Worth repeating

Healthcare Purchasing News, April, 2008

"Everything that goes out as waste came in through contracts. Waste reduction starts with purchasing."

Sarah O'Brien, champion coordinator for Hospitals for a Healthy Environment

"There are over 10,000 medical items that have latex in them. You would have to change every single one of them to latex-free to truly claim that a facility is latex-free. We still think that latex-safe is usually the best way to go. Even though there are some hospitals that want to go latex-free--we'll help them if they want to do that--we often advise them that might not the best way to go and discuss the benefits of latex-safe and latex-free with them."

Milt Hinsch, technical services director, M61nlycke Health Care (maker of Biogel Surgical Gloves)

"Many supply items in the item master are not patient chargeable. For the patient chargeable items, the detail matches the expense. High dollar items, such as pacemakers and implants, have a 1-to-1 match. Low dollar like cost items, such as Foley catheters have 1 charge 'Foley cath all' to simplify charge entry."

Siobhan Mee, director, revenue cycle management, Maricopa Integrated Health System

"You can't as effectively recruit doctors if you don't have the latest, greatest technology. The technology is not fluff; it's a requirement to deliver today's highest quality healthcare."

Randy Tomaszewski, RN/BSN, MBA vice president of marketing, Skytron

"I needed to work and I enjoyed the work, and I just so happened to love the people I was working with. I felt more that way with each passing year. I am so grateful to be associated with IAHCSMM."

Betty Hanna, Executive Director, IAHCSMM