The Business of Surgery With decreasing Medicare reimbursements and increasing pressure to reduce costs, OR leaders everywhere are looking for creative solutions to balance their budgets. At Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (TJUH) in Philadelphia, standardizing surgical mesh looked like a way to save a bundle, and indeed a $1.5 million savings over a 3-year…
We spoke recently with surgery department leaders at an academic medical center in the Midwest. One of their biggest concerns was a challenge faced by many ORs today: “Flip rooms are just killing us.” Most surgeons prefer the efficiency and revenue potential of a flip room schedule. But for hospitals,…
Bristol Hospital had a supply problem. Instruments were often missing from case carts, so nurses had to scramble to find the items on the morning of a scheduled procedure. Staff wondered whether the problem was caused by shortages, but a Lean process revealed an entirely different scenario and forged a…
Less than 2 years after the New England Baptist Outpatient Care Center was imagined, its doors opened in September 2013. The sparkling new ambulatory surgery center (ASC) in the Boston suburb of Dedham, Massachusetts, isn’t far from the country’s oldest timber-framed house, the Fairbanks House, built in 1637—long before building…
Many OR directors struggle with designing effective nurse compensation systems. The ideal system would achieve department goals while maintaining nurse satisfaction. Unfortunately, a compensation plan that links these 2 objectives is often elusive. In 2012, OR leadership at a small Pennsylvania hospital developed a compensation system that effectively aligns nursing…
The primary function of an ambulatory surgery center (ASC) is simple and easily described: to perform surgery for which patients can be discharged within 24 hours, to do this efficiently, safely, and cost effectively, and to collect adequate, timely payment. The path to achieving these results is not so simple.…
More than $150 billion is spent annually on medical devices in the United States, with orthopedic and cardiac procedures accounting for almost all of Medicare’s device-related expenditures. Most of the recent increases in such expenditures have been related to the wider use of orthopedic devices, which is expected to grow…
Among the challenges facing OR leaders everywhere are declining payment in tandem with rising costs, increased quality and patient satisfaction requirements, and the ongoing struggle to manage relations with surgeons. When it comes to tackling these issues, many OR directors do not realize they have a powerful natural ally—the anesthesiology…
Maintaining a strong relationship with the hospital CEO has always been important for an OR leader. In the coming year, good relations with the executive suite will be critical. Hospital executives are under greater pressure now than at any time in the last 30 years. Changes in the healthcare market…
The upcoming OR Business Management Conference provides a timely opportunity for OR business managers and surgical services directors to learn what they can do to optimize their hospitals’ resources—especially in the current climate of ever-tighter budgets and reimbursement concerns. The conference, which will be held February 11-13, 2014, at the…
