Knowledge Center

Supply chain attributes inform critical supply availability and alignment with internal and external needs, integral to meeting pressures to deliver safe care.

Consider how direct sourcing can enable access to PPE and the leading practices of building supply chain diversity and resiliency for the future in this Banner Health case study.

Healthcare expenses continue to rise and yet hospitals are realizing consistently shrinking margins. Healthcare supply costs are typically the second largest expense to a hospital and must be managed in a manner that ensures providers have access to quality products but also with an emphasis on cost awareness and expense reduction strategies. Healthcare supply chains must leverage their data in order to make better business decisions to reduce costs and increase operational efficiencies through the use of business analytics.

In 2014, AHRMM hosted the first Cost, Quality, and Outcomes (CQO) Summit to bring healthcare thought leaders together and 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.

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.

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.

The white paper written as a result of the AHRMM Executive Thought Leader Summit held during the AHRMM14 Annual Conference & Exhibition in Orlando, Florida.  

The paper presents healthcare supply chain tools and strategies for navigating the Cost, Quality, and Outcomes (CQO) Movement, and explores new initiatives designed to advance the supply chain from a transactional program to a strategic contributor to organizational success.