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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about $500 per eye for drops, though Medicare covers part of this," she says. "Patients don't pay for the dropless. Instead the facility cov- ers the cost." This can mean, though, that you'll have to weigh the costs vs. the advantages. "I love the product, and it is only $20 a patient, but that would cost us around $70,000 a year in overhead," adds Ms. Carpenter. Because of that, her center currently only offers dropless surgery to those with trouble applying drops after surgery, like nurs- ing home patients, rheumatoid arthritis patients and others likely to forget their discharge instructions. For facilities that want to simplify their patients' drop regimen with- out making the commitment of going fully dropless, there are "less drop" compounded medications that include the steroid, anti-inflam- matory and antibiotic a patient must use post-operatively in a single solution. This reduces the number of drops patients have to remem- ber to use, says Mary Radke, RN, manager of the Dakota Eye Surgery Center. "It's less expensive for the patient," she says. "It's only about $60 a bottle, compared with several hundred for standard drops. And it makes a big difference in their compliance. After all, you only have 1 drop to remember." Laser cataracts Not only is offering laser cataract surgery a way to attract patients who want cutting-edge technology, but it also can come with tangible benefits to patient care. "The surgeons believed it was a prom- ising new technology that offered more precision, surgical efficiency and improved, predictable outcomes," says Annamarie York, MBA, executive director of the Hoffman Estates (Ill.) Surgery Center. And now that her docs have used the laser for more than 3 years, they say they've seen its advantages firsthand, including less post- 2 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 6 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 9 9