Rising health expenditures lead to increasing budgetary pressures, which often manifest in budget managers seeking more for the same resources or trying to maintain the status quo with less. Consequently, enablers that drive efficiencies throughout the entire care pathway have come under increasing focus. This is particularly true in the operating room (OR) setting where considerations around operational efficiency, clinical excellence, and patient-centered care pose challenging questions. While a comprehensive solution set should be formulated, small parts of the solution can be applied now to prime systems for easy integration into future solutions. The objective of this analysis was to estimate the impact of combining custom healthcare solutions for cataract surgery from the perspective of a Russian hospital.

A decision-analytic model was developed to assess the aggregated impact of combining the following products or services for cataract surgery: an intraocular lens delivery-system; process-redesign; a phacoemulsification machine; and a phaco tip. The model and underlying assumptions were validated by clinical experts. OR time-savings was chosen as the variable of efficiency underpinning the analysis. Inputs were estimated from the literature, expert opinion, and the local cost databases. Two scenarios were defined that reflected technologies commonly used in surgical practice. The model scenarios assumed that a hospital performs 2,000 cataract procedures per year, with 100 percent adoption and equal acquisition costs.

Choosing a combination of healthcare solutions for cataract surgery was associated with an incremental benefit of RUB5,935,982 per year (EUR71,364) and generated an OR time saving of approximately 237 cataract procedures.

This analysis highlighted that, compared with treating technologies on an individual level, combining healthcare solutions commonly used for cataract surgery has the potential to drive efficiencies and cost savings for hospitals and to reduce surgical wait lists.