Knowledge Center

Collecting and analyzing data has been a top priority for the healthcare supply chain in recent years. Health systems have been on a quest to find the right data. Data with the power to unveil some of the long-elusive mysteries behind supply usage and costs to help make smarter product and technology decisions, ultimately reducing cost and enhancing patient care

In 2014, AHRMM hosted the first Cost, Quality, and Outcomes (CQO) Summit to bring healthcare thought leaders together to discuss particular supply chain issues and concerns. The results of those conversations were used to develop the first task force and to shape the agenda for the second CQO Summit, held in 2015. This white paper was written as a recap of the AHRMM17 CQO Summit, held in July 2017 in Washington, D.C.

Professional Coach Mark Noon discusses the types of skills and actions that a leader needs to create a team-oriented culture.

Utilizing the right platform will not only enable simple purchasing of on-demand parts, accessories and services online, but it will also integrate with asset management and ERP systems.

By: Mike Berger Download Article

In the spectrum of payment models, with fee-for service on one end and capitation on the other, bundled payments is somewhere in the middle. No single payment model has been completely successful in the past, but there is no dispute that cost reduction must be one of the primary goals of any model that all stakeholders can agree on. Download Article

Consumerism in healthcare has been on the rise as the impact of healthcare reform translates to narrower networks, higher deductibles and co-payments for patients, coupled with the shift toward value-based reimbursements for providers. With these changes, supply chain needs to work more closely with finance, clinicians, physicians, and health plans in this new healthcare economy. Download Article

This article is from the November/December 2016 issue of the AHRMM member-only magazine, Supply Chain Strategies & Solutions. As 2016 comes to an end, we can look back and see that this year has brought a lot of new opportunities to help facilities achieve better patient outcomes, implement the Triple Aim framework, and new mobile applications patients can access to keep up with their health. Download Article

This article is from the November/December 2016 issue of the AHRMM member-only magazine, Supply Chain Strategies & Solutions. Unlocking individual silos in healthcare organizations is a key step toward delivering the optimal value in patient care at the appropriate cost. Multidisciplinary sourcing teams with the right software platform can elevate the role of healthcare supply chain. The result: stronger negotiating processes with suppliers and better contract terms.

Increasing federal regulation compliance costs and declining reimbursements have compressed hospital profitability. This is leading hospitals to turn to Supply Chain to reduce direct costs for supplies, devices, drugs, and purchased services. Traditionally Supply Chain has aggressively pursued these cost reductions through price reduction tactics. These techniques, however, are yielding diminishing savings returns.

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AHRMM is building 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 leading practice was submitted by:

The evolution of our healthcare system from a volume-based to a value-based model is driving provider organizations to adopt patient-centric, outcomes-based success metrics for operational processes in both acute and non-acute settings. Download Article

When I started in supply chain, the position that was presented afforded me the opportunity to utilize my clinical and business skills with the goal to maximize relationships that I had cultivated over the years as a critical care nurse and leader. Healthcare was going through a transformative change with the introduction of diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) and managed care impacting the way hospitals and ultimately physicians would be paid. The job description was for a clinical resource manager—a novel concept at the time.

Increasingly, the hospital and health care delivery system executives are viewing the supply chain as a strategic asset that can be leveraged to meet operational, clinical, and financial performance imperatives. This has not always been the case. For years, the supply chain was seen as little more than a necessary but ancillary function – to buy and deliver products as needed – with the primary supply chain improvement strategy focused on buying those products at the lowest price possible.

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.”

Purchasing in healthcare is largely based on a hierarchical management style. In an experimental case started in 2004, at Floyd Medical Center in Rome, Georgia, this standard was altered. The introduction of a team concept combined with lean manufacturing practices to this traditional purchasing setting was unique. The results of this radical change over the past eight years have been exceptional. The paper describes the steps taken to change the culture, the actions taken to implement lean tools, and the wins achieved by the team.

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Triple Aim is a framework developed to describe an approach to optimizing health system performance. The Triple Aim calls for: