All of us in the healthcare supply chain business are looking for better and easier ways to make our clinical supply integration strategies work for all involved parties. Here are three ways we have discovered that make this transition happen faster:
How To Make Clinical Supply Integration Easier and Faster
1. Control Expenses at Point Of Care: This is where value is created or lost in your healthcare organization’s divisions, departments, or units. The philosophy behind this concept is that each division, department, or unit has a budget that must be controlled at point of care because that’s where your hospital, system, or IDN’s expenses are consumed. It does no good to control your expenses after the procedure, treatment, or patient stay is completed.
2. Provide Data and Analytics To Build a Case For Change: No one changes for change’s sake; you must give a person a reason for wanting to change. This can be accomplished by providing insight (data and analytics) that can show your department heads and managers that they are out of step with their history, peers, and industry best practices. For instance, if you are the only hospital in your region that is employing a cardiac catheter that is three times the cost of the regional average, this will get their attention. Maybe they won’t change their opinions immediately, but it is the start of a dialog that will lead to change over time. That’s why patience is a virtue!
3. Challenge Their Assumptions and Biases: Too often, the first reaction of your customers to their unfavorable data and analytics is disbelief, denial, and sometimes outright anger. But if you challenge your customers’ assumptions and biases with more data, KPI comparables, and industry best practices, you can win them over to making change that is consistent with best practices.
Clinical supply integration isn’t just a buzzword, but an industry trend that gives your clinicians more of a say in supply chain expense management. From our experience, this means more than giving clinicians a seat on your value analysis teams. To be truly effective, you must give your customers control at their point of care with supply integration insights that can change the way they think about managing their supplies forevermore.
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