It is mission critical to measure, manage, and control healthcare supply utilization, but it is just as important to capture your clinical department’s (cardiology, ER, laboratory, nursing floors, OR, etc.) utilization data at their point of use. Why? Because their data is richer, and even more actionable!
It Can Be Frustrating
I’m sure you are finding, after much frustration, that you can’t manage and control everything your healthcare organization is buying for your clinicians.
It takes time, buy-in, and leverage to make any meaningful change in clinical practices. On the other hand, have you ever thought of having your clinicians micromanage their own supply expenses, not just their supply expense budgets? This isn’t a pipe dream! It can be a reality for any healthcare organization that decides that their clinicians can be some of their best supply cost managers. All they need is a power tool to empower them to do so.
Intuitive Data Is the Answer
Right now at most hospitals, clinicians are receiving in-depth data on their labor costs to manage this cost driver effectively, but they are receiving little or nothing on their supply expenses, except their budget variance. If you have ever seen budget variance reports you know they only tell part of the story. A clinician could be within their budget parameters, but still be spending way too much on their supplies. This can all change for the better if you make available quarterly supply utilization trending and benchmarking reports for your clinicians’ use.
Empower Clinicians with Data
As you know, very few clinical supplies and technologies are changed (if any) without the agreement of your clinicians. The reason for this is that any clinical change must be owned by these same people. Supply utilization management puts the control back into the hands of your clinicians with the result that they are more accommodating to changing their products and technologies because it was their own decision to do so. It is called accountability!
Supply Chain Managers Can’t Carry All of the Workload
Supply chain managers have been doing a good job on price and standardization savings, but too often they are hitting the wall on removing waste and inefficiencies from their organizations’ supply streams. This is because clinicians push back with a vengeance if they are challenged in any way. Yet, it has been our clients’ experience that when clinicians can see the supply utilization data for themselves which shows that specific product or technology costs are beyond acceptable limits, they take corrective action 97% of the time. Yes, it does take a little longer for the other 3%.