| As hospitals work diligently to cut costs, one area they continue to look at is the operating room. Operating rooms can consume up to half of a hospital’s supply costs. Hospitals that are unable to contain the costs associated with perioperative services stand to lose millions of dollars. An opportunity for cutting costs that is picking up steam is the automation of the operating room, and one piece of technology that can streamline processes in the OR is automated physician preference card systems. Automated surgeon preference cards make it easier for nurses to provide the correct supplies and equipment for each surgery, thereby limiting the amount of supplies opened unnecessarily. In addition, they can streamline the billing process, limiting mistakes and making the entire process more efficient.
Vendors who offer physician preference card software systems are Omnicell, who offers the OptiFlex SS, Picis, who offers the CareSuite OR Manager, and Integrated Medical Delivery, who offers the Clinical Information System.
OptiFlex SS from Omnicell is a complete physician preference card system and an inventory management system for all the supply management requirements of the surgical services department. The system is fully integrated to manage supplies, whether supplied in open shelving or within storage systems. The system creates a unique bar code for each surgical case based on the surgeon, the procedure, and the patient. A real-time case management function allows the dynamic adjustment of supplies that are issued during the procedure. Additionally, the system tracks all required time segments for reporting, data analysis and charging purposes. The OptiFlex SS features an easy-to-use touch-screen user interface, automatic data-gathering to update preference lists, and cost reports available by case and physician. In addition to fully automating the preference list process, the OptiFlex SS automates the replenishment process, ensuring that supplies are always on hand and performs charging electronically, eliminating the keying of charge transactions. You can import preference card data from another system or you can create them in the preference card module. Digital images can be attached to each case to guide the surgical services staff on tray and room setups, reducing training time.
CareSuite OR Manager from Picis is another automated preference card system. The CareSuite OR Manager tracks supply usage, calculates charges, bills patients, decrements inventory, and analyzes usage data up to the minute. Powerful features enable staff to fine-tune preference card supplies quickly to reduce waste and avoid returns to inventory, which can be costly for hospitals. The system shares data between the OR and Materials Management to reduce inventory and minimize waste by sharing updates to vendors, supplies, pricing, and physician preferences. The CareSuite OR Manager also enables you to track equipment, share resources and check for conflicts across facilities. Also, sites can customize their preference cards and share them across facilities. Thus, if a procedure is moved, the preference card is updated automatically to accommodate the new facility’s inventory locations, supplies, billing codes, procedure times, and so forth.
A third physician preference card system is the Clinical Information System from Integrated Medical Delivery (IMD). The Clinical Information System is a comprehensive system that promotes remote computing and fully integrates a facility’s clinical, financial, and patient accounting information. In addition to physician preference cards, this system includes patient care charting, order entry, materials management, medical records, and quality improvement/risk management.
The preference card module is interfaced with the materials management system and patient accounting. The patient care charting system assists the clinician in streamlining daily documentation. By documenting tasks as they are performed, physicians no long need to spend time charting at the end of the day Order entry produces a timely and accurate transmission of orders to the appropriate ancillary departments. Materials management is an on-line purchasing and inventory system, which interfaces with the Patient Accounting, General Ledger and Accounts Payable systems. With this feature, hospitals can evaluate and manage vendor performance, inventory control, purchasing activities, stock requisitions and patient charging. The Medical Records system gives the facility the ability to input, retain and report inpatient or outpatient visits. It features an extensive reporting system for the generation of medical records information and statistics. The Quality Improvement/Risk Management system enables quality assurance managers and other decision makers to make effective additions and changes to the hospital's health care delivery processes.
As you can see, preference card systems do more than just store physician preferences. By interfacing or being integrated with the other accounting and materials management systems in the hospital, preference card system can go a long way in helping hospitals cut costs and improve efficiency.
|
