Knowledge Center

Sustainability and procurement are terms that may often be at odds, but as keepers of the health and wellness of our patients and communities, we must lead the charge toward more sustainable practices. By Laura Kowalczyk, vice president of supply chain & support services, UAB Medicine

Having a platform that allows for accurate data capture and analytics enables savings opportunities for health systems. By Jack Simmons, NVP commercial services, Cardinal Health and Wavemark

Value-based health care and population health are two of the most common terms used in health care today, and yet still confusing for many. Let’s explore each one and how they are elevating the role of the supply chain and the importance of sustainability. By Karen Conway, vice president, healthcare value, GHX

Adopting proactive strategies can help you take full advantage of reprocessing benefits, by lessening the financial burden of medical supplies, promoting environmental sustainability and freeing up funds. By Erin Broeske, senior marketing director, sustainability solutions division, Stryker

This AHRMM tool has two practical supply chain evaluation templates featured in the Customer Service in Health Care Supply Chain: Certificate Course, released in January 2019.About the Tool:The tool has two sample evaluation templates to gather information on the performance of the supply chain department in a hospital or health system. The first evaluation template, Supply Chain Service Survey, should be completed by departments working with the supply chain in a hospital or health system. 

These webcast shares methodologies that can create secure, sustainable and cost-effective outcomes through disposing of your organization’s assets. Presenter: Daniel Duersch, senior manager, program development at Intermountain Healthcare

This downloadable report reviews the recommended practices related to the allocation of multiple unique device indicators (UDI-DI).

Annie Weisbrod, principal scientist at Procter and Gamble, discusses the science behind sustainable hygiene products in this free AHRMM webcast.

Smart KPIs are absolutely essential in the health care supply chain because they provide hospitals with the data visibility that is necessary for guiding and achieving inventory optimization and cost savings goals and controlling supply spend; they are, in fact, the cornerstone of a competitive and more strategy-oriented supply chain.

Blockchain technology provides a promising future for health care by improving the transparency in products and processes while providing advanced security measures to protect patients and confidential data. Download Article

Implementing a Low Unit of Measure (LUM) program at your organization has many benefits beyond reducing inventory.  LUM can act as a catalyst in implementing other associated LEAN principles such as streamlining staff, processes and technology. All of which will increase efficiencies and reduce redundancy and waste in your supply chain. Download Article

Organizations rely on multiple strategies to reduce waste and control costs, while providing the best possible medical outcome for patients. Standardization, investment in new technologies and inventory management automation (Point-of-Use Systems) are a few strategies that organizations can use to realize cost savings and waste reduction. Download Article

AHRMM presents a four-part series on successful collaboration with suppliers. In part one, Mike Schiller, director of supply chain at AHRMM, discusses AHRMM’s CQO Movement and IHI’s Triple Aim and how they are affecting the health care supply chain today. As primary care shifts its focus to prevention, suppliers need to partner with providers to provide best practices and tools for prevention and health promotion.   The Secrets of Successful Collaboration series

In part two of a four-part series on successful collaboration with suppliers, Mike Schiller, former director of supply chain at AHRMM, discusses relationship building, utilizing trust and transparency.   The Secrets of Successful Collaboration series

Stewart Layhe, director of supply chain, Denver Health, shares his method for measuring supply chain department success with quarterly support card surveys used to make improvements.

2018 AHRMM CQO Summit: Each year at the annual AHRMM Cost, Quality and Outcomes (CQO) Summit, participants throughout the health care field come together to share their knowledge, leading practices and ideas on supply chain’s role in delivering higher quality care at a more affordable cost. The CQO Summit discussions, in turn, inform the next year’s CQO report, which guides the development of the agenda for that year’s Summit.

It doesn’t take a deadly pandemic like Ebola to put your supply chain—and your staff and patients--at risk. Flu outbreaks cause sudden shortages of critical supplies and happen frequently. Jason Burnham, associate director, O&M Halyard Health, shares three steps you need to know in order to be prepared for the next outbreak.

During times of disaster, hospitals play an integral role as the community safety net, providing essential medical care that must be available often times within a moment’s notice. Strategic planning and ongoing training are necessary to identifying, dispatching and mobilizing critical material and human resources. The health care supply chain professional is a vital component of any hospital emergency response team and the hospital incident command center.

This AHRMM tool covers how health care supply chain professionals should prepare for disasters, with the input from various disciplines. The tool includes supply consumption adjustment calculations and several preparedness plans such as The Joint Commission Emergency Operations Plan ®, the Hospital Incident Commend System (HICS) and the 10 Elements for a Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP).

Having conversations with clinicians can be difficult, Howard Mann, a 30 year supply chain professional, discusses how to prepare for physician conversations regarding vendor consolidations to reduce the number of suppliers for product or product categories.