Staff like perfusion outsourcing
Staff like perfusion outsourcing
Supply costs down, physician satisfaction up
Until recently, Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital in Florence, AL, suffered from fluctuating and inadequate perfusion supplies. Physicians had little confidence in the perfusionist service. That all changed when the facility decided to outsource its perfusion operation. It chose a perfusionist service that operates under a strong teamwork concept.
Eliza Coffee began using Perfusion Services of Baxter Healthcare, based in San Diego. The company provides the hospital with perfusionists and all of the necessary supplies. The change has saved the facility money and time and has greatly improved staff satisfaction.
About a year ago, Perfusion Services came in and performed a cost-benefit analysis and offered the hospital a competitive flat fee for service and the disposables. The company developed an inventory management program that significantly reduced the hospital’s carrying costs. Pamela Lipe, RN, CNOR, director of surgical services for the hospital, says, "We found ourselves having to do overnight deliveries for supply items that should have been ordered on a routine basis, and that really increased our cost of doing business. We had overstocked some items, and then we’d run out of other things that we had to have because no one bothered to restock the supplies."
"The perfusionists, nursing staff, surgeons, and anesthesiologists all work together as a team since the outsourcing," says Lipe. "Before, there was little communication. Now, everyone attends regular team meetings and contributes to a quality improvement program."
Physicians interview perfusionist candidates to make sure the individuals sent by the company have the necessary expertise and personality to fit in with the cardiac team. "When you’re doing open-heart surgery," Madeline Massengale, a director at Baxter, says, "the team is paramount everyone has to be on the same page at the same time."
Lipe says the surgeons are happy with the new arrangement and have more confidence in the perfusionists. "The surgeons are comfortable with the perfusionists we have now. We do more difficult cases than we did in the past. The doctors used to be skeptical about taking some of these tricky cases."
Perfusion Services can buy the disposable surgical supplies at a discount because the company buys in large quantities, says Massengale. "We draft profiles of patient needs based upon what the surgeon wants," she explains. The 372-bed facility and its cardiac unit is expected to perform more than 300 heart surgeries this year.
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