This white paper outlines a four step guide for healthcare providers to elevate their operational health: 1) seek customized solutions tailored to their unique needs and challenges; 2) effectively manage their non-labor spend, which accounts for up to 50% of costs; 3) leverage innovative technologies, products, and services; and 4) adopt best practices from successful provider-led models. The paper provides examples of how partnerships with experienced organizations have helped providers implement these steps to significantly reduce costs while maintaining or improving care.
In recent years, medical device manufacturers have embarked on an acquisition binge. We’ve seen a series of blockbuster deals as well as numerous smaller transactions. This M&A bonanza has been sparked in part by the belief that absolute scale creates competitive advantage.
But does it? In many other industries, we find a clear correlation between overall scale and profitability. Classic strategy has long focused on building scale because larger companies tend to wield more influence with customers and have a greater ability to maintain pricing discipline. They also benefit from the most accumulated experience with driving down costs and can spread costs over the widest base of business.
Yet in medtech, the correlation between industry scale and profitability is quite weak. Instead, Bain research shows that profitability is more a function of category leadership than overall scale.
Historically, the medical device industry has been highly attractive and relatively stable. As a consequence, established players have been able to compete successfully across the device spectrum, applying common business models and processes without much need for differentiation.
The future, however, is very different as disruptive change is underway. Companies will need to look at new segments and offer end-to-end solutions to secure additional revenue and maintain their profit margins.
In recent years, medical device manufacturers have embarked on an acquisition binge. We’ve seen a series of blockbuster deals as well as numerous smaller transactions. This M&A bonanza has been sparked in part by the belief that absolute scale creates competitive advantage.
But does it? In many other industries, we find a clear correlation between overall scale and profitability. Classic strategy has long focused on building scale because larger companies tend to wield more influence with customers and have a greater ability to maintain pricing discipline. They also benefit from the most accumulated experience with driving down costs and can spread costs over the widest base of business.
Yet in medtech, the correlation between industry scale and profitability is quite weak. Instead, Bain research shows that profitability is more a function of category leadership than overall scale.
Historically, the medical device industry has been highly attractive and relatively stable. As a consequence, established players have been able to compete successfully across the device spectrum, applying common business models and processes without much need for differentiation.
The future, however, is very different as disruptive change is underway. Companies will need to look at new segments and offer end-to-end solutions to secure additional revenue and maintain their profit margins.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution will permanently change how medical device companies do business. Historically, the medical device industry has created tremendous value via the creation of therapeutic devices. It is now time for the industry to invest more effort in analytics-based solutions that enable seamless, real-time care management.
Deloitte research found that while many medtech companies are well-positioned to drive the future of health, they likely won’t be able to do it alone. Rather than focusing on making incremental
improvements to their devices, they should focus on using transformative and cognitive technologies
to enhance products and offer services. They could do this by developing or partnering to acquire
sophisticated data analytics capabilities, getting much closer to the consumer, and leveraging new
cognitive technologies to improve operations.
Healthcare Supply Chain Management in the USLevi Shapiro
Healthcare Supply Chain Management in the US, presentation by Robert Burkholder, SVP Supply Chain, Jefferson Health System. Delivered on May 11, 2021 for mHealth Israel. Includes an overview of Jefferson, organization chart for Supply Chain Management department, overview of financing Healthcare in the US, discussion about M&A in the US healthcare providers sector, description of how Payers, Providers and Supliers are chasing scale, Jefferson's merger timeline, approach toward Integrating Legacy Supply Chain Departments, breakdown of the Fragile Global Supply Chain, efforts toward Supply Chain Resiliency, Value analysis in the healthcare supply chain, Enterprise Value Analysis, Strategic Sourcing and Purchasing, strategic sourcing model, Sourcing Prioritization Pipeline, Proposed prioritization map, Sourcing Prioritization Matrix, Advanced Analytics
This presentation gives an insight into the membership benefits of Best Practices, LLC’s Medical Affairs Consortium. It also highlights some of the key benchmarks and best practices that emerged from Medical Affairs Consortium.
The Medical Affairs Consortium at Best Practices, LLC provides a dedicated platform to Medical Affairs Leaders to discuss top challenges, develop action oriented solutions, share best practices & lessons learned and explore current and future trends with regards to the Medical Affairs function and its interactions with other critical functions.
Topics for the Medical Affairs Consortium are usually determined by member requests. The Medical Affairs Consortium addresses three key areas:
• Building Strong Medical Affairs Capabilities
• Medical Affairs Launch Support Excellence
• Medical Affairs’ Critical Role in Health Economics & Outcomes Research
PYA Highlights Next Steps of Meaningful UsePYA, P.C.
At the 2013 AICPA Healthcare Industry Conference, PYA Principal David McMillan and Senior Manager Chris Wilson recently explored the “new normal” of meaningful use as compliance and strategic standards in new care/reimbursement-model development.
The 12 Fundamental Best Practices of Supply Chain ManagementIntalere
This article highlights the fundamental best practices of healthcare supply chain management. Intalere assists our customers in managing their entire non-labor spend, providing innovative technologies, products and services, and leveraging the best practices of a provider-led model.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution will permanently change how medical device companies do business. Historically, the medical device industry has created tremendous value via the creation of therapeutic devices. It is now time for the industry to invest more effort in analytics-based solutions that enable seamless, real-time care management.
Deloitte research found that while many medtech companies are well-positioned to drive the future of health, they likely won’t be able to do it alone. Rather than focusing on making incremental
improvements to their devices, they should focus on using transformative and cognitive technologies
to enhance products and offer services. They could do this by developing or partnering to acquire
sophisticated data analytics capabilities, getting much closer to the consumer, and leveraging new
cognitive technologies to improve operations.
Healthcare Supply Chain Management in the USLevi Shapiro
Healthcare Supply Chain Management in the US, presentation by Robert Burkholder, SVP Supply Chain, Jefferson Health System. Delivered on May 11, 2021 for mHealth Israel. Includes an overview of Jefferson, organization chart for Supply Chain Management department, overview of financing Healthcare in the US, discussion about M&A in the US healthcare providers sector, description of how Payers, Providers and Supliers are chasing scale, Jefferson's merger timeline, approach toward Integrating Legacy Supply Chain Departments, breakdown of the Fragile Global Supply Chain, efforts toward Supply Chain Resiliency, Value analysis in the healthcare supply chain, Enterprise Value Analysis, Strategic Sourcing and Purchasing, strategic sourcing model, Sourcing Prioritization Pipeline, Proposed prioritization map, Sourcing Prioritization Matrix, Advanced Analytics
This presentation gives an insight into the membership benefits of Best Practices, LLC’s Medical Affairs Consortium. It also highlights some of the key benchmarks and best practices that emerged from Medical Affairs Consortium.
The Medical Affairs Consortium at Best Practices, LLC provides a dedicated platform to Medical Affairs Leaders to discuss top challenges, develop action oriented solutions, share best practices & lessons learned and explore current and future trends with regards to the Medical Affairs function and its interactions with other critical functions.
Topics for the Medical Affairs Consortium are usually determined by member requests. The Medical Affairs Consortium addresses three key areas:
• Building Strong Medical Affairs Capabilities
• Medical Affairs Launch Support Excellence
• Medical Affairs’ Critical Role in Health Economics & Outcomes Research
PYA Highlights Next Steps of Meaningful UsePYA, P.C.
At the 2013 AICPA Healthcare Industry Conference, PYA Principal David McMillan and Senior Manager Chris Wilson recently explored the “new normal” of meaningful use as compliance and strategic standards in new care/reimbursement-model development.
The 12 Fundamental Best Practices of Supply Chain ManagementIntalere
This article highlights the fundamental best practices of healthcare supply chain management. Intalere assists our customers in managing their entire non-labor spend, providing innovative technologies, products and services, and leveraging the best practices of a provider-led model.
in order to meet cost reduction targets, CMOs
* Share patient data across ecosystems
* Embed shared organizational intelligence
* Establish guidance for quality & cost within physician workflows
* Prepare physician leaders to create a culture of continual improvement
The Foundations of Success in Population Health ManagementHealth Catalyst
From hospital systems to large employers, organizations are increasingly taking on financial risk for the health of populations. Drivers of this trend include the update to the MSSP model, the recent CMS Primary Cares Initiative announcement, the increasing prevalence of the Medicare Advantage model, innovative partnerships in the self-insured employer space, and the proliferation of Medicaid ACOs. Yet while market pressures push organizations toward population risk, they don't necessarily help them succeed: most organizations are struggling to attain or sustain the dual imperatives of high-quality care and cost containment. A primary reason? Short-sighted and tactical approaches that don't provide the flexible data infrastructure and tools to adapt to emerging trends in population health—or to support short-term contractual requirements while building toward long-term success.
View this launch webinar to learn about Health Catalyst’s Population Health Foundations solution, a data and analytics-first starter set aimed at optimizing performance in value-based risk arrangements and providing the data ecosystem that will flex and adapt to complex needs of risk-bearing organizations. Solution services ensure that the strategic value of data is maximized to improve performance in risk contracts—and provide side-by-side subject matter expert partnership for establishing short- and long-term goals for population health management (PHM).
Built on Health Catalyst’s foundational technology and supported by the nationwide experience and perspective of its experts, the Population Health Foundations solution helps organizations leverage multiple data sources to understand their patient populations and create meaningful views of financial and clinical quality performance. As a starter set that organizations can build on based on their needs, the solution is designed to compensate for the known limitations of “black box” population health applications that fail to reveal the “why” of analytic insights and exacerbate the challenges of transforming quality, cost, and care. The Population Health Foundations solution delivers the essential analytic tools needed for success under value-based risk arrangements.
In these slides you can expect to:
- Review recent changes to the field of value-based care, and reactions and insights from the market
- Discover how the Population Health Foundations solution can act as a comprehensive, data-first analytics solution to support your population stratification and monitoring needs
- Understand how this solution functions as a foundational starter set for value-based care success, enabling clients to leverage all their data and other relevant population health tools
Align Patient Outcomes with Financial Data: a Formula for Correlating Cost an...Perficient, Inc.
This slideshare discusses the cost crisis in healthcare, challenges healthcare organizations are facing, and how to:
Uncover true patient costs and value based purchasing
Understand quality and cost outcomes by aligning clinical and financial data
Identify trends and opportunities, and create actionable steps to improve business
Accelerate data integration with Perficient's High-Performance Costing Expressway
Leverage actionable visuals via dashboards with Oracle Business Intelligence tools
Evaluate patient complications, outcomes and detailed costs with Oracle’s Enterprise Healthcare Analytics Data Model
The Healthcare Revolution: 5 Ways a Consulting Firm Can Elevate Your PracticeAarohan healthcare
In today’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, staying ahead of the curve is essential for medical practices. Whether you run a small clinic or a large hospital, the challenges and opportunities presented by the healthcare revolution cannot be ignored. This article explores how consulting firms can play a pivotal role in elevating your practice to new heights.
Learn how to identify and track indicators of your company's financial health. Dave Justus, Kareo's Chief Financial Officer, and Ted Stack, founder of Falcon Capital Partners, will discuss the key performance benchmarks and insights you should pay attention to when working to optimize your billing company business.
Workplace productivity is an estimate of how efficiently organizations utilize their resources to accomplish business objectives. Improving productivity is important because increasing it can increase revenue using the same or fewer resources.
How to Evaluate Emerging Healthcare Technology with Innovative AnalyticsHealth Catalyst
As healthcare systems are pressured to cut costs and still provide high-quality care, they will need to look across the care continuum for answers, reduce variation in care, and look to emerging technologies. This article walks through how to evaluate the safety and effectiveness and of emerging healthcare technology and prioritize high-impact improvement projects using a robust data analytics platform. Topics covered include:
The importance of identifying variation in innovation.
Ways to improve outcomes and decrease costs.
The value of an analytics platform.
The reliable information that produce sparks for innovation.
Identifying and evaluating emerging healthcare technology.
Knowing what data to use.
The difference between efficacy and effectiveness in evaluation of emerging healthcare technology.
Transform Your Labor Cost Management Strategy: Introducing the Health Catalys...Health Catalyst
Labor costs encompass nearly 60 percent of the typical healthcare budget and are growing faster than healthcare systems can afford. COVID-19 responses only exacerbated this financial pressure. Controlling escalating labor costs means eliminating waste and using data to find where budgeted staffing hours exceed or fall short of patient needs. Most organizations have the wrong tools to understand labor demands and instead try to guess future patient volumes and staffing needs by using retrospective data that lacks timeliness.
The Health Catalyst PowerLabor application leverages augmented intelligence (AI)-powered forecasting capabilities to deliver accurate labor data to operational leaders. With timely workforce insight, health systems can close the gap between staff budgeting and future patient volumes, control labor expenses, and track progress toward budget and staffing targets.
Join John Hansmann, Senior Vice President of Strategic Consulting Operations at Health Catalyst, and Sean Latimer, Senior Director of Product Management at Health Catalyst, as they demonstrate how PowerLabor can help your organization increase productivity while ensuring resources for excellent patient care.
What You’ll Learn About PowerLabor:
• View Comprehensive Labor Data in One Place: Department and unit managers can analyze labor costs with an integrated view of all labor productivity data, including cost and hours, by system, location, department, team, and job role in one location.
• Proactively Schedule to Volume: With a complete view of categorized labor hours in relation to costs (e.g., contracts, premiums, overtime, and staffing mix), decision makers can easily identify labor trends, comparisons, and rollups across departments to accurately predict labor needs, plan for changes in staffing, and optimize staff to patient ratios.
• Drive Adoption with Expert Guidance: To maximize the PowerLabor application, Health Catalyst experts help categorize and refine data through an initial assessment and data integration from multiple data sources (e.g., EMR, billing, HR/payroll, time and attendance, and general ledger). Our implementation teams also provide train-the-trainer sessions to drive the most effective adoption.
POV Healthcare Payer Medical Informatics and AnalyticsFrank Wang
Health Insurance / Payer Analytics
Medical Informatics
Fraud Detection
Care Management
Utilization Management
Business Performance Management
Clinical Outcome Measures
The 100-Percent Solution to Improving Healthcare’s Operating MarginsHealth Catalyst
Healthcare organizations face unparalleled pressure to increase operating margins as they adapt to the revenue compression from COVID-19 and growing competition from insurers and digital disrupters. Yet, many health systems rely on outdated, revenue-centric cost accounting solutions that are ill equipped for strategic financial decision making. As a methodology for today’s complex healthcare environment, activity-based costing (ABC) can capture healthcare resource use at a granular level. With this service-level insight into clinical cost, ABC provides actionable intelligence to help organizations improve profitability and make strategic cost-reduction decisions. These comprehensive costing solutions give health systems a full understanding of cost across the care continuum—the only level of insight that will enable strategic cost transformation in the industry’s new normal.
Similar to Elevating the Health of Healthcare: A Four Step Guide (20)
Navigating Challenges: Mental Health, Legislation, and the Prison System in B...Guillermo Rivera
This conference will delve into the intricate intersections between mental health, legal frameworks, and the prison system in Bolivia. It aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the current challenges faced by mental health professionals working within the legislative and correctional landscapes. Topics of discussion will include the prevalence and impact of mental health issues among the incarcerated population, the effectiveness of existing mental health policies and legislation, and potential reforms to enhance the mental health support system within prisons.
Defecation
Normal defecation begins with movement in the left colon, moving stool toward the anus. When stool reaches the rectum, the distention causes relaxation of the internal sphincter and an awareness of the need to defecate. At the time of defecation, the external sphincter relaxes, and abdominal muscles contract, increasing intrarectal pressure and forcing the stool out
The Valsalva maneuver exerts pressure to expel faeces through a voluntary contraction of the abdominal muscles while maintaining forced expiration against a closed airway. Patients with cardiovascular disease, glaucoma, increased intracranial pressure, or a new surgical wound are at greater risk for cardiac dysrhythmias and elevated blood pressure with the Valsalva maneuver and need to avoid straining to pass the stool.
Normal defecation is painless, resulting in passage of soft, formed stool
CONSTIPATION
Constipation is a symptom, not a disease. Improper diet, reduced fluid intake, lack of exercise, and certain medications can cause constipation. For example, patients receiving opiates for pain after surgery often require a stool softener or laxative to prevent constipation. The signs of constipation include infrequent bowel movements (less than every 3 days), difficulty passing stools, excessive straining, inability to defecate at will, and hard feaces
IMPACTION
Fecal impaction results from unrelieved constipation. It is a collection of hardened feces wedged in the rectum that a person cannot expel. In cases of severe impaction the mass extends up into the sigmoid colon.
DIARRHEA
Diarrhea is an increase in the number of stools and the passage of liquid, unformed feces. It is associated with disorders affecting digestion, absorption, and secretion in the GI tract. Intestinal contents pass through the small and large intestine too quickly to allow for the usual absorption of fluid and nutrients. Irritation within the colon results in increased mucus secretion. As a result, feces become watery, and the patient is unable to control the urge to defecate. Normally an anal bag is safe and effective in long-term treatment of patients with fecal incontinence at home, in hospice, or in the hospital. Fecal incontinence is expensive and a potentially dangerous condition in terms of contamination and risk of skin ulceration
HEMORRHOIDS
Hemorrhoids are dilated, engorged veins in the lining of the rectum. They are either external or internal.
FLATULENCE
As gas accumulates in the lumen of the intestines, the bowel wall stretches and distends (flatulence). It is a common cause of abdominal fullness, pain, and cramping. Normally intestinal gas escapes through the mouth (belching) or the anus (passing of flatus)
FECAL INCONTINENCE
Fecal incontinence is the inability to control passage of feces and gas from the anus. Incontinence harms a patient’s body image
PREPARATION AND GIVING OF LAXATIVESACCORDING TO POTTER AND PERRY,
An enema is the instillation of a solution into the rectum and sig
Telehealth Psychology Building Trust with Clients.pptxThe Harvest Clinic
Telehealth psychology is a digital approach that offers psychological services and mental health care to clients remotely, using technologies like video conferencing, phone calls, text messaging, and mobile apps for communication.
How many patients does case series should have In comparison to case reports.pdfpubrica101
Pubrica’s team of researchers and writers create scientific and medical research articles, which may be important resources for authors and practitioners. Pubrica medical writers assist you in creating and revising the introduction by alerting the reader to gaps in the chosen study subject. Our professionals understand the order in which the hypothesis topic is followed by the broad subject, the issue, and the backdrop.
https://pubrica.com/academy/case-study-or-series/how-many-patients-does-case-series-should-have-in-comparison-to-case-reports/
Deep Leg Vein Thrombosis (DVT): Meaning, Causes, Symptoms, Treatment, and Mor...The Lifesciences Magazine
Deep Leg Vein Thrombosis occurs when a blood clot forms in one or more of the deep veins in the legs. These clots can impede blood flow, leading to severe complications.
One of the most developed cities of India, the city of Chennai is the capital of Tamilnadu and many people from different parts of India come here to earn their bread and butter. Being a metropolitan, the city is filled with towering building and beaches but the sad part as with almost every Indian city
Health Education on prevention of hypertensionRadhika kulvi
Hypertension is a chronic condition of concern due to its role in the causation of coronary heart diseases. Hypertension is a worldwide epidemic and important risk factor for coronary artery disease, stroke and renal diseases. Blood pressure is the force exerted by the blood against the walls of the blood vessels and is sufficient to maintain tissue perfusion during activity and rest. Hypertension is sustained elevation of BP. In adults, HTN exists when systolic blood pressure is equal to or greater than 140mmHg or diastolic BP is equal to or greater than 90mmHg. The
Global launch of the Healthy Ageing and Prevention Index 2nd wave – alongside...ILC- UK
The Healthy Ageing and Prevention Index is an online tool created by ILC that ranks countries on six metrics including, life span, health span, work span, income, environmental performance, and happiness. The Index helps us understand how well countries have adapted to longevity and inform decision makers on what must be done to maximise the economic benefits that comes with living well for longer.
Alongside the 77th World Health Assembly in Geneva on 28 May 2024, we launched the second version of our Index, allowing us to track progress and give new insights into what needs to be done to keep populations healthier for longer.
The speakers included:
Professor Orazio Schillaci, Minister of Health, Italy
Dr Hans Groth, Chairman of the Board, World Demographic & Ageing Forum
Professor Ilona Kickbusch, Founder and Chair, Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute and co-chair, World Health Summit Council
Dr Natasha Azzopardi Muscat, Director, Country Health Policies and Systems Division, World Health Organisation EURO
Dr Marta Lomazzi, Executive Manager, World Federation of Public Health Associations
Dr Shyam Bishen, Head, Centre for Health and Healthcare and Member of the Executive Committee, World Economic Forum
Dr Karin Tegmark Wisell, Director General, Public Health Agency of Sweden
India Clinical Trials Market: Industry Size and Growth Trends [2030] Analyzed...Kumar Satyam
According to TechSci Research report, "India Clinical Trials Market- By Region, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2030F," the India Clinical Trials Market was valued at USD 2.05 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.64% through 2030. The market is driven by a variety of factors, making India an attractive destination for pharmaceutical companies and researchers. India's vast and diverse patient population, cost-effective operational environment, and a large pool of skilled medical professionals contribute significantly to the market's growth. Additionally, increasing government support in streamlining regulations and the growing prevalence of lifestyle diseases further propel the clinical trials market.
Growing Prevalence of Lifestyle Diseases
The rising incidence of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer is a major trend driving the clinical trials market in India. These conditions necessitate the development and testing of new treatment methods, creating a robust demand for clinical trials. The increasing burden of these diseases highlights the need for innovative therapies and underscores the importance of India as a key player in global clinical research.
The Importance of Community Nursing Care.pdfAD Healthcare
NDIS and Community 24/7 Nursing Care is a specific type of support that may be provided under the NDIS for individuals with complex medical needs who require ongoing nursing care in a community setting, such as their home or a supported accommodation facility.
2. 2 Intalere.com
Customized
Solutions
Managing
Non-Labor Spend
Innovative Products,
Services and Technologies
Best Practices of a
Provider-Led Model
In listening to healthcare industry stakeholders describe the difficult and competitive landscape, as
has been the case for the past several years, they are mainly challenged by the need to do more with
less. They are partnering with those who have the ability to help them effectively manage costs and
optimize the supply function through best practice sharing and the reduction of time and cost.
Many times engaging a partner, whether it be a group purchasing organization or outside
consultant, can be worthwhile to bring a new perspective and fresh set of eyes and experiences to
address a provider’s challenges. But what are a few of the most important things to look for in terms
of the resources they can provide and the successes you hope to achieve? In the following sections,
we’ll review four areas of importance in seeking to elevate the operational health of your facility.
Customized Solutions
Although many organizations share challenges – and may
be of the same size, share the same geography, etc. – your
organization has many of its own very specific defining
characteristics, processes, needs and requirements. You don’t
want to get stuck in a trap of terminal uniqueness, where you are so different
that nothing that has succeeded for others can possibly work for you or your
situation. This is where an experienced partner that understands those distinctive
challenges can help guide you when needed and ultimately fold those
requirements into a solution that is tailored to you.
What that means is aggressive customer service. Engaged partners. An extra
set of hands to do heavy lifting. For example, in order to leverage member
Stratum Med’s collective buying power in the most effective and efficient
way, a collaborative team from Stratum, Intalere, suppliers and representatives
of Stratum’s clinics created customized analytical tools and secured Intalere
contracting resources to negotiate enhanced tier contracts. The collaborative
efforts of the team resulted in savings of $633,000 for Stratum Med.
One of the biggest challenges many healthcare facilities face is in the area
of physician preference items (PPIs). Almost half of all the medical surgical
supplies used in U.S. hospitals are PPIs, including devices and implants. Through
the Intalere Clinical Advantage program, a proven strategy for reducing
high-dollar implant costs while positively impacting clinical outcomes and
physician support, Intalere can provide benchmarks and pricing information
to bring context to the price points healthcare facilities are paying. Facilities
can then leverage this benchmarking and price point information to reduce
their operational costs or direct pricing on the products. Through the program,
Elevating the health of Healthcare: A Four Step Guide
Four Steps to
Elevate the Health
of Healthcare:
3
4
2
1
3. 3 Intalere.com
Intalere member Yavapai Regional Medical Center was able
to identify some“quick wins”and significant savings. In the
cardiac rhythm management category, they were able to
reduce expenses by 10-15 percent, a savings of $350,000.
In the area of total joint replacement, savings were $500,000,
a cost reduction of up to 20 percent. But just as important,
it did not require the physicians to change what they were
using and it did not change anything related to the reps
that support the organization.
Managing Non-Labor Spend
Up to 50 percent of an organization’s
spend is non-labor, or supply chain
related. Add to this the complexity of the healthcare supply
chain and increasing cost pressures on healthcare coming in
the future, and you have a“burning platform”or significant
need for supply chain to demonstrate their value. The low
hanging fruit, or value, of supply chain is still easier to obtain
than laying nurses off at bedsides or cutting clinical care. It
provides a great opportunity to help the industry navigate the
future with success.
But the healthcare supply chain faces perception problems
that are not inherent in other industries. For example:
• The most expensive and high risk items often have the
least control.
• Personal preference drives many product decisions.
• Healthcare outsources less than most other industries.
• Purchasing and accounts payable are often disconnected.
• The healthcare industry has the lowest level of trust
between buyers and suppliers (of any industry surveyed).
• Supply chain is still in the basement of many hospitals
(literally) – even though non-labor expenses are
approaching 50 percent of total cost structure.
• Logistics costs in healthcare are more than 10 times
the costs of the retail industry.
Changing the perception and understanding the strategic
importance of the supply chain is incredibly vital to the
continued sustainability of healthcare providers. A contract
portfolio is only part of a full supply chain solution. Most
facilities and their group purchasing organizations (GPOs)
leverage volume aggregation in an attempt to primarily solve
for one business line, in one vertical, in one expense category.
Volume aggregation in the current GPO industry tends to
focus on those areas of mid to high category spend and
low complexity.
But it’s not sufficient for healthcare to focus solely on
cost reduction strategies. Supply chain services include
procurement, logistics and effectively helping clinicians
to manage standardization and utilization. Providers
need infrastructure – people, processes, technology and
governance. The scope of the supply chain extends across
every healthcare vertical, across every business line and
through all expense categories.
Providers need end-to-end supply chain solutions that give
them the ability to optimize the people, processes and
technology within their systems to deliver the greatest
value. Their strategy must include aspects of:
The focus must be on helping to develop transformational
solutions and providing information recognizing the
importance of the healthcare supply chain in improving
efficiency, maximizing financial value and enhancing a
provider’s ability to offer the highest quality of patient care.
Providers must join the revolution to make supply chain
excellence a core competency within their organizations
and achieve their high-level strategic goals through supply
chain initiatives.
Inform & teach me
(assessment and education)
Do it for me
(managed services)
Show me
(transformation services)
50%UP
TO
Elevating the health of Healthcare: A Four Step Guide
4. 4 Intalere.com
Innovative Products, Services, Technologies
Whether developed in-house or derived from a third party,
technology needs to be an integral component of your future
planning. So much of success in the new model of healthcare
will be data-driven and dependent, so your ability to harness
information and use it to drive decisions will be a huge key to
your success. Quality data is gold. It is the basic building block
for an organization’s economic direction and also provides the
facts and evidence needed both internally and externally to
communicate the realities facing every stakeholder. Using
the best data available and analytic tools, both in terms
of spend and other areas, is the foundation to savings,
improved bottom lines, improved clinical outcomes and
efficient care delivery.
Your technology strategy, and any vendors or partners you
work with, should focus on:
• Fast, low-cost capture of high volume, multi-source, multi-
attribute data.
• Cost-effective organization and storage of captured data.
• Timely trend spotting via statistical analysis.
• Intuitive interfaces that help customers turn data and
analysis into actions that solve business problems.
• Customization to solve unique customer pain points.
• Service-based solutions.
• Tools/processes/capabilities that can easily plug into or
interface seamlessly into an organization’s supply chain.
On the supply chain side, it’s important to have tools and
resources that allow you to:
• Manage organizational information – such as contracts,
forms, payments and any rebates.
• Manage contract information – including bids, contract
development and catalog management.
• Manage the order – this covers things such as contract
search, contract signup, product selection and
eProcurement.
• Manage contract opportunities – this would include things
such as tier optimization, compliance to contract terms and
non-contract to contract conversion. You can look at it as
translating data into opportunity.
• Managing the supplier – around such areas as price
auditing, sales reporting and any fee payment.
• Reporting/content management – reporting including
standard reports, business intelligence or content
management.
Intalere implemented its Intalere DiagnostixSM
business
intelligence tools and reports to assist El Rio Health Center in
identifying actionable information and to provide a lasting
platform for strategic supply chain management. Intalere
also prepared an Opportunity Report for El Rio to analyze
supply chain data and identify areas for significant savings.
The Opportunity Report generates an immediate action
plan for reducing costs by enabling on-the-spot signatory
capability for“quick win”exact matches. Through this process,
El Rio discovered a 50 percent discount on common medical
surgical products and numerous“quick win”opportunities
which provided savings near $100,000.
Best Practices of a Provider-Led Model
Many times, the shared experience of a situation or solution
is what resonates most. It is only natural to trust and
appreciate solutions that have been organically developed
by organizations similar to yours and have proven successful
in the field. Having the value of experience and trial and error
can keep you from making the same mistakes or facing some
possibly unforeseen implementation issues.
Elevating the health of Healthcare: A Four Step Guide
5. 5 Intalere.com
In the hospital setting for instance, personal preference on
certain items does not assist in reducing costs or necessarily
ensure a better patient experience or better outcomes.
According to Intermountain Healthcare’s Dr. Brent James,
Executive Director of the Institute for Health Care Delivery
Research and Vice President, Medical Research and Continuing
Medical Education, and several other nationally-recognized
experts on variation, inappropriate variation is a known cause
of poor quality and outcomes. For this reason, programs
that can offer reviewed and validated clinical products and
services, which have been vetted in terms of clinical efficacy
and acceptability using best available data and industry best
practices to guide decisions, can be extremely valuable and a
great saver of both financial and human resources.
Programs such as these, anchored and developed in
collaboration with widely recognized industry leaders,
through processes that have made leaders in both financial
and clinical outcomes, are a valuable tool in a provider’s
ability to deliver care efficiently and affordably.
In addition, one of the most important things that hospitals
can do to become more efficient and cost effective is to stop
thinking like a hospital. Look beyond traditional industry
solutions and study proven business strategies used outside
of healthcare.
As an industry example, recognizing the importance of
supply chain, Intermountain Healthcare elevated its strategic
importance to their organization and has been recognized
as the #3 healthcare supply chain organization in the country
by Gartner. Senior leadership committed resources to bring
in skilled and talented people as part of their supply chain
organization, while also centralizing reporting relationships,
and involving and earning the trust of all stakeholders,
including clinicians and physicians. Intermountain also
implemented a fact and data driven approach, and most
importantly, fostered a commitment to innovation,
excellence and growth.
Intermountain partnered with Intalere to ensure that these
resources and efforts can be made available to other qualified
health organizations as well as help put the plan in motion.
Over the past several years, the two organizations had sought
to redefine the traditional provider-GPO relationship, which
had previously been built mainly around just contracts and
procurement. They have been able to evolve the relationship
in a collaborative, innovative manner that has resulted in
achieving millions in supply chain expense reduction as well as
bringing Intermountain the increased bandwidth to undertake
projects that would have required the addition of full-time
resources. The relationship has maximized value for both
organizations.
The initial implementation of the project brought $2.78 million
in savings, or a 10 percent reduction in costs. SKUs were also
reduced by 497, bringing further cost reduction in inventory
management and process improvement. The partners
continue to work on adding categories and further
reducing SKUs.
Collaboration and engagement of this type, driven by
data, strategic alignment and flexibility will help to drive
improvement and long-term sustainability for healthcare
organizations facing the new era of healthcare. The future
value of these successful healthcare collaborations is the
opportunity and ability to share these models with other
healthcare providers.
• Collaborate together with resources and projects
aligned to support strategic objectives for both
organizations.
• Leverage the strengths of both organizations
to provide added resources.
• Use data to reduce variation.
• Develop a communication and integration model
that is flexible, focused on strategy and tactics,
but also leaves room for innovation.
• Learn how data analytics and an information-
rich environment support cost/quality initiatives
and the implementation of best practices.
Maximizing GPO-Provider relationships
Elevating the health of Healthcare: A Four Step Guide