Date of Award

Spring 3-29-2023

Embargo Period

4-25-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Doctor of Health Administration

Department

Health Administration

College

College of Health Professions

First Advisor

Annie N. Simpson

Second Advisor

Daniel Brinton

Third Advisor

Faisal Aziz

Abstract

The primary goal of this scoping review was to identify studies where an intervention of education and awareness of surgical supply costs with surgeons was employed as a possible stimulus for healthcare organization cost reduction in the surgical/procedural service space.

Surgical procedures are performed on approximately 25 percent of all inpatient hospital admissions. In 2018 that equated to 14.4 million surgical procedures and $210.3 billion dollars in health system costs. Surgical Procedures are a substantial portion of healthcare system expenditure and are one of the highest revenue producing services provided to patients. Additionally, there exists high variability in costs based on surgeon preference and choice. Healthcare expenditures associated with surgery are expected to grow to $912 billion dollars annually by the year 2025.

Research aims were; is there an existing gap in knowledge of the cost of medical supplies for surgeons, does educating surgeons who make decisions regarding the selection of medical supplies/devices using the primary data points of price per procedure result in cost control and lead to lower costs of care and is there enough evidence to support a specific clinician education program for cost reduction?

100% of the ten studies included in this review articulate the foundational problem of surgeons not having knowledge of the cost of the supplies that they utilize every day in the operating room and an objective to educate or increase cost awareness for these decision makers. Interventions savings generated by procedure range from 4.1% to 54%. When savings were averaged for each study across all case types; the study’s average cost saving ranged from 5.9% to 40%. Averaging identified cost savings across the two primary classifications of intervention yielded a 20% cost savings associated with education being provided through meetings and/or cost sharing. Surgical Receipt and Report programs leveraged a 9.6% savings. Meetings and Cost Sharing education are documented as easier to launch then other initiatives. Surgical Receipt and Report programs are often difficult to operationalize depending on a health system’s clinical documentation method and platform employed in the surgical setting.

Rights

Copyright is held by the author. All rights reserved.

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