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SEE FBI INFORMATION AT END A medical lawyer's caution to physicians A medical license is a valuable asset won through years of dedicated effort inspired by and undertaken with a desire to help trusting patients. "First, Do No Harm"is now threatened by the explosion of web sites offering used equipment with false or inadequate warranty promises that are unacceptable to hospitals. Your local hospital sets the legal "Standard of Care" to which you must conform. You deviate at your substantial legal risk. Your hospital does not purchase used ultrasound systems or systems without the manufacturer's service and warranty. Doctors who insist upon buying used equipment on the cheap or overpriced without the doctor realizing it (may have cost the seller as little as $500 when coming off of a lease) that can not have a true national manufacturer's warranty risk their practice. Office ultrasound is affordable and profitable when performed on proper equipment shipped by a manufacturer. Otherwise, doctors should send their patients to their hospital radiology department rather than putting patient's health and their own medical license in jeopardy. Ultrasound is visual. It is impossible to know what used equipment will not display. (Feel free to ask your own lawyer.) In a doctor's own words, “In May'06 I purchased a Voluson 730 from National ______. Price was to include 2 days for installation and training. 11/07, my machine quit working with an error message of"floppy disk failure (40)". I called National _________ who said they would put a call in to a service tech. I also called their installer who told me to simply remove the back of the unit, locate the backup software and re-install through the CD unit. Unfortunately, backup software had not been shipped with the machine. When a tech called, my advice was to use a vacuum cleaner hose to suck out any dust from the external drives. He said if that doesn't work I will need to schedule a service call. My machine has been down 9 days now with many client cancellations. A local service company has replaced the hard drive (not the problem), sauntered a blown resistor cap (not the problem) and ordered a replacement board (still waiting for part). National ____________ will neither answer or return my calls. The installation tech who promised a copy of backup software also will not answer or return my calls. At this point, I have a useless expensive piece of equipment, service techs who are trying a hit or miss approach and 37 very disappointed families who were hoping for a look at their child."( This email came to us from a customer who bought from a web seller named National. (If you want, ask us how to contact this customer who desperately contacted us to fix their system because it stopped working). Read below to see how used equipment internet sites “I need to purchase a GE Voluson 730 Expert with only a 3.5 Convex 2D probe( AB2-7 ). It must be an Expert system. This order is going down the week after Thanksgiving. If you have this system, please contact me with Price and Availability! ! !“ A doctor called us from Los Angeles with his sad tale: He wire-transferred $28,000 to an Internet Seller for a Sonosite Titan that was supposed to be a certain Rev. Number with features he ordered. A system arrived, but the improper Rev. Number and without paid for features. He asked his Internet seller to correct. They said they could but not at this time. He asked for his money back. They refused. We are now trying to solve his problem. “Dealers, We are currently looking to purchase the following probe: Acuson 4C1 ( Aspen )–Please quote outright and exchange as well as warranty.(DOCTOR ORDER IN HAND. NEED TO SHIP ASAP)” The following is a particularly interesting one - apparently, this Internet Storefront, to satisfy a doctor's order, bought the wrong part number from another Internet Storefront and shipped to the doctor; then, it didn't work in the system they delivered so now they have to try to buy the right one!:”I am still looking for the image detector board. I purchased one, but it ended up being the incorrect part number. Please let me know if you have this available as I will purchase it today. HP 5500 Image Detector Board XL p/n 77110-62420” “Dealers,We are currently looking to quote out the following system.Acuson Cypress–please quote two separate configurations:Adult Cardiac,Pediatric Cardiac,TEE,Acuson Cypress,Adult Cardiac,Pediatric Cardiac,TEE,Vascular” “Dealers:We are currently looking for pricing on the following system: GE Logiq 700 Expert,618E,348C,L39,546LPrinter. Please state availability and warranty.” “Dealers, We are currently looking for the following transducer :Acuson Sequoia 10V5 (please quote exchange and outright pricing as well as warranty)Thank you,” Dealers - I am looking to purchase the following systems and need price availability: Siemens Cypress or CV70 with ICE Catheter (intracoronary) capability. 2. Medison SA 8000 EK Color OB/Radiology System Include: C2-5 ETN Convex Probe; HL5-9 EDN Linear Probe; EC4-9 EVN Endocavity Probe. …and on and on every day! To avoid suffering a loss We don't even own a screwdriver. we don't tinker with any system and don't buy your equipment from dealers or on E-bay. We buy at a discount from national manufacturers. When you buy from us your system is directly shipped to you by the national manufacturer who warranties their system to you. That's the best insurance you can get.This is how our 107 year old electronics company founded in 1902 has earned its reputation. (Click the Better Business Bureau Reliability Seal to see the BBB confirmation). OUR BANK:SunTrust Bank; Chris Holland, Officer: (770) 333-7699 OUR LEASING BANK:Highland Capital Bank; Peggy Nielsen, Officer: (877) 327-4422 SOME REFERENCES:U.S. Government; MD Anderson Cancer Center; Johns Hopkins OBGYN Dept.; Mt. Sinai School of Medicine Johnson&Johnson; Emory; Tenet; HCA; University of Miami School of Medicine; U.S. Military approved vendor; other Hospitals and nationwide private office physicians. The following endorsement from a surgical oncologist in NY (to whom we sold nothing but who has taught ultrasound courses with us) given to a doctor who asked us for a reference, is one of which we are particularly proud. We pledge to deliver to you the same impression: Dear Dr. Borg, I don’t have personal experience with the machines that he sells but I trust that he will back anything that he sells with honesty. I myself have been using the same machine for the past 10 years without problem. Every machine on the market today is far better than what I’m using. It’s been my experience that the new 100K machines the radiologists get are too sensitive–every cyst now has debris in it and becomes complex. So I wouldn’t worry too much about the machine except getting the features that you need for your specific practice. Best of luck and I’m sure you won’t go wrong with Larry. I don’t see your colleagues often (although I know them) as I am doing most of my surgery now at The Cleveland FBI office is investigating fraud in the used medical equipment field. If your facility (hospital, clinic, doctor's office, etc.) has contracted to purchase used medical equipment which has not been delivered or has been delivered in an inoperable condition, resulting in the loss of a deposit in excess of $10,000, you may provide information confidentially to: Special Agent B. Chiarito Or direct mail to: Special Agent B. Chiarito
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