Wasteful practices in the OR?

[NPs4health]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has noticed any wasteful practices in the OR? (this can pertain to doctors, surgical techs as well as nurses)

I am writing a mock proposal about cost saving strategies from material management perspective for a surgical unit. Would love to discuss anything that has worked for your unit or any cost draining areas you'd like to point out?

Thanks for your help!!

[canesdukegirl, BSN, RN]

Our hospital just went through a cost-saving exercise this year. What we did was to reduce the amount of supplies in each OR. We found several things like TX staplers for GI surgery, staple reloads, suture and culture swabs all outdated. This equaled waste in the tens of thousands of dollars. So we cut down on our par levels for each OR and instead kept them in one central sterile supply room that was easily accessed. We also made a rolling supply cart that had specialty items like laparoscopic trocars, L-hooks, pneumatic needles, and other laparoscopic supplies so that we would turn these items over first instead of having them sit in an OR cabinet.

Many times the surgeon will change their mind about what suture to use for a particular procedure. We decided that instead of opening every suture on the preference card, that we would wait and ask the surgeon upon entering the room what suture they needed. This cut costs quite a bit.

I applaud you for looking into cost saving measures for the OR. It is quite the struggle, as the staff is expected to adhere to fast turnover times while being cognizant of supplies that are opened IN ADDITION to having to deal with the surgeons throwing a fit if the supplies that are on the pref card are not already opened. We have had several pow-wows with surgeons and staff and have realized that to save money, we must communicate more effectively. We have done that, and we have saved money. It wasn't easy. The key was communication between the surgeons and the staff.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

We looked at our custom packs for different procedures. One of the things we changed is that with most surgeons switching to chloraprep, we no longer need the prep tray that we would have used with betadine scrub/paint. We also removed gowns from some of our minor packs, since they frequently only require the surgeon and one ST. Suture was completely removed from the ORs, and is now picked on a case by case basis. It's amazing how much expired suture we found once when going through the ORs- some had even expired over a year previously! We;ve also been trying to push stock rotation- those who are restocking rooms would just put the newer on top of the old, and while what was right there to grab wasn't expired, some of the stuff hiding on the back of the shelf was.

[kjfreeman]

we too decided to wait til the surgeon asks for a specific suture before we open any. Also, we have pulled certain instruments from trays and peeled packed them so we don't open an entire tray for one particular instrument:)

[TammyCNOR]

We pick our cases in baskets lined up on wire racks. We put all the "have available" supplies in a plastic bag. This includes suture, mesh whatever. Some people are really careful, but there are the ones who would open everything in the basket regardless of the preference card. This has saved us a bit of:twocents:.