As hospitals navigate rising costs, workforce shortages, and increasingly complex surgical environments, one area remains stubbornly under-optimized: perioperative supply chain management. While shortages make headlines, the more costly issue may be what’s sitting idle—undocumented, misused, or expired.
Based on real-world hospital data, this article reveals the financial risks hiding in your OR inventory and shows how hospitals are reclaiming millions in lost value through AI-powered visibility.
OR Inventory: High Value, High Vulnerability
The OR may represent just 6% of a hospital’s footprint—but it can generate up to 70% of hospital revenue. That same concentration of value brings operational risk.
At a 700-bed tertiary hospital, a specialty OR cart held over $835,000 in untracked inventory. Without real-time capture, that stock risked expiration, misplacement, or undocumented use.
The real risk isn’t just missing items—it’s the millions in silent stock sitting uncounted.
Charge Capture Gaps = Revenue Left Behind
At a 600-bed regional hospital in Washington, manual workflows caused nurses to spend over 13 minutes per case documenting supply usage—resulting in frequent omissions.
By implementing Snap&Go AI cameras at point of use:
- Charge capture accuracy rose to 100%
- Procedure documentation time fell by 75%
These improvements helped prevent loss of high-dollar implant charges and reduced claim denials—both key to sustainable revenue cycle integrity.
According to Becker’s, hospitals lose between 1% and 5% of net revenue due to poor surgical documentation.
Off-Contract and Price Variability
IDENTI case studies reveal staggering price gaps:
- Same product, different hospitals: One trauma center sourced a critical-use orthopedic plate at $68, while another site paid $512—a 7.5x price gap for the same SKU.
- Unclear status: At a 1,000-bed academic hospital, nurses often couldn’t identify whether an implant was hospital-owned, consigned, or bill-only—leading to misbilled or unbilled use.
Pricing transparency requires point-of-use visibility—not just better contracts.
Consignment: Convenience or Blind Spot?
At a national referral hospital, periodic audits found expired consignment items worth over $24,000. These high-value products were stocked by vendors but not tracked in any digital system.
After deploying Snap&Go:
- Expired stock incidents dropped by 80%
- All usage was digitally matched to ERP and EHR
According to Vizient, 30% of hospital executives lack visibility into consignment performance—a dangerous blind spot for revenue cycle and compliance.
SKU Sprawl and Wasted Inventory
In a European multi-hospital group, IDENTI found over 190 SKUs duplicated across 5 facilities, with total use under 12 units annually. This duplication:
- Consumed shelf space
- Inflated procurement budgets
- Created expiration risk across sites
After rationalization using IDENTI’s UDI analysis, the hospital reduced unnecessary SKUs by 22%, freeing capital and simplifying replenishment.
Healthcare must manage shelf space as if every square foot costs money—because it does.
High-Dollar, Low-Turn Items = Audit Exposure
In a 450-bed cardiovascular and pulmonary center, Snap&Go identified high-cost implants (> $5,000/unit) that had no traceable documentation—posing major financial and regulatory risk.
After automation:
- All implants were auto-captured
- Data was sent in real time to billing teams
- Risk of underbilling was eliminated
These improvements supported better case costing, faster billing cycles, and defensible audit trails.
Perioperative Supply Chain Management: From Invisibility to Intelligence
Perioperative inventory mismanagement isn’t just a supply chain problem—it’s a revenue cycle crisis. From missed charges to off-contract leakage, expired stock to duplicate SKUs, the hidden costs are real.
But hospitals already have the answer: AI-powered capture, UDI-based visibility, and full ERP/EHR integration at the point of use.
The hospitals that act now aren’t just reducing waste. They’re reclaiming capital, accelerating reimbursement, and restoring clarity to the most critical zone in the hospital: the operating room.
Want to see how much hidden revenue your OR and perioperative supply chain management might be sitting on?
