“Discovering the origin of the problem is made easier with this software. Who was late and why? Is there a pattern we are seeing? Are there breakdowns in late add-on communication between the surgeon, hospital, and the SPD? Are our vendors being lazy or is our hospital policy unrealistic? All of these are questions we are now able to evaluate and improve with the data provided by Surgio Health”

Chris A., Centura Manager of Sterile Processing

Surgio Health provides unparalleled value to the vendor, the supplier, and the Group Purchasing Organization by lowering costs and reducing risk.

One of the cost-saving metrics in focus with Surgio Health is the expense of surgical case delays, measured by the per-minute charge in the operating room waiting on trays and making them available for the procedure. Alongside this are the cost of lost instruments and the amount of time the Sterile Processing Department (SPD/CSSD) spends cleaning trays that should already be clean on their way in. 

Unfortunately, we know from collected data that the above scenario occurs more often than many would like to admit. It’s imperative that these costs are first identified and then measured so we can better understand their associated costs. In the past, it would have been extremely difficult to quantify those challenges and convey them to leadership. Without data, how can you improve? 

One of the biggest areas of focus for the hospital supply chain is eliminating unnecessary variation where one physician would typically have nine surgical trays, but only three of them are being utilized and the rest are just backup in surgery, just in case. By lowering the utilization of unnecessary trays you increase the productivity and efficiency of each department who has to touch each tray going in and out of surgery. The cost doesn’t feel soft when you’re the manager or when you’re the sterile processing technician processing extra surgical trays that you know are not going to be used.

The other aspect is with the end goal of lowering surgical site infections (SSI) which feeds into improving the quality of care for patients.

ECRI released the top 10 patient safety concerns for 2020 in which device cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization were listed. The CDC statistic acknowledged that sterile processing failures can lead to surgical site infections, which have a 3% mortality rate and an associated annual cost of $3.3 billion. Surgio Health can efficiently and digitally govern the interdepartmental processes and workflows that mitigate the process breakdown. In a chaotic environment between surgery and SPD, having some sort of governance to assist improves the quality of care for patients.

In addition, making sure that people are following the correct steps throughout the entire process is critical. Allowing the SPD staff to know exactly when trays are going through and scanning the tray through our process, they’re able to understand that on the backend, this information is being collected, analyzed, and reviewed. They’ll have confidence in knowing that quality assurance is actually taking place. It reinforces the action of what they’re doing and that it’s being measured and utilized to demonstrate their overall performance within an entire facility.

One of the key features with Surgio Vendor is the attestation for vendors. When a tray is brought into a facility they have to scan it and attest that the tray that they’re bringing in is clean and bioburden free. 

From the SPD team to the Operating Room team and all the way back to vendors dropping off surgical trays, everyone needs to work together to ensure visibility into the process, providing a way to increase cross-functional communication and collaboration. Having that extra layer of responsibility placed firmly on their shoulders provides more accountability to everyone involved. Each individual involved needs to understand the severity behind the fact that these trays are coming in and will touch and be implanted into somebody. Each party needs to fully understand the impact they have on patients and their safety.

One of the unique things about the platform is that it speaks to both sides of the story with data provided in Surgio Insight. Vendors dropping off trays are able to go in and attest that they’ve dropped it off clean and bioburden free, ensuring everyone is aligned and reviewing each other’s work, not just taking someone at their word. Trust, but verify.

Within the Surgio platform, you’re able to gain insight into key metrics such as vendor tray drop-off time and the number of trays that came in clean and ready to go versus broken. As a vendor, these metrics are incredibly relevant to the day-to-day responsibilities as it is a true representation of how they are working within a facility. For example, this data eliminates the ambiguity around if a tray was late and ensures that everyone’s getting the correct story of what actually occurred. 

The biggest takeaway for some of these managers is that aha moment of, “I will finally have the ability to explain why these cases are being delayed or be able to explain how we have succeeded in reducing SSI rates.” Data shows it all and that’s where the real magic happens for facilities that implement Surgio Health.

Interested in learning more about implementing Surgio Health at your facility? Schedule your free discovery call today!