The impact of planning and communication on unplanned costs in surgical episodes of care: Implications for reducing waste in hospital operating rooms

Excellent study published this month in the Journal of Operations Management by authors at Rutgers and Michigan State. This group methodically examined the sources of Operating Room waste associated with unplanned costs and communication gaps related to the physician preference card system. Read the full abstract here.

As described in this article, the authors estimated that unplanned costs amounted to $1,800 per surgery - equating to a potential cost avoidance of $28 million per year, at that hospital alone.

The opportunity for improving supply chain processes in surgical services is clear- this level of cost savings and increased quality of care is readily achievable. Accurate intraoperative data serves as the cornerstone for realizing these significant opportunities. An analytics-driven approach based on those data, such as that offered by OpFlow, helps standardize the planning process and reduce variability while enabling the surgeon to continuously improve his or her preference cards.

OpFlow is focused on improving efficiency and reducing costs related to surgery. Our innovative approach begins with optimizing surgical instrumentation and proceeds from there to address waste associated with disposable supplies and materials. Implementation of the comprehensive OpFlow platform ensures sustainment of those value gains and ongoing enhancement in the delivery of surgical care.