Knowledge Center

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

In an effort to capture broader insights on UDI adoption from across the health care field, AHRMM, with participation by the FDA, held LUC Data Quality Workshops during four conferences in 2017. During these workshops, conference attendees had the opportunity to voice their opinions on the state of UDI data quality, hurdles to UDI adoption and what recommended practices are necessary for providers and suppliers to effectively capture the UDI and use it in meaningful ways.  

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.”

This paper addresses the importance of the supply chain on overall health care costs and how transparent data can lead to a best practice supply chain. Identifying necessary data as well as the location of that data to understand a complete cost structure is a challenge for supply chain leaders. Fragmented systems in healthcare lead to a weak and inefficient supply chain. This data fragmentation in healthcare causes frustration and failure in optimizing the supply chain.