Saturday, October 30, 2010

How to Save $200,000.00 in Anesthetic Agent

Due to the current health care reform legislation many hospitals are implementing recommendations from the "Institute for Health care Improvement" in  regards to reducing or eliminating wasted time, money, and energy in health care.
One area to eliminate waste and to increase savings is focusing on anesthetic agent use during general anesthesia procedures.


The following case study demonstrates the dramatic cost savings from evaluating anesthetic use and changing efficiency.
"Anesthesia Agent Analysis" (S. Richey & R. Hazlett) software was utilized to assess current practice of anesthetic agent consumed, agent uptake, and gas consumption.
The following photo's were captured from the analytical software.


Photo 1: Input anesthetic agent cost to facility.
One of the first items entered in the software is the current price the hospital is paying for the pharmaceutical agent. This is used to predict future cost savings.

Photo 2: Preset standards for gas consumption, used in calculations.
This next image shows the standard used for demonstrating cost savings in oxygen consumption if the hospital switches from a bellows driven anesthesia ventilation to a piston driven anesthesia ventilator.

Photo 3: Actual anesthetic agent uptake & consumption, captured from anesthesia machine.
Photo three was actual data collected from clinical trials at one facility.
Photo 4: Actual totals collected from anesthesia machine.


Photo 6: Calculated cost savings from increasing efficiency.



 By changing their current practice by incorporating lowflow anesthesia techniques, this facility could save > $200,000.00 in anesthetic agent cost in ~ ten years.