Preference Card Specialist

Yale New Haven Health•New Haven, CT

About The Position

The Preference Card & Product Standardization Specialist maintains accurate, system-level surgeon and physician preference and procedure cards; identifies and implements product standardization opportunities with clinical teams; removes low-acuity, unused items; and reviews automated system recommendations and refreshes to identify and complete necessary manual interventions. The role supports reliable clinical workflows, cost stewardship, and effective supply utilization across the perioperative continuum, in close collaboration with physician partners. The specialist maintains standardized, version-controlled preference cards across sites and specialties, reviews case setups and card contents with service line champions, and ensures alignment with catalog, master item, EHR/OR, and inventory systems. The role uses utilization, spending, clinical outcomes, OR feedback, and other data to recommend changes, build evidence-based business cases, coordinate clinical consensus and change implementation, and measure resulting savings and operational impacts. The specialist also monitors automated system updates, removes or reduces unused items according to governance rules and clinical sign-off, communicates changes to affected teams, and helps prevent removed items from being reintroduced. Occasional work in OR or procedural areas is required for observation and validation, along with walking and standing during audits.

Requirements

Graduate of an accredited school of nursing or completion of a Surgical Tech Program.
Three to five years of experience in perioperative services, supply chain, value analysis, or clinical operations.
Proficiency with preference card management in OR/EHR systems, such as Epic OpTime, Epic Slicer Dicer, Q-Site, or Clarium.
Strong data skills, including analysis of cost, utilization, and SKU equivalency.
Excel proficiency.
Excellent facilitation and communication skills for clinician collaboration and change management.
Ability to review supply locations and trays; moderate walking and standing during audits.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in Nursing (BSN) or a related clinical field.
Background in nursing, surgical technology, or sterile processing.
Experience with reporting and analytics tools such as Smartsheet, Power BI, or Tableau, and project-tracking/documentation tools such as SharePoint, Teams, or Smartsheet.

Responsibilities

Maintain an accurate, standardized, version-controlled repository of physician preference cards across sites and specialties.
Lead routine reviews with service line champions to validate case setups, item lists, quantities, substitutes, tray configurations, and sequencing.
Implement governance standards for naming, categorization, effective and expiry dates, and approval workflows.
Monitor utilization data and OR feedback to update preference cards for accuracy and performance.
Ensure preference cards align with catalog and master item files, EHR/OR systems, and inventory systems.
Analyze utilization, spending, and clinical outcomes data to identify product standardization candidates, including equivalent SKUs and duplicative items.
Develop evidence-based business cases using clinical efficacy, safety, cost, and supply resilience considerations.
Facilitate consensus among physicians, nursing, sterile processing, supply chain, and value analysis committees.
Coordinate product trials and change-management activities, including education, substitution mapping, stocking changes, and preference card updates.
Track realized savings, SKU reduction, clinician satisfaction, and throughput impacts.
Identify low-acuity items with no documented use using pick and usage reports, charge capture, waste logs, and feedback.
Remove unused items or reduce quantities under governance rules and clinical sign-off, ensuring safe alternatives remain available.
Communicate changes to affected teams and update par levels and inventory to prevent removed items from being reintroduced.
Measure and report waste reduction, cost avoidance, and setup-efficiency gains.
Monitor scheduled and automated refreshes, including item master updates, EHR/OR preference card synchronization, and price file changes.
Review automated system recommendations and refreshes, identifying and performing required manual interventions.
Use reporting, analytics, project-tracking, and documentation tools as applicable.
Conduct occasional observation and validation in OR or procedural areas and review supply locations and trays during audits.