Disposable Supply Waste in the OR: Why has this problem persisted?

Short answer: the preference card system is an outdated process. By not leveraging technology, there is a tremendous amount of wasted disposable materials and valuable personnel time and expense with each surgery.

In general, preference cards contain 20% to 40% more disposable supplies than are actually needed for a given surgery. That translates into an estimated $50 to $150 of wasted, unused supplies per case (up to a reported $968 per neurosurgical case, in one study) of avoidable expense – before adding in preventable labor costs and case delays for over- or under allocation, respectively. That amounts to billions of healthcare dollars each year that could be saved.

So why has this problem persisted? To date, there has not been a service that functions to bring actual intraoperative usage data into the process of improving the preference card system. Current preference cards are based on inaccurate, historical information and are managed via a cumbersome process.

Electronic health records and inventory management systems are not capturing reliable data on what was actually used in a case. Moreover, if there is a deviation from what was expected, there is no reasoning recorded to help support future decision-making and no defined audit process when documenting needed changes.

Acquiring that information is only possible by collecting actual intraoperative data, which requires direct observation in the operating room. Doing so in existing processes is labor-intensive and is therefore not feasible in most hospitals. A carefully designed technology product can alleviate those burdens, however, and yield the type of data that effect meaningful and valuable change.

Another major cost contributor is the lack of visibility for decision-makers into pricing and variation between surgeons for supplies and materials included on preference cards. Manual review of each preference card is again an arduous process, but a product that can identify outliers and opportunities for better-value, equivalent supply substitutions would readily address that issue.

Lastly, when a large initiative is undertaken to update preference cards, there is inevitable regression back to the prior state. Preserving the value of such projects is dependent on built-in sustainability of the platform and process. The current processes in place lack methodology to retain progress achieved.

Relying on an outdated preference card system that is not supported by reliable disposable supply usage data results in avoidable expense in a myriad of ways.

It is time for the operating room to embrace the power of technology to deliver the highest quality and best value care for patients.

UncategorizedFebruary 5, 2020