Mock Surgery day

The 19^TH Annual Mock Surgery day at Brackenridge Hospital was a huge success. Approximately 1500 people attended the event. A wide variety of groups and organizations were represented as they shared information on various topics pertaining to good health and general safety. Those who attended learned about subjects like; kidney disease, diabetes, cancer, fire safety and more. The hospital also had staff on hand to show people how to bandage wounds and even the trauma department was represented.

Vantage Outsourcing was invited to participate in the event and for the first time ever cataracts were covered. Information was shared, which answered a variety of questions, such as:

• What is a cataract?
• How does it form?
• Who can get cataracts?
• How long does the procedure take?

Along with this information, the cataract surgery was described, the surgical instruments were on hand for viewing and some of the different types of lens implants were discussed. Overall, a lot of information was provided.

Vantage Outsourcing had a great time at this public event and is looking forward to further the publics knowledge when it comes to Cataract Procedures.

The Future of Surgery

Today, robotics has pushed on the boundaries of medicine to be accepted as trusted devices in the operating room.  The new “Da Vinci” system has had a high impact into the surgical world allowing surgeons, controlling robotic arms and viewing three-dimensional images, while operating through micro incision entry points.

To see more click here

Microrobots are on the horizon as well.  Miniature robots that are swallowed to gather information and/or images so more accurate and perhaps fewer incisions for the patient.

To see more click here

As new technology evolves, the cataract procedure keeps evolving as well.  Smaller incisions, instruments, intraocular lenses keep pushing forward the newest techniques.  NASA has even provided new technology that can detect the formation of a cataract before it is clinically visible, thus a camera predicting the future arrival of a cataract.

To view the PDF please click here.

As the future of surgery, our greatest challenges will still be, to maintain the highest level of surgical outcomes while justifying the return on investment for hospitals and surgical centers.  As our future looks so ever exciting in the world of surgery we dare to look behind at what cost will be following.

Making Cataracts More Profitable

Improving profitability in an already efficient operation has its challenges. However as the saying goes, when one stops improving, one stops growing.  The key to improving is to continually evaluating your efficiencies when it comes to patient & staff scheduling, doctors block time, labor mix and related costs, disposable costs and anesthesia expenditures.

Scheduling patients at the right time to make certain you have the right amount of patients in the queue for your staff and surgeon is crucial. Avoiding lateness (whether it’s the patient, surgeon or staff) is the key, along with making sure your surgeon and/or staff do not take breaks between cases.

Efficient staffing of your pre-op, operating room(s) and post op often times involves hiring part-time staff who can pick up the extra load whether it be prepping the patient, scrubbing or circulating in the OR, cleaning instruments, etc…  Staffing your center with more part time staff can reduce your benefit costs and staff overhead. Each function in the center should be done by someone with the proper skills and appropriate pay scale.  It has proven to be very economical to utilize outsourcing services, such as Vantage Outsourcing. They not only provide staff, but also all the equipment, micro instruments and disposables used in a cataract procedures.

Disposable costs are a major cost of doing cataract procedures. Every six months to a year, asking your surgeon/owner to evaluate his/her surgical preferences and consider alternative disposables and/or suppliers can prove to be very profitable. When surgeon asks for a more expensive supply, provide the surgeon with a cost/benefit analysis of adding this supply and the impact of profitability on each of their cases. WIth the expertise of companies such as Vantage Outsourcing, they too can help you reduce our case costs by sharing with you what other facilities and/or doctors are doing and by recommending quality disposable items to use as an alternative to your current costly disposables.

2 OR set up may be good for some, but not for all.  Many surgeons like working in an environment where they go back and forth between two ORs. Vantage Outsourcing generally recommends to their clients that unless the surgeon is doing five or more cases an hour and at least 20 cases a day, we have found that the 2 OR set up to be inefficient. Keep in mind with 2 ORs, the center needs to equip each room with a phacoemulsification equipment and microscope, as well as staff. Unless a surgeon is fast and doing significant volumes, your paid staff and anesthesia person may be waiting on the surgeon to complete cases, which becomes very inefficient and costly to a center.

The easiest way to improving profitability is to increase case volume. This may mean taking time out of your busy day to visit with the area optometric businesses to find out to which surgeon they are referring their patients. Let them know what your center and surgeon have to offer their patients. As part of the outsourcing service, Vantage Outsourcing is able to share with you the referral patterns of ODs in a particular market, in relations to the various MDs. This information is extremely valuable and helpful in determining where a facility and/or doctor needs to put forth their efforts in terms of OD relationships.

In summary, you need to know, evaluate & improve your efficiencies and identify the sources of your surgeon’s referral base, in order to improve your cataract service profitability.