For many hospital leaders, deciding which technology investments to prioritize while balancing tight budgets is a tall order.
At Carson Valley Medical Center in Minden, Nev., Chief Nursing Officer Andrea Highfill, DNP, RN, approaches this challenge by starting with a fundamental question: Is there a significant demand for the technology? If the answer is yes, the next step is collecting data to weigh the product's price tag against what it could cost the organization to forego the investment.
Dr. Highfill and her peers recently followed this process, after surgeons began requesting a $1 million orthopedic surgical robot.
"Once we started hearing this buzz that it was in high demand, we wanted to capture that in data," she said. "How many patients are we seeing now? How many patients are being sent away" because surgeons are taking their cases to another area hospital that does have the robot?
To quantify the potential impact of the investment, Carson Valley leaders worked with the vendor to gather data on patient volumes from nearby hospitals using the robotic system. They also reviewed community health trends, including the prevalence of orthopedic conditions, and anticipated future demand for joint replacement surgeries.
The financial modeling process involved estimating how many surgeries the hospital would need to perform monthly to offset the robot's cost. This included calculating the expected revenue from increased surgical volumes and comparing it to the hospital's actual capacity. Factoring in ongoing maintenance expenses, Carson Valley leaders built a robust ROI projection.
"We did the calculations, and data did show that we would be losing quite a bit if we didn't keep up with this technology, and would be gaining quite a bit if we did acquire it," Dr. Highfill said.
Carson Valley leadership ultimately approved the purchase after the business case was presented.
"We don't want to be fiscally irresponsible, but we also don't want to fall behind the benchmark; we don't want to fall behind in technology," Dr. Highfill said.