Knowledge Center

Cost per case is a valuable measure because it captures multiple data points. As reports are developed and used, CPC can prove a powerful tool for finding cost reduction and process improvement opportunities—and that can impact your hospital’s bottom line.

Successful CQO initiatives must start with data that is reliable and accurate, but it takes physician leadership to make sure it is also meaningful. With the complex array of data sources available today, special skillsets are needed to drive a clinically oriented data strategy and build an architecture of analytics that can be drilled down to physician level and individual cost drivers.

The shift to bundled payments in health care continues to push the supply chain to a more central position in the overall operations and capabilities of progressive health systems.

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

By: Michael Deluca Download Article

By: Suzanne Alexander-Vaughn 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.

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

HealthTrust recently created the Physician Advisors Program, which is narrowing the chasm between those who purchase products and those who use them. The program solicits physicians’ input on clinical evidence reviews in product categories that have a significant impact on patient care, specifically physician preference items (PPI). Download Article

Supply chain must play an integral role in the care delivery process through cross-departmental partnerships that support evidence-based value analysis. Michael Louviere, System VP of Supply Chain at OHS shares his insights on what he calls a 'new adventureattempting to support best practices by collecting clinical evidence and synthesizing it to ensure that clinical practice is based on integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available relevant external clinical evidence from systematic research.