William D. Kellar, who supports healthcare supply chain operations in the HCA TriStar division with 18 hospitals and 10 ambulatory surgery centers in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Northern Georgia, wrote an article on ways the hospitals he oversees have optimized the quality of patient care while overcoming fiscal challenges. He discusses how HCA requests of clinical staff to employ evidence-based medicine and advocate for products backed by scientific studies and data such as purchasing reprocessed single-use medical devices which HCA expects to expand by an additional; 11 percent in 2013.
“In 2012 alone, our reprocessing program grew by 41 percent, which played a significant role in helping us achieve more than $8 million in savings per adjusted admission that year. Third-party reprocessing is a solution that should always be considered, and is successful when the level of clinical support and adoption is high.
‘As more hospital administrators discover reprocessing, and incorporate reprocessed devices into their business models, they must harmonize practices across the enterprise. Making sure staff members thoroughly understand and recognize the products’ proven safety, reliability and cost effectiveness helps with mainstreaming the utilization of such devices within the institution.
‘For a reprocessing program to deliver optimal results, physicians must not only use reprocessed devices, but also realize that reprocessing frees up resources that can be redirected to improve the quality of patient care delivery.”