Data (i.e., information, facts, statistics, figures, and numbers) in and of itself, has no value. Only when your data is constructed into a usable, understandable, and relatable format can it give you and your value analysis teams insight into your supply chain expense savings opportunities. This philosophy even extends to your GPO contracts which could be costing your healthcare organization millions annually in utilization misalignments (i.e., wasteful and inefficient consumption, misuse, misapplication, and value mismatches) in your supply streams.
Your Value Analysis Studies Should Begin and End with Data
We often see value analysis teams rubber stamping new or renewal GPO contracts without looking at the data before, during, and after conversions of these contracts. Thus, this leads to GPO contracts that have competitive pricing, but the in-use costs are 5x, 8x or even 10x more than their peers’. For instance, one of our clients was utilizing hundreds of thousands of dollars more in pulse oximetry annually than their peers, which was flagged by our UtilizerDashboard™ even though the health system had an excellent GPO price for this medical device. With this insight, their value analysis team reviewed how often their pulse oxisensors were being replaced and discovered they were being replaced too often, thereby causing the waste and inefficiency in this category of purchase by 33%. That’s why value analysis teams always need a baseline (the beginning), follow-up metrics (during conversions), and monitoring after conversion (at least quarterly) to ensure that their commodity purchases are always in control. That’s why value analysis studies should begin and end with data!
Interpreting Your Data Through Visualization
Even if you are collecting, organizing, and cataloging your data properly, you still need to interpret your data correctly to have actionable insights. The best way to do so, we have found, is through data visualization with charts, graphics, and dashboards. Done correctly, data visualization will enable you to tell a story about your data that your customers can relate to. For example, if you create a bar graph that displays increases, year over year, of your customers’ I.V. set usage when your hospital’s in-patient census is going down over the same period, it should tell a story about why this is happening. That’s how you turn your supply chain expense data into actionable insights.
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