OR Sales Reps

[Bradley822]

How many of you work in an OR that feels like it’s more run by the sales reps than the staff?? We run up to 200 cases a day with at least more than half of those cases being spinal or ortho cases. Our sterile processing team is hit with almost 200 vendor trays a day and corporate doesn’t care. Because of this, it affects communication with the OR. How would you resolve this? The sales vendor run everything’s

[ETCO2]

I don't know that you can resolve this since in most cases it is surgeon choice on which system they use for their procedure. You cant tell docs that they can only use Stryker or Depuy, or some other system. This may be more possible if the docs are employees of the hospital. But in most cases they are a group of their own that only uses the facility. Plus in my experience the vendor is the only one in the room who knows the details of the system being used. They direct the scrub, FA, and surgeon through all aspects of the procedure using their system. So unless a facility wants to purchase the system outright and find a way to have their scrubs/staff extensively trained in its use, the vendors are a necessity. It seems like it would be a tremendous cost savings to use a single system or vendor, but Capitalism!

[Windyhill, BSN]

We feel the same way. They are not allowed to open, so at least you can stop them from that..

[BosLeyDog1]

WAY too often, the surgeons tell the vendors what their plan is for an out of the ordinary case so they have the trays they need, but they don’t tell us, the OR nurses, what the plan is, like positioning and X-ray, which many times leads to the vendor acting like the BMOR (big man in the OR) . I wrote up a list of rules for the vendors that they will follow in the OR, based on our policies. If they don’t, our manager is notified and they are called on the carpet right then and there. I once had 11 vendors in the OR for a spine case, and I weeded them down to 4. The others were hangers -on and brown nosers who followed the surgeon around and stroked his ego. They and the surgeon had no basis to complain, I was going by our policies. One of my proudest days, I felt very powerful and as if I had really acted as my patient’s advocate

[Windyhill, BSN]

I recently had a fight with a particular rep. This one tried to take over my room, and point out my mistakes. I began memorizing what they brought in for cases, and they hated it. They got themselves in trouble because they sabatoged me on purpose bringing the wrong equipment in the room. They were kicked out for 6 mos and replaced..

[BosLeyDog1]

I’m speechless! The thought that a mere vendor would sabotage a case! I would remind that person that it could be their wife, husband, mother, father, etc on the table! It just reinforces my thought that vendors are concerned about 2 things only- how much $$$ they are making, and their status with the surgeon ( which circles back to #1)