“Deploying a technology to automate a manual surgery process should result in a noticeable improvement in case planning,” said Eric Tritch, vice president of supply chain & support services at University of Chicago Medicine. “The desired outcome would help with both the provider and supplier knowing exactly what you need for each surgery and make both our inventory team and our reps’ lives easier with less rework on implant invoice reconciliation.”

Most orthopedic, spine, cardiovascular and other implant products are elective surgeries; meaning that except for trauma cases, they are scheduled weeks in advance. However, many providers wait until after surgery to submit details on the device and products used for procurement and billing purposes. With the Surgery Exchange solution, identification of potential contract exceptions or compliance concerns are surfaced prior to surgery allowing the provider to proactively resolve issues.

“As the volume of elective surgeries begins to recover post-pandemic, the Surgery Exchange Platform can enhance the end-to-end surgery workflow by providing increased visibility and automation to the procurement and inventory management process,” said Erik Axter, managing principal, physician preference items (PPI) solutions.

Surgery Exchange’s solutions are tailored to identify real-time issues, so the proactive nature of the solution can quickly mitigate those problems. This comprehensive solution delivers better control, compliance, and patient outcomes by eliminating inaccurate implant pricing, missed reimbursements, unnecessary overnight shipping expenses, equipment rental fees for changed/canceled surgeries, lost OR time due to unavailable product, and provides visibility throughout, especially to Central Sterile Processing to track and manage loaner trays.

In addition, the process automation further benefits supply partners by reducing overall sales and general administrative (SG&A) costs. Their ability to engage in proactive case planning, inventory management and expedited payments adds efficiencies to their operations

“The entire process for planning and managing implant and bill-only cases is very different than other types of surgeries and falls out of the traditional med-surge purchasing process,” said Amin Rahme, president of Surgery Exchange. “With our combined capabilities, all the stakeholders, from the manufacturer to the sales rep, from the physician to the supply chain department, know what is coming and can plan accordingly.”

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