Researchers collected data over 25 months at an academic medical center and recorded the total number of spine procedures and incidence of intraoperative waste. They found intraoperative waste occurred in 20.2 percent of the procedures performed prior to implementing an educational program and 10.3 percent of the procedures after the program was implemented.
The monthly costs associated with spine surgical waste were $17,680 on average before the awareness intervention and $5,876 afterwards. The surgical waste was 4.3 percent of the total operative spine budget before the intervention and 1.2 percent afterwards.
The educational program promoted awareness among surgeons about their intraoperative choices and the cost related to surgical waste.
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