Streamlining operations and improving efficiency are always top priorities in a surgery center, especially when focusing on growing your business. But day-to-day tasks and urgent action items often push strategic streamlining to the back-burner. With this in mind, it’s important to plan ahead. 

Too many stock keeping units to track and manage can affect the efficiency of an ASC. Decreasing the SKU count can help ASCs streamline operations and reduce supply costs, according to Cardinal Health's Mandie Shipp, RN, BSN, senior consultant in clinical operations.

Cheryl Poplaski, Vizient's senior director of supply chain operations, outlined what ASCs can do to prepare for supply chain disruptions.

The Bluegrass Specialty Surgery Center in Lexington, Ky., has won an award from healthcare solutions company Intalere for supply chain management and cost effectiveness.

  Molly Ehrlich, Vizient's consulting director of advisory solutions for supply chain operations, shared a story on Vizient's blog about an operating room that kept running out of supplies.

  When supply chain shortages occur, ASCs can take steps to a stay ahead of disruptions, according to Cheryl Poplaski, senior director of supply chain operations for healthcare services company Vizient.

  Modernizing Medicine will offer current and future users access to an audio and video telemedicine platform to help treat patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  Planning for supply chain shortages can help ASCs prepare their teams quickly and efficiently when a disruption occurs, according to Cheryl Poplaski, Vizient's senior director of supply chain operations.

  C-arms, intraoperative imaging devices, are becoming more compact as more procedures move to the outpatient setting, according to healthcare industry news source Dotmed.

  Understanding the risk of disruptions in an ASC supply chain takes time, planning and continuous assessment, according to Cheryl Poplaski, Vizient's senior director of supply chain operations.

Surgical Information Systems' Amkai EHR for ASCs earned the No. 1 client rating for user satisfaction for the fifth year in a row in the Black Book survey.

Too many stock-keeping units to track and manage can impact the efficiency of an ASC. Decreasing the SKU count can help ASCs streamline operations and reduce supply costs, according to Cardinal Health's Mandie Shipp, RN, BSN, and senior consultant of clinical operations.

Collecting data on third-party contracts can simplify the process of lowering supply chain costs, according to Vizient, a healthcare management consulting company.

Of all possible improvements to make within your surgery center, celebrating staff successes is the most vital.

Cheryl Poplaski, Vizient's senior director of supply chain operations, outlined what ASCs can do to prepare for supply chain disruptions.

Because ASC team members often wear several hats, it can be hard for them to find time to ensure supply orders have been placed, according to Jeff Lawrence, vice president of business development for Inventory Optimization Solutions.

Medline is opening a national sales support center in Libertyville, Ill., bringing multiple teams under the same roof.

Devices, implants and medical supplies are among ASC's greatest expenses, according to Westchester, Ill.-based Regent Surgical Health.

  Surgery centers have limited storage space for supplies, which is why it’s important to identify and combine the SKUs used for every procedure in space-saving packs. Combining the most frequently used supplies streamlines operations and reduces supply costs, according to Mandie Shipp, RN, BSN, senior consultant in clinical operations at Dublin, Ohio-based Cardinal Health.

ASCs should involve all stakeholders in order to control costs, according to Westchester, Ill.-based Regent Surgical Health.