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In This Issue:
Partners has made a firm commitment to improving patient affordability by seeking savings and efficiencies while maintaining quality. In pursuit of that goal, over the past two years, hundreds of products and services used throughout Partners have been reviewed.
One such product type-custom packs-is used to prep patients for procedures. These include OR custom procedural packs, single sterile drapes and gowns and equipment drapes. Across the Partners system, around $15 million is spent each year on these components.
A team of stakeholders, including clinicians and managers in departments that perform procedures, was tasked with finding savings through standardizing products, seeking same-quality but lower-cost alternatives, and getting more favorable vendor pricing.
The team worked with Partners' current vendor to review custom procedural packs with a view toward standardization, minimizing waste, and suggesting and approving product changes that were lower-cost and clinically acceptable. The team also agreed to standardize single sterile drapes and gowns and equipment drapes, achieving further cost savings.
This four-part initiative is expected to save $880,000 annually, a cost reduction of nearly 6 percent.
If you have a cost-saving idea, email patientaffordability@partners.org.