The healthcare industry is constantly in a state of change. In particular, the shift from service-based to value-based reimbursement puts pressure on healthcare organizations to innovate, increase efficiency, and control costs—all without impacting the quality of care.
One area that can have a big impact on costs and efficiency is supply chain management. According to Premier’s C-Suite Survey, 65 percent of healthcare C-suite leaders intend to increase their efforts to control the cost of care management. The same survey reveals that 53 percent of them will increase their efforts to integrate data from disparate sources and/or make investments in analytics, and 50 percent will increase their efforts to improve interoperability of existing health technology. All of these factors impact operating costs and margins.
Unfortunately, the traditional supply chain process has been painstakingly complex to manage, let alone optimize. While many organizations have made significant strides in improving their day-to-day processes, there are opportunities to create additional savings without compromising quality, particularly in areas around clinical preference items. In most organizations, clinical utilization and supply chain information lives in separate silos with data residing in multiple systems and databases, giving little insight into true supply usage.
Below are three ways healthcare organizations can make strides towards better, more efficient supply chain management.