The report, called “Spending Scarce Resources on the Wrong Capital Budget Requests: Not In My Hospital,” suggests several steps to help hospital managers streamline their capital planning process. Among them are:
• Standardizing device descriptions in budget requests so a clear, objective picture of potential capital outlays across the organization emerges
• Benchmarking budget items against a database of actual prices, top models, national averages, quoted prices and discounted prices paid by other hospitals
• Prioritizing by asking key questions about how the requested item will improve safety, clinical care or operations
• Preparing for unexpected costs
ECRI Institute is a nonprofit independent organization that researches best practices in healthcare.
Read ECRI’s news release on the white paper on hospital capital outlays.
