OR Manager - April 2020 - 20

Competition engages staff in cost savings and standardization
OR business
ore than half of respondents
to a recent OR Manager
reader survey put cost-saving
initiatives at the top of their list of important
topics, and cost reduction is an
ongoing challenge for many OR managers.
Leaders at Lehigh Valley Health
Network (LVH), based in Allentown,
Pennsylvania, took a creative approach
to meeting that challenge with a Perioperative
Cost Savings Olympics. The
innovative program not only engaged
staff but also netted $479,703 savings
in fiscal year (FY) 2018 and $721,698
in FY 2019.
M
" We try to think outside the box
when it comes to cost savings, " says
Alex Warman, MBA, director of perioperative
business services. LVH had
been successful in reducing costs, but,
as is the case in many ORs, " we got to
the point where being amazing was really
hard to get to anymore. We needed
new ideas, " says Hope Johnson, DNP,
RN. Johnson, administrator for perioperative
services, and Warman shared
with OR Manager how the Olympics program
brought home the gold in savings
and again put them in the " amazing "
results category.
The preliminaries
Hope
Johnson, DNP,
RN
LVH, which has eight
campuses in seven
counties, performs
more than 61,000 surgical
visits each year,
so every dollar spent
matters. Despite previous
effectiveness in reducing
costs ($5 million
over 3 years), system
leaders wanted to explore more aggressive
savings opportunities.
Much of the previous savings had
come from " quick wins, " so LVH leadAlex
Warman,
MBA
ers knew they wanted
to devise longer-term
solutions that reduced
costs and increased
consistency across facility
sites while maintaining
optimal patient
care. " The focus isn't
just about costs, it's
about optimizing care of our patients, "
Warman says. " That
includes standardization,
patient safety, contract
compliance, financial obligations, utilization,
and total supply costs. " The
goal was to achieve cost savings without
staff reductions.
At a strategy meeting on cost reduction,
a frontline colleague suggested
the staff engagement program
that became the Perioperative
Cost Savings Olympics because
it started in time for the 2018
PyeongChang Olympics.
Perioperative Olympics submission form
Those participating in the Perioperative
Cost Savings Olympics at Lehigh
Valley Health Network, Allentown,
Pennsylvania, completed the top part
of the form. Note that the participant's
" coach " was the manager or
physician who supported the idea.
The judges completed the bottom
of the form. As with Olympic figure
skating, judges assigned points for an
" artistic " score (presentation, creativity,
and originality) and a technical
score (based on anticipated financial
performance of the idea). The judges
also evaluated whether any contractual,
regulatory, or infection prevention issues
needed to be addressed before
the idea could be initiated.
Olympian: _____________________________ Country (unit): _______________
Coach (manager or physician supporter): _____________________________________________
Date: _________________________________
Background of current condition: ___________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Idea for change/future state:
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
For Olympic judges only:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Considerations:
¨ Contractual
¨ Infection prevention
Current financials: _____________________________________
Presentation score: ______
Creativity: ______
Originality: ______
Technical execution: ______
¨ Regulatory
20
OR Manager | April 2020
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OR Manager - April 2020

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