Blog Posts

Financial Recovery: Effectively managing tissue and implant device inventory

Hospitals and health systems are always seeking ways to optimize operations, but in the wake of the financial devastation brought forth by COVID-19, there is a renewed push for more streamlined efficiencies. This includes financial recovery. Organizations understand that if they want to regain what was lost financially from COVID-19 (and maintain such recovery), they need to be creative about the processes they evaluate and the solutions they implement. Over the past few months, we’ve explored a broad range of topics that can help aid financial recovery, such as optimizing revenue cycle through AI bot technology, using logic-based solutions to optimize operations management, and streamlining the perioperative supply chain by updating surgical Preference Cards. Today, we’ll continue to examine surgical supply chains by focusing on the management of organic tissue matter and implant devices.

Many large hospitals have a tissue inventory that can be used for hundreds of surgical purposes such as spinal procedures, orthopedic joint repair and skin grafts. Each piece of inventory needs to be tracked from the moment it enters the hospital. And here is where it gets tricky: documenting and updating records across multiple systems consumes valuable resources and increases the potential for errors. Long serial numbers must be entered multiple times as tissue is received, stocked, prepared, implanted or designated for final disposal—and a single error can prevent finding a recalled item and compromise patient safety. And while patient safety remains paramount, within these avoidable errors can also come avoidable loss of revenue.

Tissue-tracking and implant-management solutions offer barcode-scanning technology to help hospitals efficiently handle and use tissue and device implants from the moment they are received at the facility. Instead of a fragmented manual process, clinicians only need to scan a tissue’s barcode and it will automatically populate an implant page within the perioperative chart. By removing the need for redundant data entry, your staff can focus more on the patients.

Now that it’s easier to capture all the vital information associated with tissue, your tissue management solution should also fully integrate with your organization’s EHR. This ensures that patient information is current across all departments and that clinicians have access to complete patient history. It also increases accuracy, which can result in more effective traceability of items in the event of a recall. The increase in accuracy also benefits patient safety, as the solution will report any errors associated between the tissue and the patient’s record.

Finally, from a financial perspective, tissue management solutions eliminate the need for paper records and enable better tracking of tissue inventory, which can reduce waste. Color-coded screens and alerts help notify staff when an item is about to expire, which helps organizations return and exchange consignment inventory back to tissue banks or vendors before expiration. For example, Allscripts Tissue Manager™ helped reduce one client’s lost inventory rate from 20% to 2%.

By reimagining the way your organization manages tissue and implant devices, you can increase staff efficiency, reduce wasted inventory and improve patient safety—all while helping keep your organization’s bottom line strong, which is a constant feat in this new world of healthcare delivery. If you’d like to learn more about the Allscripts Tissue Manager solution, go here.