Opinion: In the hospital supply chain, too many choices can be costly
Wasteful spending on hospital supplies begins with doctors' aversion to talking about standardization. That means reducing their choices of supplies while maintaining quality of care.
Not long ago, I did a small experiment at a hospital in Texas: I put out six different surgical trays representing the preferred set of instruments for six different surgeons, all of them performing the same laparoscopic procedure.
The trays were all a little different, as was the cost of their contents, which ranged from $1,800 up to $3,400. Yet the outcome of each operation was the same. Once the surgeons saw the instruments they and their colleagues used, they agreed that the least-expensive set was as good as any other.
The company I work for, Navigant, recently published its of supply chain costs in more than 2,000 U.S. hospitals. , it showed that hospitals spent far more than they needed to on surgical supplies, implantable devices,
