Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Subscribers

OR Excellence Awards - Outpatient Surgery Magazine - September 2018

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 1 0 5 T he list price for a knee replace- ment back in 2016 was around $50,000, but administrators at Gundersen Health System's hospital in La Crosse, Wis., couldn't tell you what it cost them to perform the surgery. Not even an estimate. The actual cost astounded them: $10,550, including the surgeon's and anesthesiolo- gist's fees, according to an efficiency expert, who for 18 months record- ed every minute of every activity and took note of every implant, supply and medication, according to an account in last month's Wall Street Journal. In addition to discovering that they were marking up knee replacements nearly 500%, Gundersen was also able to pinpoint waste and cut inefficiencies, eventually saving 18% on the cost of joint replacement surgeries. We asked Lisa J. Wied, MBA, vice president of clinical operations at the Gundersen Health System, to share some of her cost-savings ideas with our readers. Nothing exotic or earth-shattering, just the bread- and-butter basics of surgical economics. Expert Tips for Total Joint Efficiency Build your program on these pillars of success. Jeannette Sabatini and Mike Morsch | Associate Editors • THE GREAT UNKNOWN Do you know how much it costs your facility to perform a total joint replacement? Pamela Bevelhymer, RN, BSN, CNOR

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