staff. He offers this example.
Let's say your facility budgets $750,000 for 6 integrated ORs, and you
wind up with a $1 million quote. Maybe you reach out to surgeons
individually and ask, "OK, in which 2 primary ORs do you need video-
conferencing capability?" Then, you outfit those rooms, pare back on
the other 4 and save $6,000 to $7,000 per OR, he says. Another option:
"Sit down with leadership and say, 'Look, outfitting 4 rooms is going
to cost us a minimum of $650,000 with the vendor we want. So should
we do 4 ORs now and do the other 2 in the next revenue cycle?'" says
Mr. Smith.
Making sure the integration project stays on budget and your ven-
dor(s) stick to the agreed-upon timelines is a project in and of itself.
So you may want to appoint somebody to handle all the minutiae that
comes with a typical integration.
"I recommend every facility assigns itself a dedicated project man-
ager and financial lead to report the financial progress of the integra-
tion at every stage, document the progress, hold vendors accountable
and provide any relevant feedback to staff along the way," says Robin
Gallant, BSN, RN, director of surgical services at Lawrence (Mass.)
General Hospital.
True cost
No doubt your budget plays a pivotal role in OR integration. And
rightly so. The average installation of a single OR runs between
$50,000 and $75,000, according to a recent survey of 241 Outpatient
Surgery readers.
When dealing with numbers that high, it's only natural to look to
shave off costs at every opportunity. But you have to be careful here.
Short-term savings pale in comparison to the long-term costs and
physician and staff frustration of choosing a system that doesn't ade-
8 4 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J U L Y 2 0 1 9
