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The US Healthcare Costs Are Skyrocketing
The Majority of U.S. Hospital CEOs Identify Rising Operational Expenses as Their #2 Top Concern
Healthcare’s Financial Pressure Is Reaching a Breaking Point
23 % = $ 6.8 T
U.S Healthcare Expenditure
As % of U.S GDP
7.5 % = $ 2.2 T
Hospital Care Expenditure
As % of U.S GDP
3 % = $ 789 B
ORs' Expenditure
As % of U.S GDP
By 2032, healthcare expenditures will consume an unprecedented 23% of the U.S. GDP, reaching $6.8 trillion. Hospital care expenditures alone are projected to account for 32% of total healthcare spending — $2.2 trillion by 2032, equivalent to 7.5% of GDP.
Faced with surging costs, hospital leaders are urgently searching for actionable ways to combat staffing shortages, reduce compounded operational waste, and improve care quality.
Operating Rooms— A Vital Revenue Engine and a Cost Crisis
By 2032, OR-related expenditures are projected to reach $789 billion annually, representing 3% of the U.S. GDP, underscoring the urgent need for operational transformation.
The Financial Reports Don’t Lie.
While Operating Rooms (ORs) generate substantial revenue, they are also among the largest untapped cost centers in hospital operations. OR inefficiencies contribute heavily to hospital waste and resource misuse — from single-use items and surgical instruments to surplus tools and inefficient staff utilization.
OR Performance Optimization is The Most Immediate, Overlooked Opportunity to Unlock Millions in Hospital Savings
The U.S. Nursing Workforce Crisis: A System Under Pressure
Nursing Workforce Crisis #1 Top Concern Among U.S. Hospital CEOs
The U.S. Is Already Short Over 500,000 Registered Nurses — and the Gap Is Growing
According to the McKinsey Health Institute (2023), the U.S. will need 1.3 million additional RNs by 2032 just to meet growing healthcare demand.
The American Nurses Association (ANA) projects
a potential shortfall of 1.6 million RNs by 2032, driven by rising demand, retirement, and attrition trends.
A 2023 study by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) found that over 100,000 nurses left the profession in 2021–2022 alone, and that more than 20% of nurses plan to exit within five years.
Even pre-COVID projections by the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis (2017) anticipated a 28.4% surge in RN demand nationwide by 2030 —
a crisis long in the making.
The staffing challenges are intensified by overwhelming manual workloads, leading to burnout and exits. A recent national survey conducted in the U.S. involving over 20,000 healthcare providers reported that of the respondents
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38% reported symptoms of anxiety or depression
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49% reported suffering from burnout
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43% experienced work overload
The Shortage is More than a Numbers Crisis
It’s Driving Burnout, Turnover, and Rising Financial Pressure
The Operational Consequences
How the RN Shortage Disrupts Hospital Performance
Escalating Staffing Costs
To fill critical gaps, hospitals are increasingly dependent on high-cost traveling nurses, inflating budgets while sacrificing continuity of care.
Compounding the issue, wage increases needed to attract and retain permanent staff are placing further financial strain on already tight operating margins.
Surgical Delays and Cancellations
Shortages in perioperative staff, coupled with inefficient manual workflows, directly reduce surgical throughput.
Compromised Infection Control and Care Quality
The result: delayed procedures, more cancellations, and growing patient backlogs. All of which impact revenue and access to care.
Operating room nurses play a pivotal role in maintaining sterile fields and conducting accurate surgical counts.
Staffing gaps increase the likelihood of retained surgical items (RSIs), procedural errors, and hospital-acquired infections.
All tied to human fatigue and operational overload.
Declining Team Efficiency and Morale
Overextended teams face rising stress, communication breakdowns, and burnout, leading to reduced performance, lower staff retention, and a ripple effect on overall OR safety and efficiency
Uncovering the Root Causes of OR Inefficiencies
The Role of Perioperative Nurses
Critical Care Burdened by Outdated Workflows
Among the U.S. registered Nurse workforce, 10–15% specialize in perioperative care, serving critical roles before, during, and after surgical procedures. Managing every detail across the pre-, intra-, and post-operative phases is a Sisyphean task of endless manual work — one that perioperative nurses are burdened to carry.
Despite being the heart of surgical care, today’s ORs remain burdened by outdated workflows,
with up to 95% of tasks still performed manually.
Excessive instrument preparation, lack of real-time data, and inefficient documentation lead to prolonged delays, frequent turnover issues, and critical strain on perioperative teams. Diverted from Caregiving, Perioperative Nurses Spend 40% of Their Time on Repetitive Administrative and Logistical Tasks —
A major source of frustration and burnout.
Operating rooms' essential yet labor-intensive duties are not only time-consuming but also highly error-prone, contributing to RNs' burnout and retention challenges. The shift away from caregiving toward administrative overload is driving up to 40% of perioperative nurses seeking for alternative careers each year.
Surgical Procedure Risks
Extended Anesthesia Risks
Unnecessary anesthesia durations increase the potential for complications, worsening outcomes by 14%.
Retained Surgical Objects
Occurring in 0.4% of cases, these critical oversight issues can have serious consequences for patient safety
Elevated Infection Risks
Inefficiencies in the Room's sterilization process pre-, intra-, and post-surgical procedures heighten the likelihood of infection.
Instrument and Inventory Management
Underutilized Instruments
50%–65% of surgical instruments prepared for procedures remain unused, highlighting inefficiencies in planning and preparation
Instrument Oversight
Recounts and mismanaged supplies delay surgeries by 30–120 minutes, increasing turnover times,
significantly reducing efficiency.
Surgical Delays
Substantial delays occur in 12.5% of surgeries, negatively impacting both patient outcomes and operational efficiency.
Staffing & Documentation Challenges
Manual Documentation Burden
Post-op reporting takes 20–35 minutes, relies on memory recall - leading to delays, stress, and potential records inaccuracies
OR Communication Burden
OR nurses act as messengers, relaying instructions and retrieving supplies — distracting from surgical focus.
Sterile Processing Overload
Excess instruments drive up labor costs, slow equipment turnaround, and waste water and energy through unnecessary re-sterilization
What Could Possibly Go Wrong in the Operating Room?
When Staff Shortages, Manual Processes, Overloaded Trays, Manual Counting, and Human Error Converge — The Patient Pays the Price
Healthcare Quality Issues & Patient Safety Are a Major Concern
Despite their critical role, most Operating Rooms in 2025 still operate under layers of outdated, manual processes. These inefficiencies don’t just add up — they compound.
Manual counting, over-preparation of surgical items, and automatic opening of disposables result in widespread waste: valuable OR time, overburdened nursing staff, and costly resources. Surgical kits are routinely overstocked, and studies show that up to 75% of items are prepared, sterilized, and counted — yet never used.
Combined with a Global Shortage of Nurses, the Result is a Deeply Strained Perioperative Environment.
With 95% of nursing tasks still performed manually, delays of 30 to 120 minutes per procedure have become the norm.These inefficiencies not only drive up costs, they compromise care quality, increase the risk of error, and limit timely access to surgeries, adding billions in avoidable expense to an already overwhelmed U.S. healthcare system.
“We Can’t Operate Today.”
Surgery Delays Become Normalized
In today’s ORs, outdated workflows and mounting staffing shortages converge to delay surgeries, increase risks, and compromise the very care hospitals are built to provide.
Staffing gaps, prolonged preparation times, and manual recounting inefficiencies limit surgical throughput and extend turnover times — leading to delays of days, or even weeks, for scheduled procedures.
Fewer available RNs result in longer turnover times and fewer surgeries performed each day, directly limiting access to timely care.
Patients with serious conditions are forced to wait longer, worsening outcomes and creating backlogs across the entire healthcare system.
“We left something inside.”
Avoidable Errors and Patient Harm
Manual workflows, staffing shortages, and operational overload continue to create preventable errors — even in today's most advanced surgical settings.
Despite strict protocols, manual counting remains highly vulnerable to human error. In 12.5% of surgeries, discrepancies in surgical counts require time-consuming recounts, delaying procedures and increasing stress for surgical teams.
Nonetheless, the AORN’s 2022 survey revealed that only 47% of perioperative staff consistently report counting discrepancies
This Suggests That The True Frequency of Surgical Count Errors May Be Significantly Higher Than Reported
In 0.4% of surgeries, a missing item raises the suspicion of a retained surgical object (RSI), requiring intraoperative X-rays, extending anesthesia time by
45–60 minutes, and increasing the risk of complications, particularly among elderly and high-risk patients.
In rare but critical cases (1 in 5,500 surgeries), a retained surgical object is confirmed after closure, leading to reoperations, potential lawsuits, and profound emotional and professional consequences for surgical teams.
Today's Operating Rooms: Equipped for Surgery, Not for Efficiency
Acknowledging the vast array of inefficiencies in the OR is essential to understanding the urgent need for innovation. Hospitals must move beyond outdated, manual systems to intelligent, data-driven environments that reduce workflow burdens, improve outcomes, and significantly enhance patient safety. Leading health systems recognize that optimizing OR operations is no longer optional — it’s critical to financial sustainability, workforce resilience, and care quality.
To move forward, ORs must shift from manual, paper-based processes to integrated ecosystems that streamline tasks, eliminate waste, and enable surgical teams to focus on clinical excellence. Hospitals that will embrace this transformation won’t just achieve substantial cost savings — they’ll lead the next wave of healthcare innovation
What If We Could Unlock a 52% Reduction in OR Costs and Waste Through Smarter, Scalable Innovation?
Optimization of OR's Efficiency is a Key Factor to Significant Cost Reduction and Improved Financial Performance
TrackiMed Answers the Urgent Call from Hospital Leadership with a Purpose-Built Solution
TrackiMed is an early-stage MedTech company founded in direct response to growing demands from hospital leaders for innovative, scalable solutions.
We are developing Tracki, a real-time, nurse-centric AI platform designed to empower surgical teams with unmatched efficiency and precision. Tracki will deliver real-time tracking, actionable insights, and fully automated 'time-out' documentation, dramatically reducing friction in the surgical workflow.
Our vision is to transform the operating room into a dynamic, responsive, and intelligently automated environment. Tracki will replace today’s Sisyphean manual tasks with advanced digitization and automation, streamlining every logistical detail before, during, and after surgery.
By doing so, Tracki will significantly reduce nursing burden while driving measurable improvements in efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and patient safety
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