Why Do Clinical Departments Need More Proof Than Just Total Spend?
Supply and value analysis managers have been challenged with providing evidence to show where clinical departments’ supply costs are running over. Normally, when the supply cost overrun is brought to the clinical department managers’ attention in the form of spend totals, their first reaction is that patient volumes or acuity was high for the period. That is where the conversation usually ends and that is where huge dollars are tied up in your hospital’s supply chain. How do we provide the proof clinical departments need when it comes to supply cost overruns?
Clinical Departments Are Not Cost Management Adverse
Clinical departments are not cost management adverse. On the contrary, they will help manage costs and quality but require solid evidence when it comes to their major and minor product category overspends. Supply and value analysis managers have been able to keep costs low for many years with various value analysis and contracting strategies but there comes a time when the clinical departments must learn where they need to do better.
Only Clinical Departments Can Control Their Clinical Departmental Supply Utilization
Clinical departments have traditionally managed the supplies that are used for care on their patients but they have been doing this without a solid reporting system to tell them where they can do better based on patient volumes and acuity. With a system in place, clinical departments can now visualize all of their major supply categories and make the necessary adjustments which in turn will save big dollars (11% to 23% supply utilization savings per clinical department) for the hospital.
$3.8 Million for 350-Bed Hospital
Recently, a 350-bed hospital reported clinical departmental savings of over $3.8 million. Why so much savings? Because they had never taken the clinical supply reporting to the department level and thus the savings were low-hanging fruit when it was brought to the clinical department leaders’ attention. Clinical Integration Supply Manager software made it easy to pinpoint the exact category in the exact nursing unit and the exact products that were causing the overspend. Prior to this, they did not have any idea where to look or how to prove the savings to the clinical department leaders.
