Healthcare provider organizations are continually searching for new strategies to increase overall operational efficiency and cost reduction outcomes. Hospitals across the country have recognized that this effort requires a significant contribution from perioperative services. Directors of perioperative services and supply chain managers recognize that as much as 50% of an organization’s supply costs are consumed in surgery where there are hundreds of subspecialties, thousands of specific supplies and instruments, and the steady introduction of new technologies that require stringent management of product introduction, utilization, and eventual obsolescence. The easy standardization opportunities have long been identified, such as, gowns and drapes, custom packs, gloves, etc. More challenging standardizations including sutures, endo-mechanicals, implants, consignments, and capitation, have also ensued with dramatic savings realized at many institutions. But variations in inventory management techniques, balancing cost and clinical quality, surgeons’ training and techniques, and utilization of differing supplies continue to exacerbate management attempts to control costs.

The Perioperative Services department demands the immediate availability of a wide array of medical supplies, specialty products, implantable devices, and consumable supplies associated with the use of specialty equipment. The primary cost reduction challenge experienced by perioperative services departments is how to initiate desired expense reductions within the constraints of an operational environment which, by nature, must have zero tolerance for product outages. Many organizations have chosen to address this challenge through the implementation of information technology designed to automate and streamline the operational processes for supply distribution and inventory management within the perioperative services department. While this is a worthy objective, appropriate caution must be exercised to ensure that operational expectations do not rely on the use of this technology alone.

Healthcare organizations must ultimately expand their understanding of perioperative product consumption and cost at the product level, case level, and surgeon level. To assist in accomplishing this task, we will focus on three primary building blocks of perioperative services’ supply chain management improvement: 1) the use of benchmarking to evaluate performance; 2) managing inventory and product replenishment to better understand consumption; and, 3) techniques for engaging clinicians and physicians in support of the process.