Knowledge Center

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.

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:

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:

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 CAUTI leading practice was submitted by: University of Virginia Health System, Charlottesville, VA Problem Statement: CAUTI rates exceeding national benchmark (NHSN). Method:

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 CQO leading practice describes collaboration between Supply Chain, Value Analysis and Nursing Leads to reduce Hospital Acquired Pressure Ulcers (HAPU) and was submitted by:

Managing contract pricing more effectively—from creation to renewal or expiration—can deliver real operational and financial benefits for healthcare organizations. Yet because of its complexity, contract price management may be one of the most underutilized tools for maximizing cost savings in healthcare. Disparate information technology (IT) systems that do not share information and lack of widespread adoption of industry data standards for product and organizational/location identification all contribute to this complexity.

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.  

AHRMM supports the concept and use of Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) to provide evidence-based data to help inform purchasing decisions. CER is designed to support healthcare decisions by providing objective conclusions after comparing the effectiveness, benefits, and potential harm of various medical equipment, devices, or treatment options for specific episodes of care or states of disease.   By using objective data provided by CER, healthcare supply chain professionals have the ability to:

Hospital Compare: CMS Suspends Display of Hospital-Acquired Conditions Data

Recent Guidance on Meaningful Use of EHRs Makes Compliance More Difficult.