Surgeon Awareness of Operating Room Supply Costs

The extent to which surgeons understand costs associated with expensive operative procedures remains unclear. The goal of the study was to better understand surgeon cost awareness of operating room supplies and implants.

This was a cross-sectional study of faculty (n = 24) and trainees (fellow and residents, n = 27) in the Department of Otolaryngology. Participants completed surveys to assess opinions on importance of cost and ease in accessing cost data and were asked to estimate the costs of operating room (OR) supplies and implants. Estimates within 20% of actual cost were considered correct. Analyses were stratified into faculty and trainee surgeons.

Cost estimates varied widely, with a low percentage of correct estimations (25% for faculty, 12% for trainees). Surgeons tended to underestimate the cost of high-cost items (55%) and overestimate the cost of low-cost items (77%). Attending surgeons were more accurate at correctly estimating costs within their own subspecialty (33% vs 16%, P < .001). Self-rated cost knowledge and years in practice did not correlate with cost accuracy (P < .05).

A majority of surgeons were unable to correctly estimate the costs of items/implants used in their OR. An opportunity exists to improve the mechanisms by which cost data are fed back to physicians to help promote value-based decision making.