Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The TEN (10) Commandments for Hospital and Healthcare Supply Chain Leaders
__________________________________________________________________________________
Healthcare and Hospital Supply Chain (and Materials Management) professionals know that there are several Golden Rules that they adhere to in their daily lives. There are also 10 Commandments.
There are 3 considerations that all supply chain staff members must remember for new products or services to be introduced to a hospital: 1. Safety 2. Safety 3. Safety
ONLY after considering all safety issues, the Supply Chain Department can then consider cost and Value.
An unsupportive physician, clinician, or other staff member can be a weak link in your Supply Chain, and cause irreparable harm. Collaboration is the key. If you have reasons for change, the reasons need to be discussed, explained, understood, and eventually agreed to. Your staff needs to know why the new process or product is better, what is expected of them to make it better, what is in it for them and how they will benefit. All too often employees are handed what they believe to be orders or mandates with what they believe to be a lack of communication, which they also believe is a lack of care or understanding. If they knew cost cutting measures were being implemented in response to the hospital dealing with economic issues, they may be better able to understand and cope, as they see it, with the changes. Sometimes what is in it for them is saving a fellow staff members job, or even their own. If the benefit is mostly financial, your hospital may need professional help in developing a strategy in dealing with a staff that has been somewhat complacent over the years, and is having a hard time dealing with economic realities of reduced reimbursements and rising costs. Hospitals confront challenges with regard to nursing involvement, and sometimes have difficulty engaging nurses at all levels. Everything from bedside to management; growing demands to participate in more, often duplicative, quality improvement activities; the burdensome nature of data collection and reporting. Securing their Buy-In is absolutely necessary for actions or programs undertaken by any The most important things that any hospital administrators or Supply Chain Staff can do to insure Buy-In is to do the following: Let your entire staff know their input is important Consult everyone who will be affected by decisions Minimize time burdens on your staff Report back to everyone who gave ideas or input Invite Important Individuals to Staff/Value Analysis meetings
Consultant Assistance
All Plans must have Realistic Goals if they are to be successful. If you meet with your senior staffers and they believe that what you are asking them to do will simply not work (like asking nurses to work 3 hours OT every other day without pay), you need to reconsider your Plan. A Realistic Goal may be to cut expenses across the board by 10% because you know other hospitals have done so, and you can look
Even the most trivial of jobs can be motivating if the manager helps their staff put into context the value the work brings towards making the total hospital experience better for the patient. Work that many see as demanding (like being a nurse), may well become inspirational the nurse is not regularly given the opportunity to extend their responsibilities, and shown the recognition for their ideas. The key is to understand that there is a lot of work involved in understanding that all levels of a hospital staff need this recognition for a job well done. After all, dirty elevators and bathrooms may be noticed more than other perfectly cleaned and disinfected rooms throughout the hospital
The Sixth (6th) Commandment: THOU SHALT BASE BUYING DECISIONS ON COST TRANSPARENCIES AND SYSTAMATIC PROCESSES
Every Hospital has increased challenges in todays economic environment with decreasing reimbursement, escalating costs, and demand for improved quality. This places an increased reliance on efficient medical operations and Effective Cost Management. Effective Cost Management is a continuing approach through educated cost transparency, implemented with a systematic process. Effective Medical Cost Management from a supply chain perspective focuses on a hospital achieving a desired cost without sacrificing with the organizations quality standards. Maintaining this balance at the desired level should be the goal for all supply chain efforts. What exactly is COST TRANSPARENCY? In 10 words or less, Cost Transparency is knowing that you are getting the absolute best price from a particular vendor.
Which is better:
A) Your Vendor Rep tells you that the price you are paying for a particular joint is the Best possible price (for a hospital your size) B) Your Vendor Rep tells you that he could get fired if he were to offer you any more of a discount on the joint agreement that you signed last year C) Your Vendor Rep tells you the only way for you to guarantee the LOW price he gave you last year, is for you to sign a 2 year extension of your current agreement D) You confirming on your own if you can get the joints at a better price, because you believe in Cost Transparency Without getting into whether your Sales Rep would fudge on the truth, odds are that D is the best solution. Even if you find out that the Sales Rep was being absolutely honest, you will have done a better job, because word gets around between vendor companies if you are an easy target, or if you do your homework and thus demand lower pricing. As far as a SYSTAMATIC PROCESS , this can include the prioritizing of categories based on their savings potential, or any other logical approach towards targeting a reduction or analysis of your current spend. Fast results will create momentum and provide much needed support for your program. The process you develop should include a structured format which will not simply rely on the information you learn from your GPO or other benchmarking service. There are professional consulting companies that can assist in this area, especially with more expensive, PPI purchases.
Although there is widespread concern over the rising costs associated with the healthcare industry, as well as a reduction in reimbursements across the board , quality and safety must remain as the main goal when analyzing any products or procedures to be used in any hospital, in an effort to STANDARDIZE. The complexity associated with healthcare supply chain presents significant challenges when a hospital attempt to eliminate or reduce the waste in an effort to lower costs.
There is no balancing that must be considered. Rather, healthcare workers must prioritizeSAFETY and QUALITY FIRST, then and only then, and all things being equal, cost savings through standardization second.
By: Dennis Stewart, Streamline Savings, LLC For comments or questions: dennis@streamlinesavings.com www.linkedin.com/in/dennisstewart1