Keeping surgical disposables out of landfills
All too often, sterile and perfectly-functioning surgical supplies needed in operating rooms end up rotting in landfills. With major hospitals and healthcare facilities reporting that at least $15 million worth of unused surgical disposables are just thrown in the garbage EACH year. This not only damages the environment but eats into the profits of hospitals and surgery centers across America.
It is estimated that nearly 5.9 million tons of waste are produced from healthcare facilities per year, with a large proportion coming from surgical disposables. This translates into a cost of $100 – $3,000 dollars per ton of medical waste depending on the type as well as the disposal method.
From those estimates, we know that hospital systems and ASC’s are paying millions to throw away surgical disposables alone. This does not even take into account the costs associated with overstocked inventory, inefficient processes, and unnecessary waste.
Therefore, it is paramount that healthcare facilities look to reduce costs and improve their bottom line through the use of third-party distributors…
Third-party organizations step in to help facilities improve supply chain management, reduce costs, and focus on delivering high-quality care to their patients by:
- Streamlining supply chain management: helping reduce the number of shipments, invoices, and purchase orders that need to be processed and managed, making it easier to track inventory and reduce errors.
- Increasing efficiency: by outsourcing supply chain management to third-party distributors, hospitals and ASCs can focus more on their core business activities, such as patient care and clinical operations.
- Improving inventory management: helping reduce the risk of stockouts or overstocking, which can lead to wasted resources and increased costs.
- Accessing a wider range of products: to find products easily and also can help in discovering new products that may be useful for current operations.
- Cost savings: by offering the ability to negotiate better prices directly with suppliers.
- Expertise: that can provide valuable insight into improving operations with specific knowledge of healthcare supply management.
- Mitigating Risk: by ensuring that suppliers are compliant with relevant regulations and standards, which helps protect hospitals and ASCs from liability and reputational damage.
Truth is, the performance of a healthcare system boils down to its ability to balance quality of service to its respective patients with the costs associated with that care. Third-party distributors are able to maneuver past the challenges of traditional methods like directly purchasing from manufacturers or the use of GPOs…
No longer will healthcare facilities have to worry about: limited purchasing power, limited product selection and control, additional fees, and higher administrative burdens. Instead, they will have to worry about what to do with all the time that is freed up by outsourcing responsibility to an organization that specializes in supply chain management.
Stop throwing millions of dollars in potential profits in the garbage and get connected with a distributor that is ready to offer custom pricing and free shipping today.
Sources:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1743919118305338
https://hub.jhu.edu/gazette/2015/january-february/currents-united-states-wastes-surgical-supplies/