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M A R C H 2 0 1 4 | O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
O R T H O E C O N O M I C S
W
hen you run an outpatient orthopedic center,
you, your surgeons and your staff have to make
hundreds of decisions every day. If you make
the right ones, you can turn a healthy profit. But
if you make too many bad decisions, your mar-
gins can shrink into oblivion. Over the years, I've learned a lot about
what those right and wrong decisions are. I've also discovered that in
some cases, the prevailing wisdom doesn't necessarily hold true.
Here's how we keep our costs down and our margins up at our ortho-
only center.
1. Spend more with fewer vendors
For a long time, we figured the best way to reduce what we paid for
implants and other supplies was to have as many vendors in the fold
as possible. That's the conventional wisdom: Have them beat each
other up a little and the winner gets our business. That can be a good
strategy, but there's also a flip side to consider.
I've found that with a lot of companies, especially bigger ones, if
you're spending more, you can reach national account levels that let
you get cash rebates, rebates for capital equipment and other perks. A
few of the bigger companies have done that for us: They say, Tell us
what you need, and as long as you meet certain spending levels,
we'll get it for you.
That consolidation also has some other benefits. If you get all the
surgeons at your facility to standardize, it's easier for the staff. There's
a rotator cuff that needs a metal anchor? Now there's only one metal
anchor on the shelf, instead of 7. It's easier to order, easier to keep
track of inventory, easier to pick preference cards and it just generally
reduces waste.
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