Gina Stancel, HCRM, and David Brown, M.D., believe that a well-stocked operating room and efficient-minded staff can enhance a smooth surgical process and save your practice time and money. They offer these tips for making your surgical procedures go smoothly and quickly:

• Use custom eye surgery packs for efficiency and cost control. Custom packs can include whatever amount of standard supplies you prefer for each case.
• Identical equipment in each room benefits continuity and sterilization practices.
• Stock a special cart with all of the consumable supplies needed for the day, such as custom packs, sterile towels, water and saline, extra gloves, balanced salt solution, intraocular lens cartridges and administration sets for the phaco machine.
• Keep specific sheets, such as anesthesia forms, pre-op information and operating room reports in the same order in patient charts. This makes it easy for the nurses to complete paperwork and find information quickly if the surgeon needs it.