One thing is abundantly clear after reviewing AHRMM’s recent roundtable comprised of healthcare supply chain thought leaders. Investment in new technologies will greatly improve efficiency within the healthcare supply chain empowering it to drive out waste and inefficiencies which plague many organizations today.
Simply saying new technologies will eliminate waste is simply a broad starting point. The real value is derived from these technologies being heavily specialized for the environment they will be deployed in. Taking a quick look at Table 1, we can see that 40% of a hospital’s supply chain expenses are derived from three departments – cardiology, radiology and surgery. This statistic shows the disproportionate value of the supplies that are used in these departments, often ranging from hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands for an individual item.
We have previously spoken on the Value vs. Volume inventory management strategy being adopted throughout the industry. This approach plan really comes together once we have technologies to support these strategies. New systems within healthcare should now be able to do more than store or track items.
Here are three features that modern dynamic inventory management systems should include:
- The ability to securely store a variety of supplies and devices.
- Real time tracking of supply expiration dates, locations, product and lot numbers.
- Automated and optimized re-ordering with direct communication to enterprise MMIS
In short, when looking to implement a new system it needs to protect the product, gather accurate data on the utilization of the product, and lastly be able convert the data into meaningful information to allow end users to create value. We highly encourage you to check out this white paper which details the benefits of a connected and automated supply chain. Additionally, here is a case study showing how New York Presbyterian was able to reduce on hand inventory by $230,000 upon implementation of Mobile Aspects iRISupply system.