When deciding where to allocate capital equipment dollars, Ms.
Hrnicek sends a mass email to the hospital's 17 surgeons asking for
their "dream list" of needs. She then meets with each one to prioritize
their requests based on the condition of the equipment they're cur-
rently using, how many cases they perform with the requested item
and the true clinical need. That information is included in the written
justifications for purchase she writes and sends to the hospital's exec-
utives, who engage her in a budgetary give and take.
Ms. Hrnicek has a few savvy tricks up her sleeve — "bargaining
chips," she calls them — to get the fundings she needs for essential
upgrades. When her orthopods needed a knee navigation system,
she added a hip navigation platform to the request knowing full
well she'd pull it out during a "give" that let her "take" the knee sys-
tem she really want-
ed.
Ms. Williams typical-
ly allocates $750,000 to
$1 million in her annu-
al capital equipment
budget, but often finds
it difficult to pay for all
of the requests her sur-
geons make. She's
therefore forced to dif-
ferentiate between lux-
uries and necessities
as she makes buys
based, at least in part,
on a surgeon's expect-
ed volume of revenue-
4 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 A n U A R Y 2 0 1 8
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