ProMedica Details Successes in Supply Chain Management
By - As the healthcare industry continues to advance and thrive, the most prominent organizations perpetually pursue effective supply chain management through the execution of three innovative methods: waste hindrance, money management, and enhancing the long term quality of care patients receive.
ECRI Institute announced the winners of the 2015 Healthcare Supply Chain Achievement Award. The eleven winning organizations were chosen out of 3,000 hospitals and health systems who participate in ECRI Institute’s PriceGuide and SELECTplus supply and capital procurement advisory programs. Winners were especially acknowledged for their impressive dedication to improving healthcare quality and cost-effectiveness within full ECRI Institute membership services utilization.
The evaluation process included an analysis and study of each organization’s routine purchase order history and supply chain initiatives, such as continuously consistent spend management and market analytics efforts for all medical devices.
“These winning hospitals and systems have shown dynamic use of ECRI Institute’s services, developing solutions that reduce costs without negatively impacting quality and outcomes,” said Timothy Browne, Director of ECRI Institute’s PriceGuide service, in an announcement last month.
One of the winners, ProMedica, is a locally-owned nonprofit healthcare organization serving northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan.
Kathleen Krueger, Senior Vice President of Quality & Performance Management Services and President of Supply Chain at ProMedica, spoke with RevCycleIntelligence.com about how the healthcare organization has achieved spend management quality through effective adaptation of supply chain process solutions.
As one of a select few healthcare organization recognized for excellence in supply chain management, Krueger says what sets ProMedica apart from other organizations is an emphasis on safety and wellbeing.
“As part of supply chain, we have a very robust clinical value analysis program which connects our clinicians and physicians to our suppliers and suppliers’ selection process,” says Krueger.
“As a complement to that is the deployment of the ECRI model into the mechanism itself, how we’re structured to receive information in, use the product effectively to reduce risk and harm. We have a large attention to the culture of safety at ProMedica,” she continues.
Krueger emphasizes an active implementation of modernized solutions and ongoing communication with physicians and clinicians to decide upon the most effective products.
“Our overall approach to spend management is to identify those manufacturers with innovative solutions as well as high-quality products and work with our physicians and clinicians, use their input and guidance on proper product selection,” Krueger explains. “Then we use ECRI, of course, as a partner — an alignment — to determine benchmarking to ensure that we are bringing in the best value to ProMedica.”
Krueger maintains there are three best methods to improve the quality of healthcare: safety, clinical quality, and service excellence.
“We think safety is high-reliable care using error-prevention methods to eliminate harm,” she maintains. “We believe clinical quality is variation-free care through evidence-based practices to achieve high patient outcomes. We think the third element of service excellence is patient-oriented experiences that, through our behaviors, manifest itself in empathy, dignity, and trust for the patient.”
Tangible results mean the quality of care a patient receives can only improves. “So when you tie these three elements together — safety, clinical quality, and service excellence — and then work within the organization to drive outcomes, those measurable outcomes, we believe, will continue to improve patient care,” she adds.
According to Krueger, although the concept of developing cost-effective solutions without compromising quality are not necessarily new, challenges can become workable future solutions.
“Our challenges lie in the whole value chain, not just supply chain,” she says. “So, it starts with manufacturers and product and service providers and goes all the way through to our care deliverers — the physicians and clinicians. The greatest challenge is that’s a large value stream and there are a lot of moving parts. Working on them to achieve best practices in each element of that complete value chain is going to be important to driving value in the future.”
