Practical Solutions for Dollar Recovery and Waste Reduction in Healthcare

In the healthcare industry, an essential global sector, there's an urgent need for a smarter approach to waste reduction in supply chain management. It's not just about the environmental impact;  it's about enhancing financial and operational efficiency.

The Reality of Healthcare Waste

Hospitals are facing an unprecedented waste crisis:

• Major Waste Production: Hospitals generate over 29 pounds of waste per bed per day, according to Practice Greenhealth. This amount highlights a severe inefficiency in waste management and presents a significant opportunity for improvement.
• Healthcare's Climate Footprint: As Health Care Without Harm reported in their 2019 Green Paper, healthcare's contribution to global net emissions is a massive 4.4%. 71% of these emissions stem primarily from the healthcare supply chain, indicating the need for more sustainable procurement and supply chain practices.
• Increasing Supply Expenses: The American Hospital Association's 2023 Cost of Caring Report reveals that hospital supply expenses per patient have increased by 18.5% between 2019 and 2022, surpassing inflation rates. This sharp rise highlights the urgency for more cost-effective supply management and waste reduction tactics.
• Economic Costs of Medical Waste: Research indicates that the economic costs associated with medical waste range from $760 billion to $935 billion, accounting for about 25% of total US healthcare spending. This data, from the Reducing Medical Waste to Improve Equity in Care report, highlights the critical need for strategic waste reduction to alleviate financial strain on healthcare systems.

Ways to recover dollars and reduce waste in  healthcare:

The strategies to address this issue encompass a range of innovative and practical solutions:

1. Physician Preference Card Projects: A major cause of waste in operating rooms is inaccurate physician preference cards. Manual management and infrequent updates often lead to unnecessary waste, as unused items get discarded, or put in a put-back bin to expire out. Implementing inventory data visualization tools like SxanPro's LINK can help revise these cards based on usage, leading to substantial reductions in waste.
2. Device Reprocessing in Clinical Areas: In high-usage areas like operating rooms, identifying and reprocessing medical devices can substantially reduce waste. This practice not only cuts down on waste but also saves costs associated with purchasing new equipment.
3. Collaborate with Medical Resale Companies: Partnering with experienced companies like SxanPro MRKT, which have systems to manage equipment or medical supply sales, offers a dual benefit: It allows other healthcare facilities to use items before expiration, and it recovers costs for items that would otherwise be written off as waste.
4. Increase Inventory Visibility with Inventory Visibility Technology: Improving inventory management is the main solution for a more sustainable and cost-conscious supply chain. Transitioning from manual to digital, automated, and consolidated processes can reduce waste significantly. SxanPro's LINK not only automates inventorying with UDI barcode scanning technology, allowing you to inventory more often with higher accuracy and speed, but it also gives you insights on what’s on shelves, usage, pricing and helps you identify products that are not being used and are causing surplus or waste. Inventory visibility also gives you the information you need to manage PAR levels and allocation, reordering processes, and non-stock rooms.
5. Identify Underused or Wasted Stock Items: Continuing supply shortages pose challenges for health workers and patients. By maximizing supply inventory and reducing wasted items, healthcare facilities can ensure that supplies are available when needed. SxanPro offers tailored solutions for inventory management, focusing on high-waste areas like crash carts and physician preference item (PPI) waste. The LINK dashboard provides insights and recommendations for product transfers, selling items close to expiration, or donations.