An Unsolved Problem in Healthcare

The US and global healthcare market has seen a dramatic shift in surgical care over the past 20 years. Inpatient stay times for elective surgery have been reduced, and many surgeries have been migrated to outpatient settings, specifically to hospital and surgeon-owned Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs). ASCs focus on efficiency, leading to dramatically lower surgical costs over the last two decades. Many elective orthopedic surgeries, which used to be done exclusively in hospitals, are now done in ASCs.

Orthopedic cases involve musculoskeletal treatments that often require complex implants and instruments. To keep costs low and efficiency high, ASC providers and device manufacturers rely on just-in-time inventory of implants delivered on a case-by-case basis. Very little inventory is held at the ASC facility.

Orthopedic inventory is delivered in large metallic containers called sets. While some cases are simple, there may be over 250-500 implants in numerous sets delivered for a single case. The implants are very costly.

The complexity of delivering, intake, processing, documenting, and billing and paying for this consigned inventory is a large challenge for thinly staffed ASC clinical and support staff. Device companies provide extensive support to assist in this process, which helps the surgical mission but creates business and operational challenges for the ASC, as they often develop complete reliance on vendors to manage the supply chain process. This system inherently has misaligned incentives: the ASC wants to lower costs, while the device companies desire to maximize profits.

Manual documentation of device usage during surgery by the device rep and multiple manual entry steps for ASC staff to document implant usage data into patient records and business management software often lead to billing and patient record discrepancies, delaying ASC revenue cycles. Implant cost opacity for the surgeon and lack of pro-active cost checking at point of use leads to poor data for accurate case cost measurement and proactive cost rigor for the ASC.

Point of use documentation automation, controlled by the ASC, is the solution. However, the current operating room software environment is poorly set up for scanning and automation. A keyboard, monitor, and asynchronous manual data entry apart from point of use is simply set up for failure.

With a growing number of orthopedic surgical procedures migrating to ASCs, ASCs need a better way to grow efficiently and profitably while maintaining high quality standards.

Summate Velocity, the world’s first point of use total documentation automation solution for ASC (and hospital) orthopedic procedures, is the answer.  It will dramatically impact operational efficiency and proactive corrective management for superior ASC administration.  It will also lead to greater job satisfaction for clinical staff and better safety for patients.  Every other industry deploys this technology, and now it is available for surgical care providers.

Find out more at www.Summate.net and www.ScanImplants.com. Or email info@summate.net.