Victoria Stewart receives Best in OR Business Award

Editor's Note

The inaugural Best in OR Business Award will be presented at the 2017 OR Business Management Conference on Wednesday, February 1, to Victoria Stewart, MBA, director, business operations, perioperative services, at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore.

The award recognizes an individual who makes complex logistical decisions, meets scheduling demands, thinks strategically, and focuses on the bottom line. Stewart was selected from among several nominees for her outstanding skills in financial management, leadership, and community service.

Stewart sees herself as a facilitator who ensures that clinicians have the right equipment and supplies when they need them. “I think that if something is the right thing to do for the patient, it’s generally the right thing to do financially,” she says.

This philosophy has enabled her to justify large purchases such as Pyxis OR supply stations and to convert from a paper to an electronic documentation system, she adds.

Improving the bottom line 

Regardless of whether the healthcare industry changes proposed by the new Trump administration cause consternation or confidence, OR leaders will always need ways to improve the bottom line. Several OR Business Management Conference speakers will help them do just that on February 1. 

Successful cost-saving initiatives focusing on surgical instruments include:

• a Lean project that led to a 50% reduction in instrument sets (“Lean-Based Standardization Cuts Costs and Instrument Sets”)
• a partnership between hospitals and industry that has reduced costs (“Reduce Costs and Improve Efficiencies with New Shared-Savings Model”)
• a data transparency model that raises surgeons’ awareness of instrument costs (“Change Your OR Culture Through Data Transparency”). 

Other OR leaders will share their experience with bundled-payment models. Jeff Peters, MBA, CEO of Surgical Directions, and Alecia Torrance, MBA, MSN(c), RN, CNOR, will present “Bundled Payments: The Next Generation.” Richard Iorio, MD; Michael Kelly, MD; and Lorraine Hutzler will discuss “Lessons Learned in Bundled Payments: Taking Control of the Total Episode.”