How a 3-OR ENT Surgery Center Identified $160K+ in Annual Savings With PREFcards

Overview

A 3-OR single-specialty ENT surgery center implemented PREFcards to standardize and optimize preference cards across all surgeons, focusing on their highest-volume procedure: tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy (T&A). The result: over $160,000 in potential annual savings from just two preference cards, a 65× return on the center’s investment, plus measurable improvements in supply waste, picking accuracy, and OR turnover.

The setting

A 3-OR single-specialty ENT ambulatory surgery center, performing high volumes of tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy alongside the rest of the standard ENT surgical mix. Like most ASCs that haven’t gone through systematic preference card review, the center’s cards had drifted over time — accumulating items across surgeons, picking up legacy supplies, and developing significant variance between cards that should have been substantially similar.

The challenge

Inaccurate preference cards are a recognized industry problem. They drive increased costs, OR delays, supply waste, and frustration for the surgical staff who have to work around them every case [1].

For this center, the variance was most pronounced in their most common procedure family — tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. Different surgeons had cards with substantially different supply lists for the same procedure. Some cards contained items that hadn’t been opened in years. The clerical work of maintaining the cards in spreadsheets and Word documents was itself a meaningful drain on time.

The PREFcards approach

The implementation focused on three concurrent workflows:

1. Standardization across surgeons — surfacing variance between cards for the same procedure and identifying which surgeon’s approach was driving the best outcomes
2. The Procedure Costs report — quantifying the per-case cost variance and identifying best practices that could be adopted system-wide
3. AI Card Suggestions — automatically flagging items with low or zero open rates, prompting card-by-card cleanup based on actual usage and waste data

Critically, no surgeon had to change technique. The optimization focused on supply selection and card hygiene — not clinical decision-making.

The results

Cost savings

• $160,000+ in potential annual savings identified by optimizing just two preference cards (tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy)
• 65× return on the center’s investment in PREFcards
• One surgeon’s more efficient T&A method, when surfaced through the Procedure Costs report and adopted by others, could cut operating time roughly in half

Efficiency improvements

• PREFcards’ advisor tool identified wasted supplies in recurring procedures
• Automated card selection saved clerical time previously spent maintaining spreadsheets and printed cards
• Detailed reporting on case durations improved time management and scheduling accuracy
• Industry benchmark: facilities using digital preference card management see a 13% reduction in the average number of items picked per case [2]

Operational benefits

• 22% reduction in cases with unused items returned to inventory
• 10% reduction in wasted items within cases
• 60% reduction in case picking errors
• Decreased setup delays thanks to detailed notes and setup photos directly on each card
• Easier case scheduling enabled by accurate duration data

What the surgical team noticed

The note feature in PREFcards (especially for specific items) helps OR staff confidence by labeling what certain supplies are for (right under it) and how to use/prepare them as well. At our surgery center, we tend to assign our techs/circulators to the same surgeons, so when one is sick or on vacation, this feature is a lifesaver to prevent delays — especially pictures of set ups!

— Pia, Surgical Tech

Industry context

The results at this ENT center are consistent with what other organizations have reported when preference card management is taken seriously:

• The University of Washington saved over $1 million through systematic preference card optimization [3]
• One large health system projected $5–7 million in annual savings across multiple surgical departments through preference card cleanup [4]
• Across the industry, standardized preference cards can reduce variation in surgical supply costs by up to 30%

These aren’t isolated wins. They’re what happens when surgical programs apply the same operational discipline to preference cards that they already apply to clinical care.

Key takeaways

• Cost reduction — identifying and standardizing best practices drives meaningful supply cost reductions, even from a small number of high-volume cards
• Time savings — automated card selection and detailed setup instructions reduce delays and improve OR turnover
• Improved accuracy — AI-driven suggestions ensure cards reflect actual usage, reducing over-picking and stockouts
• Staff satisfaction — clear instructions and consistent setups reduce stress and protect against disruptions when familiar staff are absent
• Data-driven decisions — detailed cost and time reports enable continuous improvement in OR processes

Ready to see what your preference cards could save?

If your ASC or surgical program is still managing preference cards in spreadsheets, Word documents, or paper — or even in EHR-embedded modules that weren’t built for the OR — the savings opportunity is almost certainly hiding in plain sight. The center in this case study found $160K+ on just two procedures.

Book a demo to see what PREFcards could surface in yours.

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Sources

1. IMO Health, “Preference Cards 101: The Key to Maximizing OR Utilization”
2. NCBI, “Quality Improvement Project to Reduce Surgical Instrument Sterilization Costs”
3. Vizient Inc., “Physician preference cards: How a small card can lead to big savings in the operating room”
4. OR Manager, “Preference card cleanup projected to cut costs across departments”