Editor's note The ECRI Institute on April 2 issued a free white paper on “5 Ways to Drive Savings and Quality on Your Purchased Services.” The 5 key areas to consider when developing a best practice process to evaluate purchased services, reduce spending, and make informed vendor selections are: Making…
Editor's Note A Technavio analysis predicts that the global market for thoracolumbar spine devices will see a compound annual growth rate of almost 4% through 2022, the March 1 Becker’s SpineReview reports. A major driver of the growth is the increasing prevalence of spinal disorders. The market was dominated in…
Editor's Note Wise Guy Reports predicts the global market for neurosurgical products will see a 10.5% compound annual growth rate through 2023 because of the growing availability of neurosurgical devices and increasing popularity of minimally invasive surgeries, the February 9 Becker’s Spine Review reports. Key players in the market, which…
Each day seems to bring new tasks for leaders of ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), adding to their already overflowing plate. One task that can easily fall off that plate is collecting and analyzing metrics, yet failing to do so can have serious financial consequences. OR Manager recently asked ASC leaders…
Editor's Note SERVICEguide is the ECRI Institute’s new membership-based advisory service that helps hospitals maintain and manage their outsourced services. SERVICEguide includes an interactive assessment dashboard with spend analytics that reveal the highest potential areas for savings. Recently, for example, ECRI Institute helped a large healthcare system save more than…
Editor's Note The ECRI Institute on August 23 announced a new free white paper, “Value Analysis: Best Practices for Navigating the Evidence Maze,” to help value analysis committees bring an objective, systematic approach to the decision-making process for health technologies and interventions. The white paper includes three case studies that…
Editor's Note The ECRI Institute on July 31 announced a new free white paper titled, “Value Analysis: Best Practices for Navigating the Evidence Maze. The white paper features three case studies that show how hospital value analysis committees can use the PICOTS (patients, intervention, comparators, outcomes, time frame for follow-up,…
Surgeons usually don’t have a high awareness of costs, partly because they haven’t had an easy way to know them. An unfortunate byproduct of this lack of knowledge can be higher OR costs. “Imagine what it’s like if, when you go to the grocery store, there are no price tags,…
Editor's Note ECRI Institute on June 6 announced the release of CrossCHEQ, its new service that offers unbiased guidance on equivalent alternatives for medical-surgical supplies and implants. By comparing key performance indicators, buyers can assess opportunities for standardization and better respond when products are out of stock or recalled. The…
Fine-tuning physician preference cards to reduce instrument use and sterilization is a well-known way to cut costs, but one that is often hard to implement. At Bassett Healthcare (Cooperstown, New York), we had success with a simple intervention involving collaboration with nearly 50 surgeons across multiple departments. We reviewed more…