Time has a funny way of affecting a budget.
Not only return on investment.
Not only asset capture.
Not only surgical time versus man hours.
But the expiration of surgical supplies.
These can be many things.
Sponges.
Mesh implants.
All the implants.
Dressings.
Staplers.
Suture.
The list is as long as the supplies for the OR.
99.9% of our supplies/implants have an expiration date.
If the department doesn’t use them within the time frame, the department eats the cost.
I am sure some of the depreciation is calculated into the cost of surgery.
But.
I train people to always look at expiration dates when opening supplies.
Most especially for implants.
And if there are two of an item in their hand, they should open the one that will expire first.
It just makes sense.
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 