Based on the proven best practices followed by many healthcare providers across the country, follow these three steps as you establish your own procedure pack standardization strategy1:
- Set your formulary: Use distribution purchase data or preferably utilization data to identify common products for standardizing across your hospital or health system. The data analysis will answer such questions as: What are you using now? Where are the opportunities to consolidate these items?
- Update your procedure cards: They need continual maintenance as physicians enter and leave your system. Which products are needed for a given procedure, based on matching physician preference to your formulary?
- Build custom surgical packs: How many items from your procedure card can you build into your pack? The aim is to include as many as possible to minimize the need to pull items off the shelf. Doing so improves OR staff efficiency when preparing the back table for a case.
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1“Leading the pack: standardizing procedure packs improves clinical and financial performance.” Presource Solutions, Cardinal Health. January 2019.