What is PeriOp Green?
The Problem
Waste within the healthcare sector is embarrassingly common. The operating room is a major source of health system waste. One particularly egregious type of waste is unnecessary waste: when sterile items are opened onto the scrub table, but never used. If the item is single-use, then it goes into the garbage. If the item is re-useable, then it must be sent through the energy intensive and time-consuming process of re-sterilization. Unnecessary waste can result in hundreds to thousands of dollars of unnecessary cost in each surgery. In the US alone, there are billions of health care dollars from wasted sterile supplies literally going up in smoke (incineration).
Our Solution
As clinicians we understand the nuances of working in one of the most sensitive and high-stakes domains in the hospital: patient safety, privacy, and sterility foremost. Using intentionally placed cameras, we use machine vision to identify and track the usage of sterile surgical items. Overtime we aggregate our data and provide actionable reports to perioperative administrators. Perioperative administrators and surgeons can use this valuable information to design sterile kits and pans. Creating a more efficient operating room and more efficient scrub table.
Beneficiaries
Patients
Excessive costs can be passed along to patients. Reducing unnecessary waste will reduce costs.
Surgeons
Surgeons have to negotiate and justify requested supplies and instruments with administration. By having an evidence-based list that demonstrating items used, there is less pressure for the surgeons to justify their tools.
Hospital Administrators
Reduction of unnecessary waste yields direct cost-savings. Evidence of item usage (or waste) provides a new opportunity for negotiations with surgeons surrounding instruments and supplies.
Our Planet
Health systems produce millions of tons of garbage. ORs are one of the largest sources of this garbage. By reducing unnecessary waste, we reduce total health system impact on our environment (and on our own health).
Our mission is to identify and minimize perioperative waste through advanced analytics and a deep understanding of the perioperative space. Our vision is to provide novel insight and data to health care systems in order to reduce perioperative waste and facilitate data-based cost-saving measures.
PeriOp Green is the Solution to Unnecessary Periop Waste