The healthcare industry is facing a crisis due to increasing costs and usage of disposable supplies, which are reaching unsustainable levels.

Surgeons and surgical teams often don’t know how much they spend on supplies for each procedure, while hospitals do not have access to real-time information on which supplies are used for each procedure. This lack of data makes it difficult for hospitals to optimize their supply management.

Surgical Supplies Tracking In Real-Time Impacts Savings
In an effort to reduce waste associated with surgical procedures, AssistIQ in collaboration with the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM), a leading university teaching hospital, developed a process of real-time tracking of surgical supplies. This study was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American College of Surgeons (JACS). The study has successfully demonstrated how hospitals can significantly reduce costs while maintaining consistent quality of care.

Healthcare value has been defined as the health outcomes achieved per dollar spent. Therefore, the evaluation of cost needed to include an evaluation of the effectiveness of care.

Conclusive findings of the study showed that surgeons and their teams when provided with real-time tracking and cost awareness during and after surgery lead to savings in surgical supply costs. In fact, the study found that the intervention was associated with a reduction in costs and no negative consequences with respect to any objective measure of surgical quality, including operative and post-operative complications, operative time, reoperation, readmission, and hospital length of stay.

Hospitals can save money on surgical supplies by providing surgeons with real-time tracking and cost awareness during and after surgery.
The educational value of AssistIQ insights is not limited to surgeons; it can sensitize the entire surgical team on the costs of disposable surgical supplies at the point of care.
“We wanted to use real-time tracking as an opportunity for surgeons and nurses to get feedback on their performance so we could all work together to optimize our use of disposable supply .” Dr. Moishe Liberman, lead author of the study and surgeon at CHUM.

The Financial Implications of AssistIQ
An estimated savings of $753 per VATS-L was observed after the implementation of AssistIQ. With CHUM as an example, these modest per-procedure savings could translate to significant annual savings for the hospital. If savings could be achieved across the spectrum of surgical and minimally invasive interventional procedures performed throughout a healthcare system, it would have quite an impressive impact on overall costs and patient care outcomes.

Moving Towards Smarter Medical Procedures
As a hospital, you can avoid unnecessary costs by tracking supplies used during expensive procedures and providing visibility to clinical, purchasing, finance and supply chain teams.
Are you looking to improve your supply chain intelligence? Reach out to learn more about how AssistIQ can help you generate substantial cost savings and novel data insights for your healthcare organization.