Division of Plastic Surgery, 138207Albany Medical Center, Albany, NY, USA.
Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Department of Surgery, 2013Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, USA.
Am Surg. 2022 Jun;88(6):1263-1268. doi: 10.1177/0003134821995079. Epub 2021 Feb 17.
Operating rooms (ORs) generate 70% of hospital waste, leading to increased costs for the hospital, patient, and the environment. The lack of cost awareness among physicians has been well documented; however, there is little information on anesthesiologists or ancillary OR staff. This study aimed to evaluate the cost awareness of commonly used items at an academic medical center among OR personnel.
Anonymous surveys were distributed to OR personnel (nurses, surgical technicians (STs), nurse anesthetists, anesthesiologists, surgeons, and residents), asking for the estimated costs of ten commonly used items. These costs were then compared against actual costs to evaluate the accuracy of participants' estimates. Responders were clustered by job, highest level of education, and years of experience for comparison.
167 surveys were collected, and overall only 16.4% of estimates were accurate within 50% of actual price. No significant differences in accuracy between groups were identified overall ( = .2), but both surgical and anesthesia attendings had significantly higher rates of correct responses than their respective residents. No difference was seen in accuracy when all attendings (surgeons and anesthesiologists) were compared with either nurses or STs. Linear regression demonstrated no correlation between number of years at current position or years at institution and number of correct responses ( = .0025 and = .005, respectively).
Addressing the knowledge deficit around item costs via global education of all OR personnel (surgeons, anesthesia providers, and ancillary staff) could be a viable pathway to reduce waste, and thus cost, for our healthcare system.
手术室（OR）产生了医院 70%的废物，导致医院、患者和环境的成本增加。医生缺乏成本意识已得到充分证明；然而，关于麻醉师或辅助 OR 工作人员的信息却很少。本研究旨在评估学术医疗中心 OR 人员对常用物品的成本意识。
向 OR 人员（护士、外科技术员（ST）、护士麻醉师、麻醉师、外科医生和住院医师）分发匿名调查，要求他们估算十种常用物品的成本。然后将这些成本与实际成本进行比较，以评估参与者估算的准确性。根据工作、最高教育水平和工作经验年限对响应者进行聚类，以便进行比较。
共收集了 167 份调查，总体而言，只有 16.4%的估计值在实际价格的 50%以内准确。总体而言，各组之间的准确性没有显著差异（=.2），但外科医生和麻醉医生的正确回答率明显高于各自的住院医生。当将所有主治医生（外科医生和麻醉师）与护士或 ST 进行比较时，准确性没有差异。线性回归显示，目前职位的工作年限或机构工作年限与正确回答数之间没有相关性（=.0025 和 =.005）。
通过对所有 OR 人员（外科医生、麻醉师和辅助人员）进行全球教育，解决物品成本知识不足的问题，可能是减少我们医疗体系浪费和成本的可行途径。
