scholarly journals Bargain Hunting for Buffered Lidocaine: A Collaborative Discovery of Cost-saving Strategies That Can Improve Patient Care

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Curtis L Simmons ◽  
Laura K Harper ◽  
Kathryn J Holst ◽  
Nathan J Brinkman ◽  
Christine U Lee
Keyword(s):  
Sodium Bicarbonate ◽  
Hospital Pharmacy ◽  
Cost Savings ◽  
Improve Patient Care ◽  
Medical Waste ◽  
Radiology Department ◽  
Access Pricing ◽  
Bundled Payments ◽  
Improve Patient ◽  
Procedure Room

Abstract Buffered lidocaine is a local anesthetic option during percutaneous needle-directed procedures in the breast. At our institution, sodium bicarbonate (the buffer) is dispensed in volumes that frequently lead to medical waste and shortages. In this study, we describe how moving the buffering of lidocaine from the procedure room to our clinical hospital pharmacy results in a reduction in costs and improves satisfaction across the breast radiology department. While cost savings are difficult to tease out in practices that opt for bundled payments, we were able to access pricing and supply data and coordinate with our pharmacy to change our practice. Making these changes saves our practice $26 000 a year and allows us to continue to offer buffered lidocaine even during sodium bicarbonate shortages. This manuscript describes how these changes came about and their economic impact.

Potential Savings Involved in the Purchase of Low-Cost, High-Volume Medical Commodities as Established from a Community Hospital Survey

1996 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 24-29
Author(s):  
San W. Ng ◽  
Rosmin Esmail ◽  
William J. Sibbald ◽  
Gordon S. Doig
Keyword(s):  
Patient Care ◽  
Community Hospital ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Cost Savings ◽  
Improve Patient Care ◽  
High Volume ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Substantial Cost ◽  
Improve Patient

Health technology refers to the instruments, equipment, drugs and procedures used in health care delivery, as well as the organizations supporting it. Health technology assessment, which is the process of conducting investigations to establish the criteria for efficacious, effective and efficient patient care, is becoming increasingly important in an era of diminishing resources. This survey of 39 community hospitals in southwestern Ontario found that improved purchasing strategies can result in substantial cost savings which can in turn be used to improve patient care. The study shows that optimizing the price of basic hospital commodities could save an average community hospital as much as $625,000 per year.

The Mass Knee Clinic: a new NHS outpatient care model showing clinically led transformation in practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-122
Author(s):  
Lily Li ◽  
Sam Nahas ◽  
Rajan Jandoo ◽  
Sarah Williams ◽  
Haddon Paul Lionel Ganippa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Waiting Times ◽  
Cost Savings ◽  
Improve Patient Care ◽  
Wait Times ◽  
Junior Doctors ◽  
One Stop ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Training Opportunities ◽  
Improve Patient

BackgroundThe Mass Knee Clinic is an innovative, patient-focused and efficient clinic introduced into our hospital in April 2017. The UK Government has mandated referral-to-treatment (RTT) time for patients to be within 18 weeks to improve patient care. The new clinic involves seeing high numbers of patients by amalgamating all new non-traumatic knee disorders (up to 200) from primary care into one clinic day every 6 weeks. The premise and success of the clinic is multifactorial and involves focused multidisciplinary consultant-led care in every case, training opportunities for junior doctors, a ‘one-stop shop’ for patients allowing them to be seen by a consultant, physiotherapist and receive a date for surgery all in 1 day, and subspeciality consultant presence, preventing multiple reattendances.MethodsWe present the results of prospectively collected data on wait times to clinic, time-to-treatment and outsourcing of new referrals, 1 year after the initiation of the new clinic model (n=56). This data was compared with data 1 year prior to the Mass Clinic being introduced (n=56).ResultsTime from primary care referral to first Orthopaedic review was reduced from median 13.5 weeks to 11 weeks (statistically significant (p=0.00512)). RTT was reduced from median 30.5 weeks to 15.5 weeks (p<0.01), allowing a significant reduction in waiting times for the patient. Outsourcing was eliminated, and the number of appointments per patient also halved.ConclusionsThe new Mass Clinic with focused consultant-led care and multidisciplinary approach has led to significant reductions in patient wait times and cost savings for the hospital.

Analytical Methods for the Determination of Sartans in Pharmaceutical Formulations and Biological Fluids: A Review

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 208-222
Author(s):  
Miglena Smerikarova ◽  
Stanislav Bozhanov ◽  
Vania Maslarska
Keyword(s):  
Biological Fluids ◽  
Pharmaceutical Preparations ◽  
Improve Patient Care ◽  
Pharmaceutical Formulations ◽  
Treatment Of Hypertension ◽  
Therapeutic Doses ◽  
Reliable Methods ◽  
Improve Patient

Background: Sartans are mostly used as a part of combination with additional medicines in the therapy of essencial hypertension. Preferred combinations are ARB and thiazide diuretics (Hydrochlorothiazide (HCT) and Chlorthalidone (CHL)) or ARB and calcium antagonists. The number of sartans mostly prescribed by specialists is only seven - Candesartan (CDS), Eprosartan (EPS), Irbesartan (IBS), Losartan (LOS), Olmesartan (OMS), Telmisartan (TMS) and Valsartan (VLS). Methods: The widespread use of sartans in the treatment of hypertension requires reliable methods of analysis. Bulk drugs and pharmaceutical preparations should be analyzed to ensure the quality of the medicinal products reaching patients. On the other hand, the analysis of drugs in biological fluids aims to trace and improve patient care by adjusting the therapeutic doses of drugs. According to our knowledge, a review devoted to the analysis of sartans was published in 2014. Results: Spectral methods are widely used in the analysis of bulk drugs and pharmaceutical dosage forms due to their relatively simple procedures, low reagent and sample consumption, speed, precision and accuracy combined with accessibility and comparatively low cost of common apparatus. Many papers for determination of sartans in bulk drugs and pharmaceutical preparations based on liquid chromatographic techniques were published in the available literature. Among these methods, HPLC takes the leading place but UPLC and HPTLC are also present. Conclusion: The widespread use of sartans in the treatment of hypertension requires reliable methods of analysis. Bulk drugs and pharmaceutical preparations should be analyzed to ensure the quality of the medicinal products reaching patients. On the other hand, the analysis of drugs in biological fluids aims to trace and improve patient care by adjusting the therapeutic doses of drugs. Since 2014, many articles have been published on the sartans analysis and this provoked our interest to summarize the latest applications in the analysis of sartans in pharmaceutical formulations and biological media. Articles published from 2014 to 2018 are covered.

scholarly journals How will artificial intelligence and bioinformatics change our understanding of IgA in the next decade?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roman David Bülow ◽  
Daniel Dimitrov ◽  
Peter Boor ◽  
Julio Saez-Rodriguez
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Multidisciplinary Approach ◽  
Immunoglobulin A ◽  
Improve Patient Care ◽  
Integrated Analysis ◽  
Clinical Expertise ◽  
End Stage ◽  
The Complement System ◽  
Improve Patient ◽  
Generation Sequencing

AbstractIgA nephropathy (IgAN) is the most common glomerulonephritis. It is characterized by the deposition of immune complexes containing immunoglobulin A (IgA) in the kidney’s glomeruli, triggering an inflammatory process. In many patients, the disease has a progressive course, eventually leading to end-stage kidney disease. The current understanding of IgAN’s pathophysiology is incomplete, with the involvement of several potential players, including the mucosal immune system, the complement system, and the microbiome. Dissecting this complex pathophysiology requires an integrated analysis across molecular, cellular, and organ scales. Such data can be obtained by employing emerging technologies, including single-cell sequencing, next-generation sequencing, proteomics, and complex imaging approaches. These techniques generate complex “big data,” requiring advanced computational methods for their analyses and interpretation. Here, we introduce such methods, focusing on the broad areas of bioinformatics and artificial intelligence and discuss how they can advance our understanding of IgAN and ultimately improve patient care. The close integration of advanced experimental and computational technologies with medical and clinical expertise is essential to improve our understanding of human diseases. We argue that IgAN is a paradigmatic disease to demonstrate the value of such a multidisciplinary approach.

Sports Medicine and Artificial Intelligence: A Primer

2021 ◽  
pp. 036354652110086
Author(s):  
Prem N. Ramkumar ◽  
Bryan C. Luu ◽  
Heather S. Haeberle ◽  
Jaret M. Karnuta ◽  
Benedict U. Nwachukwu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Sports Medicine ◽  
Injury Risk ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Improve Patient Care ◽  
Great Promise ◽  
Patient Reported ◽  
Athlete Injury ◽  
Improve Patient ◽  
Applications Of Ai

Artificial intelligence (AI) represents the fourth industrial revolution and the next frontier in medicine poised to transform the field of orthopaedics and sports medicine, though widespread understanding of the fundamental principles and adoption of applications remain nascent. Recent research efforts into implementation of AI in the field of orthopaedic surgery and sports medicine have demonstrated great promise in predicting athlete injury risk, interpreting advanced imaging, evaluating patient-reported outcomes, reporting value-based metrics, and augmenting the patient experience. Not unlike the recent emphasis thrust upon physicians to understand the business of medicine, the future practice of sports medicine specialists will require a fundamental working knowledge of the strengths, limitations, and applications of AI-based tools. With appreciation, caution, and experience applying AI to sports medicine, the potential to automate tasks and improve data-driven insights may be realized to fundamentally improve patient care. In this Current Concepts review, we discuss the definitions, strengths, limitations, and applications of AI from the current literature as it relates to orthopaedic sports medicine.

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