Journal of clinical anesthesia
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The acceptance of new and increasingly expensive technologies is a major component of the rising costs of health care. While the practice of anesthesia has been relatively immune from the effects of cost containment, it is inevitable that practitioners will have to justify costly practices. Available pharmacoeconomic methods can be applied to the use of all anesthetic drugs, particularly neuromuscular blocking drugs. Cost-effectiveness analysis allows the practicing anesthesiologist to prioritize the use of neuromuscular blocking drugs to maximize their benefit while reducing unnecessary costs.
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It is estimated that $200 million worth of prepared materials are discarded unused in operating rooms in the United States each year. Although some of these materials have been successfully recovered for overseas donation, they nevertheless constitute an undesirable burden on health care efficiency. ⋯ A database, which was initially developed to track the overseas donation of recovered supplies from Yale-New Haven Hospital, is now being applied to measure approaches to waste reduction. This report summarizes the application of this database to an integrated program designed to modify nursing procedures and physician prespecified supply lists.