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counsel as a per diem consultant or approaching a different vendor
entirely.
Partner with third-party vendors. Different from distributors, these
vendors can be helpful in procuring closeout supplies that origi-
nal manufacturers no longer support. We had an anesthesia machine
that was no longer supported by GE, but only required replacement
filters. The price jumped from $100 per filter to $1,000 per filter in just
a few weeks as national supplies dwindled. We found a supplier in
England that had a significant number of these filters — still in the
original packaging — at a much lower price. We stocked up, which
kept us from having to replace our anesthesia machine.
Consider single-use device reprocessors. Another cost-saving option is
using an FDA-approved SUD reprocessing company. These
firms collect your SUDs and return the devices or instruments after
restoring and re-sterilizing them back to the specifications of the origi-
nal manufacturers — all at a significant cost savings. Other reproces-
sors maintain an inventory of returned devices that were never
reclaimed by facilities and let you buy from their stock at the same
reduced price. Even open and laparoscopic disposable clip appliers —
recently on backorder from a large distributor — were still available
from our reprocessing company. Remaining clips are counted and
written on the handle before re-sterilization. This lets you pick an
applier with more or fewer clips remaining, depending on the needs
of the case. OSM
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Ms. Massey (corriemassey1@gmail.com) is the director of the Foothill Surgery Center at
Sansum Clinic in Santa Barbara, Calif.
