Healthy Prognosis for UPS Systems in Health Care

Staff -- Consulting-Specifying Engineer, 3/1/2005

Manufacturers and integrators of uninterruptible power supply systems can look forward to health-care facilities as a growth market, according to a recent report. UPS manufacturers' 2004 revenues in this market were up more than 21% over 2003 figures, according to "North American UPS Opportunity Analysis: Healthcare Industry" from Frost & Sullivan, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based market-research firm.

The increase of sales—to $148.8 million in 2004—was driven in large part by health care's growing dependence on both information-technology equipment and high-tech medical devices, say the report's authors. Hospitals are gradually updating equipment to increase productivity and remain competitive, they explain.

Regulations developed under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) are seen as a further motivator for health-care providers to both upgrade technology and protect technology investments. HIPPA calls on facilities to provide more secure patient-data storage as well as more effective disaster-recovery solutions. UPS equipment can play a role in both of these efforts.

However, researchers note, health-care providers remain sensitive to price. In addition, the surface similarity of UPS products means that manufacturers can face a challenge establishing brand loyalty and selling any cost-boosting technology differentiators. Such education efforts can involve bringing customer representatives into manufacturing facilities to provide a firsthand look at market-leading technology.