Solutions for Reducing Perioperative Supply Waste

Health care costs continue to increase in the United States, and unused perioperative supplies can contribute to both these costs and increased waste. Reducing perioperative waste can decrease hospital costs and promote sustainability. Perioperative leaders can consider a variety of solutions to decrease unused perioperative supplies, including streamlining and standardizing surgical packs, implementing surgeon scorecards and a surgical receipt system, and updating surgeon preference cards. The available literature does not provide data on waste reduction for all listed solutions; however, these initiatives have had positive financial effects for hospitals through either direct cost reduction or cost avoidance. Although the cost of implementation may vary among hospitals, streamlining surgical packs (including custom packs) appears to be an effective solution with a lower cost than other strategies, and avoids the wasting of opened supplies that are not needed.