It’s not what you know that’s important to your hospital supply chain success; it’s what you don’t know. The essence of a supply chain intelligence program is gathering competitive intelligence on what your peers are doing to improve your own performance.
For instance, did you know that shrewd supply chain managers are moving back to vinyl exam gloves at an average savings of 23%? Or, that a few progressive supply chain professionals are automating the management and control of their reprocessed products at a savings of up to 48%?
We used to obtain some of this competitive intelligence by networking with colleagues at meetings, conferences, and workshops, but who has the time for these activities any longer? Even if we did, this isn’t a supply chain intelligence program, it is just hearsay, anecdotal, and untested evidence.
Best-In-Class Healthcare Supply Chain Intelligence Programs
The time has passed for this type of informal intelligence gathering. We now need a structured, consistent, and reliable method to gather intelligence continuously. The secret to best-in-class healthcare supply chain intelligence programs is that they gather information from many sources, and then combine them into actionable data that can be used to improve all of your supply chain processes.
Here are some of the sources that best-in-class healthcare supply chain organizations use to gather their competitive intelligence:
- Orthopedic Network News: Monthly newsletters and special reports on the latest developments on all orthopedic implant devices and manufactures.
- Spend Manager: Automated updates on best prices available for your size and type of healthcare organization.
- Utilization Dashboard: Ongoing tracking, trending, and benchmarking of your supply chain spend against your peers to identify waste and inefficiencies in your supply streams.
- Vendor Reports: Benchmarking reports from your laundry/linen, reprocessing, custom pack, etc. vendors.
- Capital Equipment Purchases: Retrospective benchmarks on capital equipment purchases from your peers.
- GPO Supply Chain Benchmarks: Reports from your GPOs reporting your peers’ supply chain metrics compared to your healthcare organization.
- Evidence-Based Studies: Original research or compiled studies on what is working best (products, services, and processes) for other hospitals.
Enrich Your Hospital’s Supply Chain Data
I’m sure you could add a few more sources to this list, but you get the idea. The more sources of information you have at your fingertips, the richer the data you will have to make your important supply chain decisions.
Articles you may like:
How to Prevent and/or Eliminate Waste and Inefficiency with Healthcare Value Analysis
Listen to the Data if You Want to Lead and Innovate in Your Hospital Supply Chain Business
Dive Deep Into Your Hospital’s Supply Chain Expenses With Value Analysis Analytics