 Want to share your money-saving ideas with Outpatient Surgery Magazine's readers? E-mail us at tips@outpatientsurgery.net. Please include your name, your title and the name of your facility. | |
When payors deny or incorrectly reimburse our claims, we will almost always try to overturn their decision by writing an appeal letter. Appeal Solutions' Medical Appeal Letters on CD-Rom ($199) is a collection of letters that gives you access to state and federal statutes and case citations in your favor. Free samples are at
www.appealsolutions.com.
Donna Worsham, RN, BSN
VP of Operations, National Surgical Hospital, Inc.
dworsham@nshinc.comRetrobulbar blocks improve cataract efficiencyOur cataract surgeon performs retrobulbar blocks on the first two surgical patients before he starts his surgical day. This way, he is always one patient ahead.
Cheryl Stanley, RN
Director, Medical Group Surgery Center
cstanley@medical-group.comGet the last dropsIf I need another 50-80 mg of propofol at the end of a procedure, I squirt 20 ml of saline into the infusion bag and use the remaining drops of propofol in the IV tubing instead of opening another 20-cc vial and wasting the rest.
Barry Friedberg, MD
Anesthesia for Cosmetic Surgery
drfriedberg@doctorfriedberg.comEditor's note: The Baxter IV set priming volume is 17 cc @ 5 mg/cc propofol = 85 mg. Other manufacturers' IV sets may have different priming volumes.
Separate your trash
To remind our nurses and staff not to throw non-sterile trash into hazardous waste bins, I attached a dollar bill to the hazardous waste cans and a penny to the non-sterile cans. The message: Hazardous waste is more expensive to dispose of than non-sterile trash is.
Joseph Walters
Administrator, Chesapeake Surgery Center
jwl835@intercom.net
Go with local vendors
When buying capital equipment, chose vendors close to home. We learned the hard way. When our equipment needed maintenance, it took days to get a vendor to our facility to service it. In the meantime, we were losing revenue.
William Gillespie, MD
Columbus Eye Clinic
columbuseye@tableone.com
Track your time
To improve our scheduling, we use an electronic tracking system from Versus Technology that uses radio frequency tracking to locate badge-wearing nurses, physicians and patients throughout the facility. We can analyze physician block times, plus average prepping and recovery times.
Gail Greco-Bieri
Systems Administrator
Spectrum Health Endoscopy Center
gail.grecobieri@spectrum-health.org
Recycle your magazines
Rather than spend money on magazine subscriptions, we ask our staff to bring in their magazines when they are done with them. Not only do we save money, but our patients get a wide variety of magazines from which to choose.
Ann Geier, RN, MS, CNOR
Chief Operating Officer, Medicus Surgery Center
ageier@mindspring.com
Soak your scopes
Save sterile 4x4 tubs and use them as soaking containers for your endoscopes. This prevents material from becoming caked onto your scopes.
Linda Reecer, RN, MS
OR Manager, Hendry Regional Medical Center
lreecer@hendryregional.com
Save on refreshments
We used to use outside vendors to provide our facility with coffee, juice and sodas for our PACU patients. But we found that we could save as much as 50 percent if we bought the refreshments ourselves from a discount store.
Marie Lee, RN
St. Mary's Regional Health Center
mlee@surgeryok.com
