SPEND MANAGEMENT OUTLOOK
Equipment decisions have become enterprise strategy. Health systems that treat them as routine replacement purchases risk falling behind.
Capital investment is no longer just about replacing aging equipment—it’s now a strategic lever that simultaneously expands access, improves throughput, supports outpatient growth, and modernizes care delivery.
The overall inflation for capital and imaging equipment is projected to reach 3.21% in 2027, but inflation is only part of the story. The bigger issue is whether every capital investment advances the organization's strategic priorities—from expanding imaging capacity and outpatient services to improving workforce productivity, strengthening rural access, and supporting long-term financial sustainability.
That means capital planning can no longer be managed as a series of independent replacement decisions. It instead requires an enterprise-wide strategy that aligns finance, operations, clinical leadership, IT, and supply chain around shared organizational priorities.
| Category | Estimated inflation |
|---|---|
| All capital equipment | 3.21% |
| Imaging equipment | 2.96% |
| Medical capital equipment | 3.43% |
Capital planning is due for a fundamental shift. Organizations that continue to make fragmented capital investment decisions may miss opportunities to improve access, capacity and long-term financial performance.
For more detailed projections, access the data tables and methodology.
Several market forces are expected to shape capital demand, utilization patterns, and sourcing strategies in 2027:
| Market force | Capital equipment impact |
|---|---|
| Outpatient growth | Greater need for imaging, ASC infrastructure, and procedural equipment |
| Access and capacity | Investment in throughput, patient monitoring, and decentralized care models |
| Workforce constraints | Technology that supports efficiency, automation, and clinical workflow |
| Rural modernization | Compact imaging, mobile diagnostics, telehealth, and local diagnostic capability |
| Digital transformation | Clinical informatics, AI-enabled workflows, and interoperability |
1. Capital strategy is broadening beyond equipment life-cycle planning.
Despite financial pressures, capital equipment spend continues to support imaging and procedural infrastructure, but procurement decisions are increasingly shaped by changes in care delivery including service line growth, care migration to ASCs, and operational capacity. Health systems are prioritizing equipment investments that support outpatient access, throughput, decentralized care delivery, and enterprise-wide efficiency rather than evaluating purchases only within individual departments or modalities.
2. Imaging and ambulatory expansion remain major capital investment drivers.
Advanced diagnostic imaging, endoscopy, patient monitoring, and ASC-related procedural equipment remain central to capital planning as outpatient imaging and surgical volumes continue to grow. According to the Vizient 2025 Impact of Change Forecast, outpatient imaging volumes are expected to grow approximately 10% over the next decade, with demand for CT, MRI, molecular imaging, PET/CT, AI-enabled imaging software, and ambulatory procedural technologies reflecting the need to support precision diagnostics, procedural growth, and lower-cost care settings.
3. Aging infrastructure, workforce shortages, and rural access challenges are reshaping how organizations prioritize capital.
Rural health modernization, aging infrastructure, patient throughput pressures, and imaging workforce shortages are influencing capital priorities. The organizations making the most progress in expanding access and improving efficiency are investing in compact imaging, telehealth infrastructure, patient monitoring, mobile imaging, clinical informatics, and AI-enabled workflows—but planning must be coordinated among finance, operations, clinical leaders, IT, and supply chain.
| Priority | Executive action |
|---|---|
| Unify capital decision-making | Align finance, operations, clinical leadership, IT, and supply chain around enterprise priorities |
| Invest for growth | Focus on advanced imaging, ASC infrastructure, patient monitoring, and clinical informatics |
| Expand access strategically | Deploy compact imaging, mobile diagnostics, telehealth, and monitoring tools to support rural and decentralized care |
| Improve purchasing leverage | Aggregate purchasing commitments and standardize where appropriate to drive savings and accelerate procurement timelines |
Explore our outlooks on pharmacy, PPI, indirect spend and purchased services, laboratory, MedSurg, and policy.
With projected inflation and accelerating demand tied to imaging, ASC expansion, and rural modernization, capital planning can no longer be treated as a routine replacement exercise. Equipment decisions now determine where care is delivered, how capacity is built, and which services can grow. Organizations that align capital investments with enterprise strategy—and coordinate decisions across finance, clinical leadership, IT, operations, and supply chain—will be better positioned to improve access, strengthen performance, and compete in an increasingly outpatient-focused market.
Gurmeet Bawa, Joni Swartz, Tammi Pegues, Danny Cisneros, and Jason Ellis contributed to this article.
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Senior Director, Capital Equipment Solutions
Adam Fairbourn is a senior director of contract services on the Capital Equipment Solutions team at Vizient. In this role, Adam leads a team of category experts focused on maximizing spend performance in medical equipment and diagnostic imaging categories. In addition to managing a robust portfolio of national GPO agreements, Adam’s team facilitates the Vizient Member Diagnostic Imaging...
Vice President and General Manager, Capital Equipment Solutions
Rebecca Gayden leads Capital Equipment Solutions at Vizient. As vice president and general manager, she oversees the capital equipment and diagnostic imaging national portfolios, the national Group Buys program, the Capital Commit program, and Capital Analytics services.
