Patient supplies charging procedures to change Oct. 1 for inpatient areas

In response to employee feedback, inpatient clinical staff will no longer need to scan and charge for patient supplies, effective Oct. 1. 

This applies to inpatient areas only. ORs, procedural areas, emergency departments and outpatient/ambulatory sites are not included. The change does not include durable medical equipment (DME).

Beginning Oct. 1, patient care items in inpatient unit supply rooms will be “grab and go;” clinical staff may take supplies needed without charging directly to patients. The change was prompted by concerns about the burden on nursing staff to manually charge patient supplies and the resources needed to perform back-end billing audits to validate charges. These audits showed that insurance companies are less likely to reimburse for these supplies.

Once the change takes effect, nurses will no longer see white and blue labels on supplies and ParEx buttons next to the product label, nor need to use borrow cards. Materials Management team members will replenish patient care units’ supplies inventory.

More information will be available in unit huddles and on flyers in supply areas. Questions? Contact your local Materials Management representative.