Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.
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9 6 O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | J U N E 2 0 1 4 erences. But if you're not controlling your spinal implant costing, you're going to get destroyed." An alternative approach is to negotiate case costs. That's the approach taken by Karen Reiter, RN, CNOR, RNFA, chief operating officer of the Diagnostic and Interventional Surgical Center in Marina del Rey, Calif. "We communicate to surgeons that they can use what- ever they want, which makes us very attractive to them, but that we're only going to pay so much," she says. Surgeons are happier and vendors end up working to bring their prices down, says Ms. Reiter. "If I have a vendor who doesn't meet what I want to pay, I involve the surgeon in the discussion. Plus, sur- geons love the competition with other surgeons. They all think they're better than the others at containing costs." Minimizing costs and maximizing efficiency is the challenge, agrees Mike Campbell, RN, MBA, executive administrator of perioperative services at Keck, and it's a challenge that's likely to get tougher in the coming years. "As we move toward the implementation of healthcare reform, everything will be based off of high volume and low margin," he says, "so efficiency as it relates to cases, to turnover of cases, to expenditures related to supplies, implants — all of those things come into play." Medication rising Get one cost under control, and another may become a challenge. Recently, medication prices have become an especially volatile vari- able, says Ms. Reiter. Items that used to cost $2 or $3 have had to be back-ordered because they're in such short supply, and when they've become available, the price may have risen to $30 or more. For exam- ple, there used to be 5 manufacturers for glycopyrrolate — a reversal agent for neuromuscular blockers that's important in spine cases — S P I N E S U R G E R Y gehealthcare.com $GYDQFLQJ6XUJLFDO&RQ¿GHQFe…Together Your OEC C-arm and the GE Healthcare team has the unique DELOLW\WRKHOSEXLOGWKDWVXUJLFDOFRQ¿GHQFHVRFULWLFDOWRERWK you and your patients. Knowledge: 2(&FHUWL¿HGH[SHUWVWHDFKHYHU\WKLQJIURP UDGLDWLRQVDIHW\WRRSWLPDOWHFKQLTXHIRUDVLQJOHSURFHGXUH It's every OEC Clinical Imaging Specialist's job to build the NQRZOHGJHDQGH[SHUWLVHRI2(&FXVWRPHUV Success: 3URYHQWHFKQRORJ\WKDWLVIDPLOLDUDQGHDV\ZLOO contribute to success. Seven of 10 US surgeons choose OEC EHFDXVHWKH\VHHVXFFHVVIXORXWFRPHVGD\DIWHUGD\WKDQNV LQSDUWWRWKHVWDȺ·VSUR¿FLHQF\ZLWK2(&&DUPV Trust: Patients trust you to use reliable equipment that can help produce the best outcomes while minimizing their disruption. The most reliable C-arm brandEDVHGRQ0'%X\OLQHGDWD is one you can trust – OEC. *HQHUDO(OHFWULF&RPSDQ\ *(*(0RQRJUDPDQG2(&DUHWUDGHPDUNVRI*HQHUDO(OHFWULF&RPSDQ\ www.gehealthcare.com/surgery OSE_1406_part2_Layout 1 6/13/14 11:41 AM Page 96