Breaking the supply chain barrier: Can I do this on my own?

Session
Revenue Cycle/Supply Chain

Author
John Whittlesey
Principal
The Healthcare Management Council, Inc.

Description
Supply chain management is the new buzz word in health care and many consulting firms are jumping on the bandwagon to help hospitals out of their predicament. With millions of dollars tied up in implants, drugs, hardware, floor supplies, etc., how can an organization feel confident that it's managing supply costs effectively? Is it possible to go it alone?

Abstract
Supply chain management is much more than getting the best pricing on the supplies you use. It's also about determining which supplies should be used to optimize patient outcomes, monitoring compliance around contracts, gaining broad-based buy-in on what you buy, when, and why, plus fully understanding the impact of utilization across the organization.

Through HMC's unique approach to benchmarking and networking to support performance improvement in hospitals, we have developed a specific set of tools to help organizations analyze clinical supplies, case types, physician variation, and discover what's worked at other organizations, without spending money on outside consultants.

Case studies around some of the stickier cases will be highlighted including joint replacement and interventional cardiac supplies. How did they organize their PI teams? Who was on it? What goals and timeframes did they set? How did they get physician buy in? Did they hold the gains? Where did they fail? These are some of the questions that will be explored.