Optimization is Key – How Healthy is Your Hospital Supply Chain?

In the rush to drive down healthcare costs, hospital supply chain optimization can help.  By doing so, hospitals are saving millions of dollars and blazing a new trail in healthcare management.  Through our PeopleSoft operational support, Belmero Inc. identifies ways to optimize hospital supply chains – just one way we typically achieve a 25% reduction in support costs and increase overall productivity for our clients. This May 4th through 6th in Phoenix, Arizona, the GHX Healthcare Supply Chain Summit will focus on 50 hospitals that have mastered various ways to optimize their supply chains. According to Healthcare Finance, the University of California San Francisco Medical Center is this year’s leading hospital for supply chain optimization.  Here’s how they did it: 1. Knowing their numbers.  A review of a hospital’s accounts payable records will typically reveal a surprising number of vendors for one service.  Focusing on fewer vendors allows a hospital to review contracts more closely and find opportunities to save.  Some contracts have not been negotiated for over a decade! 2. They brought supply chain employees into negotiations for corporate contracts.  Don’t let corporate management have all the fun choosing contracts with various support services.  Benefit management and even accounting services were competitively bid when supply chain employees offered their knowledge and expertise to human resources and finance departments. 3. They plan and consolidate equipment purchases.  Supply chain staff were able to identify equipment needs for the entire hospital and negotiate prices down.  Suppliers are much more amicable to reducing their bid knowing that they will sell ten machines instead of two.  Bring more staff to the table when considering major acquisitions – you never know who will find an alternative product that can save thousands.  Finally, don’t end the relationship with the supplier after the contract.  If equipment is still covered by service guarantee, let that supplier show you the value of purchasing equipment from them again. If you’re interested in finding out more about Belmero’s supply chain optimization strategies, contact us and we’ll put our 10 plus years of PeopleSoft experience to work.