Bridging the Gap to Meaningful Change in the OR with Data

As surgeons, we recognized that the preference card system in most hospitals is ineffective- it’s a reality that has been experienced by anyone who works in the operating room. Even though we encountered the issue on a daily basis, across many different types of facilities and hospital locations, we didn’t fully appreciate the magnitude of the problem until we began digging into the numbers.

For example, one report found that over $5 billion is wasted in the US each year due to inaccurate preference cards. In addition, 23% of OR door openings were due to the need to leave the room to find missing supplies as a result of errors on outdated preference cards. That’s not only a poor use of resources, but also directly correlates with increased risk of infectious exposure and lengthens the case duration, potentially having a significant impact on patient outcomes.

Other metrics have shown that over the past five years, the number of instruments and trays per case has increased by 28.8%, while surgical case volume has only increased by 3.0%. That trend has led to increased expense related to backlogs and bottlenecks in sterile processing and avoidable capital expenditure on instrument re-purchase. In an era of declining reimbursement and a transition toward value-based care, something must be done to change that unsustainable course.

So as we set out to create a solution, we knew that it must be a process that is based on actual data and that does not impose a burden on the OR team or surgeons. The OpFlow platform is designed to capture all of the data pertinent to the preference card in a holistic manner that spans the supply chain. These are data that are not accurately or reliably captured by EHRs, item masters, or instrument and inventory management systems currently.

As an external team, OpFlow relieves the hospital from having to allocate valuable personnel resources toward performance improvement and cost savings initiatives. Our representatives collect that actionable data in the OR, and leverage our collective clinical experience and lean methodology expertise to generate analytics to guide the process and see the project through to a successful endpoint. OpFlow can therefore absorb any burden from a workflow perspective, while also managing and balancing the dynamics of the culture change.

The intraoperative data that we collect on actual instrument and disposable supply usage directly ties back in to optimizing the preference card. Other efforts to update the preference card system based on recollection and in the void of data collected in the OR have and will continue to fall short of their intended goals. OpFlow is able to integrate that data, run analytics, and maintain the optimized version of the preference card powered by the sustainability design of our platform. Moreover, that optimization is possible without the need for patient-related data.

“Data serve as the foundation for leading innovative change in surgical services and the healthcare industry.”

By leveraging technology, OpFlow is applying empirical data on actual case-based instrument and disposable supply usage to impart meaningful change to the outdated preference card management systems. Those improvements yield substantial cost savings for the hospital and provide efficiency gains that enable an increase in surgical case volume and make possible the opportunity to improve patient outcomes.

UncategorizedJanuary 2, 2020