Lucy Turkow recently explained to Healthcare Purchasing News its implications, as well as what doesn't work well for cutting costs. The director of performance consulting at hospital chain VHA Inc., and a registered nurse, Turkow also comments on the expected effects of new regulations. Medicare has shifted cost and risk to providers. Therefore, the challenge is to minimize the effects of decreased reimbursement. Perioperative settings will need to identify all costs for providing patient care through standardization and increased productivity.
Survival depends on controlling and managing salary and non-salary costs.
Knowledge management is defined as a conscientious strategy of getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time and helping people share and put information into action in ways that strive to improve the organization's performance and reduce costs. The elements of successful knowledge management focus on communication, education and incentives. Also, personnel must be dedicated to capturing and formatting knowledge and methods displaying, and then disseminating that knowledge. This is achieved through graphic demonstration of financial issues, flow charts and understanding product and equipment costs, as well as current regulatory standards. Knowledge management can be applied to reduce supply or equipment costs and has been successfully applied to case cart systems, supply standardization and laser utilization, to name a few.