IDN Summit, 22 April, Orlando FL
Tecsys-Sponsored a Lunch & Learn program at the recent IDN Summit, “The Transformable Supply Chain” featuring Brent Johnson, Chief Procurement Officer, Intermountain Healthcare; Curtis Dudley, Vice President of Integrated Performance Solutions, Mercy; and Mike Wentling, Chief Solutions Officer, ROi. The discussion focused on the changes in the healthcare supply chain that have driven the development of consolidated service centers/supply chain centers.
It was an especially compelling panel as Mercy & ROi established the first self-distribution operation in healthcare 10 years ago and Intermountain just opened their Supply Chain Center last fall. We have seen a lot of industry movement in this decade! Additionally, the perspectives of the panelists was a unique mix – “in from outside” healthcare, always in healthcare and the coming over from the supplier side to the provider side of the equation.
Brent has come into healthcare supply chain from “outside” as we like to say! He has over 25 year’s experience managing or consulting on best practices in supply chain – and his passion about it is always evident. Curtis has spent his entire career in healthcare, but has moved between clinical supply chain managing OR materials management, to operational supply chain at ROi, now back to his clinical roots at Mercy. Mike came to the clinical-focused side of the equation after a significant career at a number of organizations including Black & Decker, Honeywell and most recently Johnson & Johnson – so, the supplier perspective.
Selected highlights from the panel discussion:
- At Mercy, 10,000 clinicians are scanning product use at the point of care to begin capturing the supply costs associated with different care path outcomes. A key component for the go-forward movement to capture the cost-to-deliver.
- Intermountain is moving away from using the term “physician preference item” and instead is using the name of whatever the category is, like Orthopedic Implants, or Spinal Implants or CRM products. This supports a leveling approach to the management of the overall supply chain.
- ROi is changing to LUM and a rapid pick environment and is incredibly dependent on the use of UDIs (and the associated technology) for the desired successful performance.
The panelists also spoke to the evolution and growth of their organizations. At ROi, for example, they conduct regular audits of their operational performance against industry benchmarks and new product/service offerings to gauge their business performance. If there have been market changes that support a more streamlined operation or makes business sense to change – they complete the evaluation and make the change.
Overall, the panelists see the movement toward consolidated service center maintaining its momentum as more systems develop the leadership needed to guide this strategic decision. C-Suite support was seen as a critical component in driving the changes necessary to become a world-class supply chain!
Arizona State University (ASU), Healthcare Supply Chain Resource Consortium (HSRC) recently released a white paper “Engaging 2013: Health Care Supply Chain Top Trends” that summarizes the last five years of ongoing research. The recurring trends in healthcare supply chain revolve around:
- supply chain as an organizational strategy;
- the importance of collaborative relationships and trust building among trading partners;
- that healthcare reform is accelerating the focus on cost related to outcomes, purchasing for value and the use of UDIs; and finally
- Information technology and data.
All of these areas of focus in healthcare supply chain are full of opportunity to help your organization improve performance and be prepared for the ever-evolving business model. To read more about the research that ASU has done, follow this link: http://wpcarey.asu.edu/hsrc-asu/challenges.cfm
AHRMM & CQO
Have you heard about the Cost, Quality and Outcomes (CQO) Movement being rolled out by AHRMM? If not you probably will soon!
“The AHRMM CQO Movement refers to the intersection of Cost, Quality, and Outcomes, and a more holistic approach to the correlation between cost (of services, products, supplies, etc.), quality (of patient care, services provided), and outcomes (patient safety, well-being, experience and satisfaction), as opposed to approaching each independently. AHRMM has developed a first-of-its-kind training and educational framework to support the CQO Movement and equip supply chain professionals with the skills and expertise they will need to master the intersection of cost, quality, and outcomes.”
AHRMM introduced the CQO Movement to the market in January. There are several educational pieces on their website and it will be discussed thoroughly at the upcoming Annual Conference in July. If you would like to learn more about the movement, you can follow this link: http://www.ahrmm.org/ahrmm/resources_and_tools/cost_quality_outcomes/index.jsp