The Business Case for Pure Air

Ask your IVF business leadership if they’d be interested in getting pure air–installed in 1 week–with big business benefits.

The science is conclusive.  The medical benefits are beyond doubt.

But when we share the clinical results of our solutions and the impact that they are having on IVF labs around the world, we’re all too often met with the same response: “It’s amazing, a must-have for us.  But it’s an academic discussion unless we can understand the financial impact, the business benefits.”

For most, the path to pure air involves a business purchase and some minor construction—and this does not happen without a business/financial understanding of the implications of installing a system as world class as LifeAire.

Everything from mold to building construction, traffic exhaust to restaurant odors can adversely affect a lab’s outcomes.  The medical staff usually knows this and understands it well.  But they also know that achieving better air quality means change.  Big change.  Construction-level change, disruption, and probably high cost.  A non-starter—or so many of you would think.

So, let’s talk about that—the business side—at least at a very high level.  The actual numbers involved vary from project to project because of a number of building element variables involving air quality and lab processes.  But when taken in the context of how positively it affects the performance and growth of a lab, the cost and ROI quickly fall into balance.

The Goal – Improve Air Quality

There are several reasons why IVF laboratories are turning to LifeAire to improve air quality.  The medical benefits lead the way of course, with the impact to implantation and pregnancy rates, loss rates, blastocyst rates being so impressive.  But there are business decisions too, sometimes involving new construction, but very often focused on improving air quality in an existing facility.  In fact, a retrofit installation can turn an aging facility into a world-class facility in terms of achieving and maintaining the highest level, most pure air possible for their patients.

The Approach – Plan, to Reduce Risk and Reduce Cost.

Any improvement project starts with planning—design, blueprints, goals, surrounding facilities, connection, air changes per hour, electrical and more.  Planning is essential.  Thorough planning, that addresses engineering concerns and contingencies, translates to greater project success, efficiency, and cost reduction.  Proper planning reduces risk and thereby cost.  LifeAire has an established partnership with a healthcare engineering firm that helps transform desire into design, with detailed project blueprints and installation oversight to minimize cost and down-time.  Working closely with your mechanical engineer and HVAC contractor ensures that the plan meets the needs and costs of LifeAire, lab and building alike.

The Project – Minimize Installation & Down-Time

For any existing facility, this type of retrofit means disruption.  Work that takes place above the ceiling tiles, or in building facilities locations.  Disruption means laboratory down-time and that impacts everyone—financially and clinically.  The most important factor is to reduce the down-time for the benefit of patients and their future families.  Along with this goal is the desire to minimize the financial impact to operations, staff, supplies, facility day-to-day and the like.  When a short down-time is the goal, thorough planning, corporation, collaboration and transparency makes this possible.  LifeAire is designed for minimal disruption, with both indoor and outdoor models.  One recent example project was installed within a single week.

A 1-Week Installation Success Story

The Fertility Center in Grand Rapids, MI, has, since 1991, utilized the latest advances in reproductive treatment to achieve success rates that have been consistently higher than the national average. When Dr. James Young heard about an innovative healthcare technology that would provide far greater protection of the human embryo within the in vitro culture environment, he contacted LifeAire Systems to learn more. Since the installation of the LifeAire system, Dr. Young’s IVF program has achieved the highest success rates in its 24-year history.

From plan design to implementation, integration of the LifeAire system at The Fertility Center showcases how efficient the retrofit process can be. In fact, it took only one week to install the entire system, minimizing critical down-time for the center’s embryologists and laboratory technicians.

In just six months following installation, Dr. Young reported that his IVF program had already experienced improvement in its pregnancy outcomes. “Over the past four months, our rates have been the highest we have seen. We believe the increase is in part, due to the LifeAire system,”Dr. Young.

Click here to read the full case study.

The Impact – to Patients

The primary reason IVF labs reach out to LifeAire is for the health, welfare and potential for their patients.  But, the result of such an improvement also has impact on the business side, with both short-term and long-term benefits.  From an increase in clinical outcomes, recognition to an increase in patient volume, and more, LifeAire delivers value to all aspects of the clinic, hospital or facility.

Help More Patients
“My lead embryologist has performed IVF the same way for many years and believes that the only major change in her protocol has been the addition of the LifeAire System. The System has played a significant role in our outstanding clinical outcomes and is a major reason why we have doubled the number of patients we have treated year over year.” Mark Amols, MD, New Directions Fertility Centers, Gilbert, AZ

Achieve Greater Medical Success
“Other than the addition of the LifeAire System to our process, we are doing nothing differently. Our single embryo transfer rates have increased from 45% to 65% across all maternal ages.”, Dr. Abdul Munaf Sultan, MS, PG, PhD, Anova Fertility, Toronto

Strengthen the Overall Operations
“LifeAire represented 10% of my overall investment into our new IVF laboratory. The 10% investment in LifeAire made the remaining 90% of the investment successful.”, George T. Koulianos, M.D., F.A.C.O.G., The Infirmary, Mobile, ALSystems

The Impact – to the Clinic as a Business

The business financial impact comes from several places.

• Clinically
  • increasing the number of blastocysts,
  • improving pregnancy rates,
  • reducing loss rates.
• On the energy side,
  • from building factors like making more efficient use of air,
  • requiring fewer air changes to maintain purity
  • and reducing demand on electricity and maintenance.
• Financially, impacting the business side from factors like
  • increasing the number of patients that can be helped by the lab,
  • driven by promoting greater awareness as a lab that is focused on excellence, quality and their patients’ results

The Business Case – Plug In Your Clinic’s Numbers

Let’s do some quick math.

• Let’s say your IVF lab helps 600 couples per year with a 50% clinical pregnancy rate (CPR).
• LifeAire’s impact—although varied—can be 20% or more.  But let’s be conservative and use 10%.
• So, expand the CPR from 50% to 60%.
• That’s 60 more couples having success;
  • 120 people,
  • 480 grandparents,
  • plus brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends—
  • you can quickly fill an auditorium with the number of people positively affected.

What’s that worth to you, to them, to anyone affected?  It’s priceless when talking about new lives, of course.  But when forced to interpret as a construction project—for the sake of this quick exercise only—

• What if it cost you $1M to solve their issues?  Would your lab move forward?
• In fact, let’s cut it in half to $500k.  How about now?
• Cut it in half again.
• How about one more time.
• Now push it under $100k.  Do you think it becomes a reality for your lab now?

Think of that auditorium of people affected.  Let’s put 3000 people there.  Would they each contribute $33 to have a new member of the family?  Of course they would—faster than it took to read this sentence.  And that’s just one year—your commitment to improved air quality will impact tens of thousands of people for years to come.  That’s the reality of a project with LifeAire.

The Challenge – Do this simple exercise with your lab’s numbers

How do your numbers look?

LifeAire’s offering is an array of solutions designed to meet different budgeting and timeline needs.  It’s attainable, it’s the industry leader.  It becomes a reality by reaching out to us—by email, web, phone.  We’ve helped numerous labs understand the business implications, the financial side, the ROI and the construction/installation details.  If your facility recognizes the value of pure air and has potential for improvement given your lab’s surrounding environment—considering both indoor and outdoor factors—then take the simple step forward to start a conversation with us, and let us help explore potential and translate how our solution could deliver these same positive results at your location.