Seize the Moment: Revamp Your Surgeon Preference Cards for Enhanced Efficiency
Staff turnover and COVID disruption have left many OR teams reliant on outdated preference cards — driving up supply costs, surgeon frustration, and training overhead. Here's why now is the time to fix them.
In healthcare, maintaining a consistent workflow is indispensable to success. This is particularly crucial in the surgical setting, where procedure durations directly impact patient outcomes and the capacity to serve more patients daily. Surgeon preference cards are a primary tool in maintaining organization and efficiency for surgical teams — they store specific procedural requirements, supply lists, and individual surgeon preferences to ensure all supplies, instruments, and patient preparation are ready when the surgeon enters the room.
A Staffing Crisis Has Left Preference Cards Behind
The healthcare industry has seen a massive disruption in staffing. Retirements, staff turnover, and COVID impacts have led to a significant loss of institutional knowledge. New surgical technicians and nurses were left reliant on whatever preference cards existed — many of which were outdated before they even arrived.
Relying on outdated preference cards creates a cascade of problems:
- Increased supply costs — Incorrect cards lead to wasted materials and unnecessary expenses.
- Lower surgeon satisfaction — Inaccurate cards increase frustration, slow communication, and extend operative times.
- Inaccurate inventory — Outdated cards distort stock levels and drive up procedure costs.
- Training difficulties — New staff can’t learn from cards they can’t trust, increasing room turnover time and onboarding friction.
The Window to Act Is Now
Even with a cleanup project underway, ongoing edits and staff training are required to keep preference cards current. The challenge isn’t motivation — it’s process. Most facilities lack the tools to make rapid, accurate updates at scale.
PREFcards solves these problems directly with an intuitive interface, data analytics, AI-suggested edits, and reporting that helps teams identify and prioritize what needs to change — without requiring a full-time card coordinator to manage it manually.
Healthcare organizations that review, analyze, update, and maintain preference cards regularly are the ones positioned to optimize OR efficiency and improve margins. The staffing disruption of the past few years made that harder. The right tools make it possible again.
Book a demo to see how PREFcards can help your team get preference cards current — and keep them that way.