Like most small surgery centers, we don't have technicians on staff that can perform preventive maintenance on our equipment or do emergency repairs when something breaks. To keep our more intricate devices up to our state's and our accreditor's requirements, we have to bring in experts to certify that everything is in working order. Sure, it costs thousands of dollars to have a contract with a biomedical vendor, but we were comfortable knowing that even if something as commonly used as a cautery unit broke, we could get a loaned replacement while the original was being repaired.