Leveraging Technology Access for Incremental Revenue in the Operating Room

Idle time costs money

Medical and surgical equipment is expensive. It becomes downright cost-prohibitive when it’s not actively being used. Asset underutilization is a common challenge facing hospitals and healthcare facilities. Asset underutilization occurs when a capital investment fails to live up to its anticipated use, creating unnecessary strains in capital budgets that can limit a facility’s ability to invest other critical areas.

Many factors and reasons contribute to an asset being underutilized. In some instances, physicians may have left the hospital for opportunities elsewhere, reducing the number of staff members qualified to use the technology. Or, the technology may be obsolete, with newer technologies or treatment protocols to replace it. Regardless of the reason, the result is the same: the technology sits idle for days, even weeks, at a time.

A single asset being underutilized may not seem like much, but when multiplied by numerous assets across several locations in a hospital cluster, the level of waste is simply mind-boggling. Higher end technologies sitting idle for days at various facilities can easily end up costing a health system millions of dollars annually.

While underutilization is a primary concern among hospital administrators, overutilization presents a completely new set of challenges. In particular, overused technologies are in high demand, meaning that often times multiple physicians will request access to a technology at the same time. Limited technology capacity not only creates scheduling bottlenecks but also often times pits physicians against one another at the expense of their patients.

Lack of access to essential equipment can be frustrating for physicians and hospital management trying to deliver the highest level of care to their patients. From a hospital standpoint, this is a high-risk scenario, as physicians may elect to simply take their patients to another facility with immediate access to the technologies the physician needs.

Losing patient cases to another facility can be devastating to a hospital’s bottom line. Certain specialties, such Gastrointestinal (GI) Surgery and Orthopedic Surgery represent a significant percentage of a hospital’s annual revenues. In fact, nationally, the average GI surgeon accounts for approximately $1.5 million in annual surgical revenue with Orthopedic Surgeons responsible for $2.2 million. Multiple surgeons leaving for greener pastures—and taking their patients with them—will also mean a hefty chunk of a hospital’s surgery revenues goes with them.

In instances of both asset under- and over-utilization, hospitals are in a precarious situation. Administrators need to be able to quickly and accurately predict which technology merits investment, as well as the frequency of when it will be used. Without the right tools, this balancing act is more guessing game than business management.

Real-time collaboration and visibility

For hospital leadership, it would be great to have a crystal ball that shows exactly when, where, and how many surgical tools are needed. While there’s no such thing as a crystal ball, savvy administrators can leverage powerful collaboration tools to make smarter, more cost-conscious decisions for their facilities, physicians, and their patients.

Cohealo’s dynamic collaboration and asset deployment platform enables hospital administrators and OR Managers to monitor, analyze, and adapt equipment consumption and deployment across all of their facilities in real time. The networked solution provides instant visibility and in-depth analytics to help ensure that assets are delivered where and when they’re needed within a regionally dense hospital cluster.

Understanding asset usage patterns helps managers identify under- or over-utilized assets. New technology that had previously been underused can be purchased in smaller quantities to align with actual consumption and need, while existing assets remaining idle can be easily transported to another facility within the system for greater operational efficiency and optimal return on the investment.

Similarly, overutilized assets indicate a shortage of required equipment and potentially more capital investments. With Cohealo, hospital clusters can deploy frequently used assets quickly to augment their existing equipment in high-traffic operational areas to meet spikes in demand. At the same time, providing equipment and machines on-demand across the system alleviates competition for assets among physicians and enables the hospital to keep the full patient case load in-house without fear of losing cases to a competitor.

Let Cohealo work for you

You’re in an evolving, hyper-competitive industry. Everyday you’re confronted with new challenges ranging from controlling your technological assets to managing the needs of your staff. Losing case after case to a competitor because of limited scheduling flexibility or access to technology can be stressful, and with Cohealo, now its unnecessary. Losing just one orthopedic surgeon could cost you as much as $2 million in case revenue a year.

Use our cutting-edge platform to gain a competitive advantage, reduce costs, retain the best talent, and keep patient cases where they belong—in your system. It’s time to re-evaluate your operations strategies. It’s time to call Cohealo.