations — X-ray and other radiation-producing machines, CLIA lab analyzers, AEDs
Everything else, on the rebuilt PM calendar

This sequencing is also what a surveyor wants to see: evidence that you assessed risk deliberately rather than working through the list as it happened to be sorted.

Step 3: Choose the Replacement Carefully

A forced transition is an opportunity to fix what the old arrangement could not do. As you evaluate providers, ask about:

- Certifications — ISO 9001:2015? Factory-trained on your equipment brands?
- Coverage and response time — 24/7 emergency response, and a realistic on-site window for *your* address, not just the nearest metro
- Documentation — survey-ready PM records, inspection tags, and electrical safety documentation delivered by default
- Breadth — can one provider cover diagnostic, surgical, laboratory, and patient-handling equipment, or will you be managing several vendors again?
- Loaners — if a critical device goes to the shop, does patient care continue?
- Continuity risk — how long has the company operated, and what happens to your records if you leave?

Step 4: Rebuild the Baseline

Expect the first 60–90 days with a new provider to include an asset walkthrough that verifies and corrects the inventory, a documented baseline inspection and electrical safety test on every device, a PM schedule rebuilt from manufacturer guidance and AAMI recommendations, and a documentation handoff so the history you *did* recover merges into the new system.

By the end of it you should have a complete current inventory, no overdue items, and a maintenance record a surveyor can follow without a verbal explanation of what happened last spring.

Serving Facilities Across Western Pennsylvania

Zoetek Medical has been servicing medical equipment since 1983 and handles provider transitions regularly. We're expanding coverage across Western Pennsylvania — Pittsburgh, Erie, Butler, Beaver Falls, New Castle, Hermitage, Washington, and Greensburg.

If your facility is between providers, we can typically begin onboarding within days: an asset walkthrough, prioritized baseline inspections with ISO 9001:2015 certified documentation, and a rebuilt PM calendar. See our Pennsylvania inspection requirements guide, read more about equipment service across Western Pennsylvania, call (800) 388-6223, or request a quote.