Value Proposition
DocOpC was built by operating room staff with over 400 years of combined hands-on experience in direct patient care. We understand our target market and focus on the real issues and processes in the OR. Our true differentiation lies with our singular focus on the operating room process, transparency across the entire surgical continuum, and true cost leadership.
Competitive Advantages
Step one: Scheduling
The systems used by surgical facilities and clinics are disconnected, leading to the bulk of scheduling tasks being duplicated between clinics and facilities. Scheduling begins with the doctor’s office filling out demographics and case information, and obtaining pre-authorization; this information is faxed, emailed, or called to the surgical scheduler.
DocOpC Scheduling
Unified scheduling bypasses the duplicate data entry performed between staff at clinics and surgical facilities. This virtually eliminates emails and faxes between them, minimizing the number of phone calls.
Step two: Scheduling
The hospital accepts the case, placing it on the calendar, registers the patient, arranges the room assignments, and manually notifies necessary representatives and vendors.
DocOpC Scheduling
Live white-board functionality for room assignments and times is provided, and an abbreviated, customizable version is available for display in the waiting rooms.
Scheduling allows sharing case details with reps & assists and other ancillary personnel and allows surgeons to track medical coding as well as patient and insurance payments. These surgical participants are notified of any changes such as surgery date, time or cancellations.
STEP THREE: Pick Sheet
1-2 Days before surgery, staff prepare by pulling items listed on the pick sheet generated by the facility’s EHR. The pick sheet items are not ordered as they are arranged in the supply room and are not in the “language” of the OR. Ineffective inventory management leads to last minute scrambling for supplies.
DocOpC Pick Sheet
No longer dependent on printed pick sheets, our electronic picking in supply room order provides more efficient picking and reporting. Per case missing items (needs) are reported to inventory management for resupply, allowing forward looking inventory and facilitating accurate case preparation and throughput.
The pick sheet items for a surgical case are kept up-to-date through our proprietary continuous updating process.
STEP FOUR: Pick Sheet
The morning of surgery, a scrub tech or operating room nurse goes through each item on the pick sheet to verify that all the materials necessary for the case are in the operating room, and begins opening the items. Without written guidance, many items on the pick sheet are opened regardless of whether or not they will be utilized, leading to expensive waste. This waste is compounded by the lack of cost transparency to the staff and surgeons.
DocOpC Pick Sheet
Missing items from the initial pick are highlighted and action plan for procurement reviewed. Items that should be available but not opened are clearly delineated.
Item cost is clearly evident and shared with the entire surgical team; high ticket items are highlighted to avoid inadvertent costly wasted “openings”.
STEP FIVE: Preference Card
The preference card is a hand-written index card or free-text at the top of an EHR generated pick sheet. This vital information is offline and difficult to keep updated as the surgeons’ preferences evolve over time. In addition, preop nurses and anesthesia providers rely on verbal communications or notes to communicate surgeons’ preferences.
DocOpC Procedure Card
DocOpC has easily updatable electronic preference cards, with granular notes and integrated photos. This allows unprecedented room and staff preparation. DocOpC procedure cards allow crowdsourced best practices across surgeons and facilities.
Access on mobiles, desktops, and tablets means that everyone has access to the surgeons preferences.
STEP SIX: Preference Card
During surgery, the lack of up-to-date pick sheets and preference cards leads to case delays and “door swings” while requisite items are hurriedly retrieved. (See Opening doors in OR increases infection risks).
DocOpC Procedure Card
Real-time, “on-the-fly” updates to the preference cards occur from the OR with approval from team leaders.
STEP SEVEN: Charge Capture
Lack of currency for pick sheets leads to erroneous charge capture, reducing the accuracy and completeness of surgical charges and supply tracking.
DocOpC Charge Capture
Run either during or after the surgical case, charge capture is based on the assigned pick sheet and optionally integrates with the existing facility systems to deplete inventories and accurately add charges to patient bills. It automatically captures time charges, and through integration with the pick sheet module allows for continuous updating of the pick sheet to maintain currency.
Examples of Inefficiency
In order to try to limit waste and prepare for surgery, hospitals and surgical centers have cobbled together manual processes or relied on staff experience and memory. The poor integration of these current systems results in manual exchanges of information and human error.
5x8 Index Card
These 5x8 index cards have been the standard pick sheet/preference cards for a generation. When something changes, the line item on the card is simply scratched out and rewritten.
EHR-PRODUCED PICK SHEET
When EHRs were introduced, many facilities utilized the inventory supply list as their pick sheet, with white space for surgeon preferences.
MANUAL FILING SYSTEM
Because of the inefficiencies of the EHR-produced pick sheets, many facilities have gone back to utilizing the 5x8 index cards and filing systems.
