Could You Save $3 Million By Putting Your Budget on a Diet?

A few other keys to success at Floyd Memorial, Donatelli says, are their:

1. Ability to gather the data necessary to make decisions quickly.
2. Creation of a consistent documentation process to help support decisions.
3. Consistency and support from executive leadership of the program.
4. Enthusiastic management of the program, including visual reminders such as posters that included their guiding principles, for the rest of the staff to see.
5. Healthy competition; by having each team report out their supply stats and encouraging them to do better than their peers.

"You gotta keep it fun and interactive and look for creative ways to keep your staff engaged. After all, they are really not there to save the hospital money; they're there to save lives," she says.

As with all diets, once you've lost the weight your battle isn't over. Generally you must look for ways to tone up and maintain your loss—which is why Floyd Memorial's people don't intend to rest on their laurels. Miller says they are continuing to look at other non-salary cost reduction opportunities, including those around purchased services and physician preference items to drive long-term, sustained results. Now that's an approach that should keep their facility lean for many years to come.