Preference card cleanup projected to cut costs across departments

Fine-tuning physician preference cards to reduce instrument use and sterilization is a well-known way to cut costs, but one that is often hard to implement. At Bassett Healthcare (Cooperstown, New York), we had success with a simple intervention involving collaboration with nearly 50 surgeons across multiple departments. We reviewed more than 400 preference cards, and we were able to show a potential savings of nearly $300,000 over a 1-year period. This article describes what we did and suggests that our methods are widely applicable to different facilities and surgical specialties.