BACKGROUND As the cost of health care increases in the US, focus has been placed upon efficiency, cost reduction, and containment of spending. Operating room costs play a significant role in this spending. We investigated whether surgeon education and universal preference cards can have an impact on reducing the disposable supply costs for common laparoscopic general surgery procedures. METHODS General surgeons at two institutions participated in an educational session about the costs of the operative supplies used to perform laparoscopic appendectomies and cholecystectomies. All the surgeons at one institution agreed upon a universal preference card, with other supplies opened only by request. At the other, no universal preference cards were created, and surgeons were free to modify their own existing preference cards. Case cost data for these procedures were collected for each institution pre- (July 2014-December 2014) and post-intervention (February 2015-November 2017). RESULTS At the institution with an education only program, there was no statistically significant change in supply costs after the intervention. At the institution that intervened with the combined education and universal preference card program, there was a statistically significant supply cost decrease for these common laparoscopic procedures combined. This significant cost decrease persisted for each appendectomies and cholecystectomies when analyzed independently as well (p = 0.001 and p < 0.001 respectively). CONCLUSIONS In this study, surgeon education alone was not effective in reducing operating room disposable supply costs. Surgeon education, combined with the implementation of universal preference cards, significantly maintains reductions in operating room supply costs. As health care costs continue to increase in the US and internationally, universal preference cards can be an effective tool to contain cost for common laparoscopic general surgery procedures.

中文翻译：

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成本控制：在两个机构中接受过外科医生教育和普遍优惠卡的经验。

背景技术随着美国医疗保健成本的增加，人们将重点放在效率，成本降低和支出控制上。手术室成本在这项支出中起着重要作用。我们调查了外科医生教育和普遍优惠卡是否可以降低普通腹腔镜普通外科手术的一次性供应成本。方法在两个机构的普通外科医师参加了有关用于进行腹腔镜阑尾切除术和胆囊切除术的手术用品成本的教育会议。一个机构中的所有外科医生都同意使用通用优惠卡，而其他用品只能根据要求打开。另一方面，没有创建通用优惠卡，外科医生可以自由修改自己现有的优惠卡。在每个机构（2014年7月至2014年12月）和干预后（2015年2月至2017年11月）收集了这些程序的案例成本数据。结果在只有教育计划的机构中，干预后的供应成本没有统计上的显着变化。在干预教育与普遍优惠卡计划相结合的机构中，这些常见的腹腔镜手术相结合在统计学上显着降低了供应成本。当单独进行分析时，对于每个阑尾切除术和胆囊切除术，这种显着的成本降低仍然存在（分别为p = 0.001和p <0.001）。结论在本研究中，仅外科医生教育并不能有效减少手术室的一次性供应成本。外科医生教育，结合通用优惠卡的实施，可以显着降低手术室供应成本。随着美国和国际上医疗保健费用的持续增长，普遍优惠卡可以成为控制普通腹腔镜普通外科手术费用的有效工具。