How Much Does 1 Minute Cost In The Average Operating Room?

Hospital costs are essential to understanding value-based care and are even more critical when analyzing cost-saving interventions during surgery. Past reports have found that 1 minute in the OR ranges in cost from $7 to over $100 per minute, depending on the location and surgeon.

Services performed in the OR account for almost one-third of healthcare spending. Documents reporting costs were collected from 302 facilities from 2005 to 2014 and included surgery and recovery, and ambulatory surgery procedures. From 2004 to 2015, the data show that OR expenses increased more rapidly than the consumer price index and medical consumer price index. 

How much one minute in the OR costs depends on many factors, the first being, location. Resource costs vary from state to state as well as which surgical procedure is being performed. Another factor is whether the OR cost includes fixed overhead costs that are constant regardless of the number of surgeries performed, or if it only accounts for the variable costs, which vary according to the number of cases performed.

The last factor is whether the professional fees of the physician work in the OR are included.
Even though there are many factors, there is one thing that is constant in the operating room, Safetec’s Drop-In Pacs will save time and save money. Safetec Drop-In Pacs are a newly designed medical solidifier with an advanced self-dissolving technology to instantly absorb and solidify liquid waste. Containing the same effective superabsorbent polymers as used in Red Z and Green-Z bottles, these slender pouches are now made with faster acting, innovative water-soluble paper.

They are very convenient, and by preventing the extent of cleaning up bodily fluids that are spilled during operation, you reduce the time wasted for clean up by tenfold saving money. With both time and money being an essential item in the operating room, consider using Drop-In Pacs as a solution.

References:
https://www.ajmc.com/newsroom/what-are-the-implications-of-the-costs-of-operating-room-time
https://ether.stanford.edu/asc/documents/management2.pdf