becker's hospital review

Healthcare staff shortages, while not new, have spawned a world today where it can take five hours to get an X-ray for a dislocated elbow and another two to get pain medication for the injury. Ambulances sometimes wait eight hours to drop off a patient, and nurses work 12- to 16-hour shifts, without a break.

About 400,000 healthcare workers have left jobs since the start of the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to recent estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Throughout the pandemic, hospitals have had to implement creative approaches to soften staffing shortages. Medical device companies have also gotten innovative. Single-use endoscopes, for example, can help address staffing shortages.

They’re always available. And unlike traditional endoscopes, they don’t require extensive staffing — for preparation, transport, reprocessing, and often direct procedure support. They can be simply used once and discarded.

This dovetails with efforts by hospital administrators to alleviate workflow burdens on healthcare professionals.

These challenges and more were explored as part of a virtual session sponsored by Ambu during Becker’s Hospital Review’s 12^th Annual Meeting. We’re highlighting part of that conversation here in this episode of Endoscopy Insights.

Here are the experts you’ll hear from:

• Karen Conway, vice president, healthcare value, GHX
• Brian Howard, director, contract services, Vizient
• Karen Niven, director, performance groups, Premier
• India D. Randerson, vice president, strategic sourcing and procurement to payment, Henry Ford Health
• Steering the conversation is Wes Scruggs, Ambu’s vice president of corporate accounts

Show notes:

• Virtual Session: The Financial Case for Single-Use Endoscopy
• Becker’s Hospital Review: “Strategy: The Financial Case for Single-Use Endoscopy”
• Single-Use Endoscopy: “’Perfect Storm’ of Healthcare Worker Shortages Creates Need to Alleviate Workflow Burdens”
• Upcoming Becker’s virtual events
• Listen: “Calculating the Total Cost of Care”
• Listen: “Leading with Value to the Patient”
• Single-Use Endoscopy webinars page
• Endoscopy Insights show page

Medical device suppliers and group purchasing organizations are teaming to bring new healthcare innovations such as single-use endoscopes to hospitals and health systems.

By creating specific single-use endoscope categories for their members, these healthcare improvement companies can help accelerate the transition from reusable devices to disposable ones. But capitalizing on an opportunity to expand capacity and avoid costly and unnecessary expenses associated with workflow management and possible patient cross-contamination comes down to more than simply making a purchase.

Rather, both sides need to approach these deals as true partnerships, hinging on performance measurements and outcome-based metrics. That was one key takeaway from a conversation that was part of a virtual session sponsored by Ambu as part of Becker’s Hospital  Review’s 12^th Annual Meeting.

Here are the experts you’ll hear from in this episode:

• Karen Conway, vice president, healthcare value, GHX
• Brian Howard, director, contract services, Vizient
• Karen Niven, director, performance groups, Premier
• India D. Randerson, vice president, strategic sourcing and procurement to payment, Henry Ford Health
• Steering the conversation is Wes Scruggs, Ambu’s vice president of corporate accounts

Show notes:

• Virtual Session: The Financial Case for Single-Use Endoscopy
• Becker’s Hospital Review: “Strategy: The Financial Case for Single-Use Endoscopy”
• Upcoming Becker’s virtual events
• Listen: Calculating the Total Cost of Care
• Single-Use Endoscopy webinars page
• Endoscopy Insights show page

Transitioning from reusable to single-use endoscopes has obvious infection control benefits and even provides workflow and efficiency advantages — but the financial implications are usually one of the biggest hurdles to implementation.

That’s why it’s important to explore all the variables that go into achieving cost savings with single-use devices and assessing that shift within the context of other healthcare paradigm shifts. In this conversation, four experts do exactly that by exploring the elements that go into calculating the total cost of care and better understanding what they call “the math problem” at the root of this analysis.

This conversation was part of a virtual session sponsored by Ambu as part of Becker’s Hospital
Review’s 12^th Annual Meeting. Here are the experts you’ll hear from in this episode:

• Karen Conway, vice president, healthcare value, GHX
• Brian Howard, director, contract services, Vizient
• Karen Niven, director, performance groups, Premier
• India D. Randerson, vice president, strategic sourcing and procurement to payment, Henry Ford

Steering the conversation is Wes Scruggs, Ambu’s vice president of corporate accounts.

Show notes:

• Virtual Session: The Financial Case for Single-Use Endoscopy
• Becker’s Hospital Review: “Strategy: The Financial Case for Single-Use Endoscopy”
• Upcoming Becker’s virtual events
• Single-Use Endoscopy webinars page
• Endoscopy Insights show page