Prices of surgical items...

Specialties Operating Room

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Does anyone know where I can find an online listing of the prices of surgical items? During a typical case, a lot of disposable things get opened that never get used, and the cost of these must add up BIGTIME.

I'm thinking of lap ports, clip appliers, sutures, etc, etc.

I'd like to do an inservice for our techs and RNs to raise their consciousness about this and maybe save the hospital some money.

Thanks.

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Specializes in Peri-op/Sub-Acute ANP.

Your hospital's procurement department is probably going to be able to tell you how much they pay for things better than any web site. Even if there were such a site, and I don't think there is because I have looked before and they generally state "call for price", it wouldn't tell you what volume discount your facility is getting.

If your intention is to save them money by raising awareness, I don't see why they wouldn't cooperate.

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our materials manager does all our ordering and knows the pricing. some facilities like ours get discounts on packs. ie. you may get a pack with bronch pictures and aseptos that you most always throw away. the pack may be discounted to where it would cost more to have the items removed. then there are consignments where large facilities with satellite facilities all use mainly one product and receive a discount. say as an example only, thrombin jmi. as long as the thrombin jmi use is 80% of their product you receive a huge discount. so to switch to a cheaper brand would actually cost more money in the long run.

my point is that you need to talk with whoever orders for your facility because it is not always the cost of the manufacturer as we sometimes think. there are many other factors to consider.

our problem was opening things that were not always used that didn’t come in a pack. one of our nurses got up with the materials manager and got the actual cost of items we opened that were not needed and posted the cost and how many we threw out per month. it was displayed in an area where all staff could see including the docs. it took time to break the docs of always having it opened but they eventually came around. especially seeing how much suture cost was wasted. now in cases like lap cases we open a minimum number of ports and then more as they need them. we also hold off on the maybe things like endoshears or irrigators during diagnostic procedures. it has saved our facility quite a bit.

good luck on your project. sounds like you picked a good one!!!

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Specializes in Med-Surg;Rehab;Gerontology; Now OR.

I have access to our ordering system since I order stuff for my service. I looked up sutures, for silk and vicryl , nylon, chromic ---they range for $25 per box to $98+. The lower range is usually 12/box while most in the $40-$90 range are 36/box. Monocryl, Prolene, Ethibond are mostly in the higher range like $140-$160 per box. Some are even $200!

Ethicon clips are $241-310 per box.

Ports- range from $114-173.

Just talk to your materials manager, I think they can generate a list for you.

Most websites do not have their prices except for distributing companies.

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Does your facility have pre-made OR packs? You may want to discuss with the team leader of that particular service, along with your ordering person.

Some brainiac that I used to work with decided it would be a GOOD idea to eliminate the stuff we used from the packs, leave the stuff we didn't & never updated the stuff that needed to be pulled... All in the sake of "saving money." Guess they forgot to figure in the cost of having the people power to pull all the stuff that was in the pack in the first place. ughghghgh

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