Assignment task: I need help replying to this student
There are several implementations that can be placed in order to reduce patient cost in the operating room. Two ways that I believe would be highly effective in any facility are educating surgeons on supplies and the cost of each item, especially the most commonly wasted, and working with all staff including surgeons, surgical techs and nurses to create specialty packs and trays for each procedure and surgeon.
In educating surgeons on the cost of items including reusable and disposable, they should be able to ustilize cost awareness to avoid using things that may not be necessary. Another way to implement cost awareness of items, surgeons may include in their preference card items that may or may not be used under a "hold items" list. This would inform nurses and surgical techs to have the item in the room in case it is needed and avoid a charge to the patient or facility for an item that was opened but not used.
Often times the surgical tech and the nurse can anticipate what the surgeon will and will not use in any given procedure. Utilizing this knowledge and allowing the surgeon, tech and nurse to work together to create custom packs and trays will allow each surgeon to have only the exact items that will be used and disclude those that wont. For instance, dressings often come in the standard packs for all specialties, but not every surgeon will utilize the same dressings. This then creates a need for opening new dressings and adds additional cost to the patient, while the dressings that originally came in the pack become wasted