Blog, Hospital Medical Supplies, Hospital Products, News
Hospital CFOs and supply chain executives that use global sourcing of hospital supplies can positively affect the value-based healthcare equation where value equals outcomes divided by costs.
“It is amazing how expensive it is to get relatively low-cost products to the right places in healthcare,” Jim Connor VP of supply chain operations for Westchester Medical Center Health Network says in a piece by Lorne Tritt in Managed Healthcare Executive.
Global sourcing is a solution within your reach. Here are the top factors to consider when launching a global sourcing program.
1. Start with quality and the right products.
“There is not much room to affect big ticket purchasing items like expensive imaging machinery,” Connor says. “There are too few opportunities and too many hurdles.”
Address what is within your control, like ‘med/surg.’ Hospital medical supplies that originate from multiple factories, ones that are ripe for quality and clinical improvements, have clear cost savings potential, and hospital branding are top targets.
2. Mitigate risk and improve quality with an “inside-out” approach.
Middlemen between medical product manufacturers, clinicians and patients inhibit transparency about the conditions in which products are manufactured. This creates risk where there should be little to none.
Use global sourcing to take an “inside-out” approach to hospital supplies: start with clinical input before the products are manufactured and bring the design close to the patient experience. This ensures an appropriate cost-quality relationship and improvements in patient satisfaction.
3. Plan for efficient acquisition.
If a hospital’s receiving areas or warehouses cannot support large containers, enlist other existing suppliers and distributors to provide some support. Done right, this has the capability of smoothing the transition for globally sourced items in a nearly seamless fashion for the end-users in the hospital.
4. Insist on transparency throughout the acquisition lifecycle.
“If I’m price checking a distributor’s item every day, they are not a partner… hardly anyone will tell you what it costs to acquire throughout its supply chain lifecycle,” Connor says. “I need partners for [hospital supplies] that must be consistently of very high quality, with full cost transparency.”
Westchester now has 100% acquisition cost visibility and product control all the way to the manufacturer. They have saved 27% through the program with ASP Global.
Read the full article as published in Managed Healthcare Executive.
If you want to put global sourcing to work for your hospital, IDN or large group practice, we can help you get started today. Contact ASP Global CEO Lorne Tritt via email at lorne.tritt@aspglobal.com or call (404) 696-6999.
