system.
Ms. Nordstrom
doesn't have an
informatics back-
ground, but she
does work close-
ly with our hospi-
tal's IT team. She
has worked in
the OR, however,
and that experi-
ence pays big div-
idends in her
ability to understand and manage the preference cards and the con-
stant updates that need to be made.
Preference card update requests are emailed to Ms. Nordstrom,
who makes the updates and communicates the changes across the
health system as needed. If, for example, our value analysis com-
mittee wants to trial new gloves, the preference cards for proce-
dures involved in the trial have to be changed. If a surgeon wants to
use a different kind of suture, his preference cards throughout the
health system must be updated to reflect the request.
• Tighter inventory control. We use the preference card platform to
run reports that show how many items are returned to storage after
being picked for procedures. Our goal as a health system is to return
less than 20% of picked items. We're returning 15% of supplies in 2 of
our smaller surgical departments and 30% in our larger hospital, so
there's room for improvement. Knowing which items are often
returned has improved the efficiency of the supply-picking process;
staff don't waste time putting unneeded items on case carts.
6 6 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • A P R I L 2 0 1 9
• QUICK REFERENCE Digital preference cards let you standardize your procedure list,
update supply requests on the fly and take advantage of an inventory management system.
Dan
Johnson,
Methodist
Health
System
