With the increase in population, life expectancy, and medical advancements, medical facilities are scaling, resulting in an increase in healthcare costs for medical facilitators. But do you know where your money is going, and more importantly, how you can reduce your costs? Remington has the answers.
An Increase in Healthcare Costs
According to a recent study released by the American Medical Association (AMA), healthcare organizations in the United States increased their spending by 4.6% in 2018 to $3.6 trillion, or $11,172 per capita, a growth rate slightly higher than in 2017.
With healthcare spending rising, it’s essential for healthcare organizations to understand how their capital is used to run a successful medical facility.
Healthcare Industry Trends Explained: Where Did The Funds Go?
The United States spent $3.6 trillion on healthcare in 2018, according to the AMA study. The increase in healthcare costs can be broken down into the following categories:
- Hospital care
- Physician services
- Clinical services
- Prescription drugs
- Nursing care centers
- Home healthcare services
- Administration costs
- Net cost of insurance
- Government public health activities
- Investment spending
Within the hospital care category lies the supply costs of purchasing medical devices and surgical equipment. According to Definitive Healthcare Data, U.S. hospitals reported a combined $36 billion in medical and surgical supply costs in 2018 with an average annual cost of $11.9 million per hospital. The significant increase is a result of medical professionals refusing to sacrifice medical device quality to lower supply costs.
As a result, medical device and surgery costs for supplies needed to perform successful procedures have begun to account for a greater percentage of total supply expenses. For example, medical and surgical supply costs reflected 54.9% of the total supply budget in 2014; however, they rose to nearly 56% of hospitals’ total supply costs in 2018.
The Average Cost of Surgery Supply and Medical Device Reprocessing
Another healthcare industry trend is the significant growth in healthcare costs of reprocessing surgery supplies and medical devices for reuse.
Operating rooms (OR) accrue an abundant amount of hospital waste due to surgeons performing multiple procedures per day and requiring a variety of medical devices and surgical supplies. From 1992 to 2012, the number of surgeries performed in hospitals and medical facilities in the United States increased by 17%, according to the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project.
Medical device reprocessing includes maintenance, packaging, labor, and high-level disinfection, which costs approximately $0.51 to $0.77 per instrument. In addition, only 13% to 21.9% of opened medical devices and surgical instruments are used. When a reusable medical device is opened in the OR, devices are “exposed” and must be decontaminated, re-assembled, and sterilized, regardless of whether it was used.
Due to the high average cost of surgery supply and medical device reprocessing, reusing medical equipment is becoming obsolete. Top healthcare facilities and hospitals are realizing that sterilization for reusable medical devices is not cost efficient. As a result, key medical facilitators are turning to disposable medical equipment to improve cost effectiveness without compromising quality.
A Healthcare Industry Trend: Benefits of Disposable Medical Devices
Top hospitals and medical centers are turning to disposable medical devices due to a variety of benefits:
Decontamination
Disposable medical equipment ensures that cross-contamination is never a risk in the OR. When a single-use medical device is delivered to a medical center, it has undergone the sterilization process before it has shipped, saving the healthcare facility time and money.
Traceability
Once a reusable medical device is used, sterilized, and put into storage, the disinfection level is not traceable, making it impossible to determine if there is a possible infection risk. However, disposable medical devices ensure complete sterilization traceability.
Supply Logistics
If reusable medical equipment and surgery supplies become lost, stolen, or broken, it takes a significant amount of healthcare funds to replace them, which decreases the healthcare facility’s bottom line. With disposable medical equipment, tracking inventory and ensuring there’s no overflow of one specific device is seamless and reduces the risk of tying up capital.
Risk Management
Creating best practices to reduce the risk of infection is a high priority in the medical field. Leading healthcare facilities in the United States turn to disposable medical devices to eliminate the risk of cross-contamination between patients.
Cost Allocation
According to the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, utilizing single-use medical equipment eliminates medical device reprocessing and labor costs.
Waste
A common myth in the healthcare industry is that disposable medical equipment creates more of an environmental risk. Contrary to this popular belief, disposable medical devices and supplies pose less of a negative environmental impact compared to reprocessed devices, due to the significant amount of water, energy, cleaning detergent, and steam that’s used for reprocessing.
Prevent an Increase in Healthcare Costs With Remington
With Remington Medical, you can prevent an increase in healthcare costs at your facility with our comprehensive line of disposable medical supply devices. We design and manufacture all of our devices in-house, keeping purchasing costs low without compromising quality and on-time delivery. From disposable medical cables to needles and guides, some of the top healthcare facilities in the United States depend on our equipment and supplies to improve patient comfort and decrease the average cost of surgery supplies and medical devices. Contact us today to learn more about how we can improve your facility’s bottom line with our disposable equipment.
