Hospitals generally have dynamic and complex routines. One of the biggest challenges is successfully managing a surgical center. In this sector, it is essential to have total control over internal processes, both from a managerial and operational perspective.

In this article, we explain how an intelligent management system optimizes this control, helping to reduce costs and ensuring excellence in patient care. Let’s get started!

Managing a Surgical Center: Best Practices for Efficiency and Cost Control

We know that the healthcare sector does not allow for negligence. The surgical center is, in fact, one of the environments that demands the highest level of safety in procedures. This is not only about equipment and sophisticated technology but also about controlling internal processes to ensure strategic management without budget misalignment.

To achieve this, a good management system becomes indispensable and makes all the difference in ensuring the necessary safety in surgical centers. With this type of technological support, it is much easier to keep departments aligned, integrating sectors and processes such as:

• Patient care
• Patient admission
• Pre-admission with authorization control for OPME (Orthoses, Prostheses, and Special Materials)
• Urgencies and emergencies
• Inventory management
• Billing maintenance (insurance and public healthcare systems)
• Accounting
• Budgeting and cost control
• Business Intelligence

Additionally, another significant advantage of technological tools is the digitization of medical records. The Electronic Patient Record (EPR) represents a major revolution in terms of personalized, humanized, and more efficient patient care.

With an integrated database, accessing patient information becomes easier, strengthening the doctor-patient relationship and accelerating and enhancing diagnoses.

Want to learn more about the latest healthcare innovations? Discover the priorities for institutions in the coming years and how to adapt to them.

Cost Control for Managing a Surgical Center in 3 Steps

Cost control is a crucial aspect of managing a surgical center. Work in this sector involves a series of meticulous financial tasks, such as collecting, classifying, and organizing different data related to the costs of hospital services and products to convert this information into standardized statistical reports.

Implementing a cost system in hospitals is a complex process. After all, a hospital has multiple services and professionals working simultaneously, in addition to handling a large volume of data that must be collected. However, only through a management system is it possible to efficiently control hospital costs.

In this regard, it is recommended to work with specialized providers to acquire a management system that is compatible with your institution’s demands, along with proper staff training to maximize the system’s functionalities.

Below, we outline three basic steps for cost management in a surgical center and explain how an intelligent system can assist.

1. Understand the Costs Related to Infections and Adverse Events

Effective cost management must take into account expenses related to post-operative infections and adverse events.

For example, more than 1 million healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) occur each year and are one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Between $28 billion and $33 billion is spent annually on healthcare costs related to HAIs. The average cost of treating a surgical site infection (SSI) is $3,152, with an extended hospital stay of 7 to 14 days.

Adverse events (AEs) in surgical centers also significantly contribute to increased healthcare costs. More than 60% of costs come from extended hospital stays due to surgical AEs, and in about 45% of cases, the patient experiences an average increase of 14 additional hospitalization days.

From a financial standpoint, based on scientific literature, the cost of hospitalization can be 200.5% higher when adverse events occur compared to when they do not, with an average hospital stay increasing by 28.3 days.

2. Control Medication Management

Properly managing medications is also key to cost control in a surgical center. For example, when procedures are scheduled, a materials and medication request is automatically generated for inventory, allowing for better control of what will be used.

When the patient arrives for surgery, the necessary items will be ready in the correct quantities, preventing surgical delays and reducing material waste. Medication and material usage is recorded, and later, the surgical room billing is completed.

This record includes all performed activities, details on responsible professionals, the applied procedure, any assistants involved, and all materials and medications used.

Managing this entire logistics chain is very challenging without the support of intelligent tools. A robust management system can integrate and coordinate all these steps, providing stricter control over inventory and hospital pharmacy management.

As soon as the system detects medication consumption in the operating room, it automatically generates a return request for unused inventory.

This prevents waste and optimizes team productivity, as staff no longer need to handle these bureaucratic procedures, and the system ensures a reliable record of all operations.

In obstetric surgeries, the system can also register the number of newborns per day, making it quick and easy to access essential data. This improves data security, product tracking, inventory mobility control, and automated billing.

3. Optimize Procedure Scheduling and Pre-admissions

Managing a surgical center starts with pre-admission, where patient data and planned procedures are recorded. Once surgery authorization is obtained, the patient can schedule the procedure.

A management system provides healthcare professionals with a complete view of all scheduled surgeries and allows them to request necessary resources for procedures, such as: Reserved ICU beds, blood bank availability and surgical instruments, etc. If any of these resources are unavailable on the scheduled date and time, the system alerts the team, allowing for rescheduling.

In other words, having technological support is essential for optimizing medical teams’ routines and ensuring patient safety, providing faster, more accurate, and patient-centered care.

Find out more about how technology supports medical sectors and discover the key indicators to track!

About Pixeon

Pixeon is the company with the largest software portfolio for the healthcare market.

Our solutions serve hospitals, clinics, laboratories, and diagnostic imaging centers, covering both management (HIS, CIS, RIS, and LIS) and diagnostic processes (PACS and Laboratory Interface), ensuring high performance and top-tier management in healthcare institutions.

The HIS/CIS software for hospitals and clinics, Pixeon Smart, is a complete solution that integrates the entire institution into a single system. It is also certified with the highest level of digital maturity by SBIS (Brazilian Society of Health Informatics).

We already have over 3,000 clients in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Colombia, serving millions of patients annually through our platforms.

Want to know if Pixeon’s technologies offer everything you’ve always wanted for your hospital or clinic?

Request a commercial consultation and be amazed by everything our management system can provide!

About the Author

Tatiana is a nurse, holds a Master’s degree in Nursing, and is a Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate Program in Nursing at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (PEN/UFSC). Her research focuses on the surgical area, emphasizing preventive care for hospital infections to ensure patient safety.

She is passionate about healthcare and the challenges of her profession, especially the advancement of healthcare technology. In addition, she enjoys reading about investments and business, loves physical activities, and maintains a healthy lifestyle.