Constructing A Patient-Centered Supply Chain Model
Competition is no longer between hospitals; it is between supply chains. This quote clearly emphasizes the strategic significance of supply chain in today’s evolving healthcare environment. A major limitation of the current supply chain system practiced in most of the hospitals is that they are not linked with performance and outcomes. The current supply chain department focuses mainly on efficiency in delivering the items on time and on cost savings. They lack a key ingredient that could turn their supply chain operations into a powerful tool for better clinical outcomes. In today’s evolving healthcare landscape, a successful hospital should have a supply chain that aligns with the corporate strategy connected with performance and clinical outcomes.
A patient-centered supply chain is one that joins supply chain systems with the hospital information system (HIS) to achieve the triple aim goals (better health, better care, lower costs), and the organization’s specific objectives around quality, safety, and cost. The organization should identify their critical goals and objectives and those need to be connected with the supply chain for better performance and clinical outcomes.
Clinically integrated robust supply chain
A clinically integrated robust supply chain incorporates all appropriate stakeholders into its processes. It takes into consideration the roles of administrators, physicians, clinicians, finance, and allied departments to deliver high-quality, cost-conscious products and services that improve patient outcomes. It requires the involvement of physicians and clinicians because they are the largest consumers of supplies within the hospital. Engaging physicians and educating them will help to determine shared goals and understand the direction and processes of improving the supply chain and patient outcomes.
Value analysis meetings have to be conducted periodically and that will be beneficial for clinicians to understand the costs associated with care. During such meetings, accurate and validated data on standardization and utilization provide insightful information and play a key role in decision making for clinical alignment and cost reductions. Standardization of products helps to achieve supply chain value by significantly cutting costs on overhead costs associated with multiple suppliers and multiple products.
Automation and analytics
The patient-centered supply chain approach enables the physicians and nurses to automate and place requisitions in the HIS, pushes the order to substore/stores, triggers, and thereby automates the processes that result in delivery of the items to the patients. It also facilitates in the form of procedure-specific kits to various departments like ORs, cath lab, and dialysis. It also tracks order in real-time for efficient inventory management. Organizations gain greater visibility into supplies and can more effectively manage and distribute inventory because orders are automated and tracked in real-time.
The operational redesigning of the patient-centered supply chain reduces supply room visits, deploys attendants, rather than nurses, to handle supply deliveries, saves time by putting the right supplies where they are needed, when they are needed, and reduces the delay to patient care and ensures patient safety. The patient-centered supply chain pulls clinical, supply, and financial functions together with built-in analytics that can also be used to identify the best supplies with the most positive impact on care. The result is the ability to better understand the costs of care and the variability of costs, predict expenditures, negotiate more favorable contracts, standardize down to a core set of products, and reduce unnecessary variation.
The major challenge is to bridge the gap between supply chain and clinical stakeholders. It is essential to bring all hospital stakeholders together to understand available options for improving supply chain processes and to quantify the tangible benefits of these options. The decisions taken in a collaborative manner with all stakeholders and not for them often result in a higher adherence to it.
