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The CQO movement is the health care supply chain’s fitness tracker. It engages supply chain with leaders across the healthcare environment to apply a new approach. To start with your own CQO KPI, look for your Bigfoot within your organization to identify top priorities. After looking at those top priorities, apply the CQO perspective.

Discover tips that can separate a health system’s success or failure when creating a viable purchased services sourcing program in this short AHRMM webcast.

This article is from the March/April 2017 issue of the AHRMM member-only magazine, Supply Chain Strategies & Solutions. At St. Francis Hospital, HealthTrust advisors and the cardiovascular team implemented successful processes producing consistent door-to-balloon times of less than 35 minutes, slashed costs associated with renal failure by 90 percent, and reduced readmissions below the national benchmark. HealthTrust is a sponsor of the Cost, Quality, and Outcomes (CQO) Movement.

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Healthcare reform is driving unprecedented changes in the management, funding and delivery of care as hospitals develop and implement strategies to achieve higher quality care at lower cost. The problem many hospitals face involves the gaps in data between costly supplies, and how they are managed in the item master and chargemaster. Having links and systems in place to audit and validate the item to charge accuracy is crucial. Without this foundation, providers lose the ability to trust their physician quality outcome assessments and episodic care analytics.

This paper explores the application of the Baldrige Excellence Framework to the health care supply chain. Specifically, the paper will explore the reasons that the Baldrige Framework might be used to evaluate and improve supply chain systems and processes. An examination of the need of a systems perspective will be followed by a brief overview of the Baldrige program.

Executive Summary Today’s healthcare environment is rapidly changing. Hospitals and healthcare systems are being bombarded by myriad challenges, including the fluctuating economy, cuts in Medicare reimbursements, and new procedural, financial, and reporting requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). All of these factors are pressuring healthcare organizations to reduce costs and improve patient outcomes without sacrificing the quality of care.

This paper will present health care procurement strategies of four countries - the United States, Botswana, the United Kingdom, and China - as a means to evaluate volume aggregation under different health care delivery models.  

Dale L. Locklair, FAHRMM, CMRP Vice President of Procurement and Construction McLeod Health Florence, SC

This is an on-going operational excellence initiative and our results have certainly validated our approach and produced an immediate beneficial impact. The methodology we have implemented truly drives improvements and bottom-line results. We are very proud that the Executive Leadership at our organization has promoted the use of Purchasing’s approach in assessing and managing other areas of the organization.

Incorporating the targets for transformation set by the leader of our organization including unjustified variation, fragmentation of care-giving, perverse payment incentives, and the patient as a passive receipt of care, Supply Chain has developed a strategic model and plan that transforms our thinking from a focus on “chains” to a focus on “flow” and from “Supply Chain Services” to “Care Support Services.”

This paper provides a case-study on what Banner has done to implement and continuously improve this initiative. Three key components to successful supply utilization savings are reviewed.

This paper addresses the importance of the supply chain on overall health care costs and how transparent data can lead to a best practice supply chain. Identifying necessary data as well as the location of that data to understand a complete cost structure is a challenge for supply chain leaders. Fragmented systems in healthcare lead to a weak and inefficient supply chain. This data fragmentation in healthcare causes frustration and failure in optimizing the supply chain.

AHRMM is developing a repository for leading and proven supply chain practices, case studies, and toolkits that are developed from a Cost, Quality, and Outcomes (CQO) perspective. The following Hospital Acquired Nosocomial Pressure Ulcers (NPU) leading practice was submitted by:

AHRMM is offering a repository for leading and proven supply chain practices, case studies, and toolkits that are developed from a Cost, Quality, and Outcomes (CQO) perspective. The following Catheter Acquired Urinary Tract Infection (CAUTI) leading practice was submitted by: Blue.Point Supply Chain Solutions, Andover, MA

AHRMM is offering a repository for leading and proven supply chain practices, case studies, and toolkits that are developed from a Cost, Quality, and Outcomes (CQO) perspective. The following Catheter Acquired Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI) leading practice was submitted by:

A sample of medical transcription services request for proposal.

In the fall of 2014, the University of Houston conducted a national study on hospital supply chain. With the support and participation from the AHRMM community, the University of Houston collected data from 266 hospitals and at least 60 percent of the respondents have an official designation of supply chain director or higher. Thank you to those who participated in the study. Your contribution is invaluable in helping academic institutions, AHRMM, and collaborating organizations better understand supply chain perspectives and best practices.