Driving the next level of innovation in healthcare will require significant collaboration throughout the industry. Today’s healthcare supply chain teams, who possess so much critical data and expertise, and work with nearly every stakeholder in the industry, are increasingly called upon to facilitate the collaboration necessary to attain three familiar healthcare goals: reduce costs, increase efficiency, and improve clinical outcomes. In support of the Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management’s (AHRMM) annual National Healthcare Supply Chain Week, October 7- 13, 2018, Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX) has identified three key areas where supply chain’s collaboration will improve efficiency and outcomes while working to improve the quality of patient care.
“When we consider the transformation underway in healthcare today, it’s impossible to overstate the role that supply chain plays in facilitating critical changes,” said Bruce Johnson, president and CEO, GHX. “AHRMM’s National Healthcare Supply Chain Week puts the emphasis on the great work healthcare providers are doing to drive continued industry innovation through collaboration.”
Three key areas in which supply chain collaboration between providers and suppliers is creating significant benefit to healthcare:
1. Supply Chain and Clinical Integration: Increasing levels of collaboration between supply chain and clinical teams, as well as improved integration of supply chain and clinical systems, will become increasingly critical to conduct value analysis, identify variation in costs and quality, and make necessary adjustments to improve patient care. Today, most healthcare providers require clinicians to document supplies and implants at the point of use directly into the EHR. However, the industry continues to struggle with accurate or complete clinical supply capture at the point of care. A cloud-based industry-wide clinical item master can bridge the gap between item master management and the larger data set needed for EHR clinical documentation leading to more accurate Total Cost of Care analysis.