PRODUCTS & SERVICES
it needs, could use and should value the assistance, according to lab supply chain experts.
Supply Chain creates value by impact- ing three fundamental areas that most Laboratory department leaders deem important, Medline’s Krhovsky indicates. First: The direct effect that the purchasing and materials management arm of supply chain can have on budget management. “Laboratory leaders usually have oversight of their budget, but with that responsibility comes executive-level pressure to ensure the department is spending responsibly while procuring the necessary supplies to function, Krhovsky said. “However, labora- tory leaders often do not have formal sup- ply chain management training. This is why hospitals and IDN systems in the U.S. have a purchasing/supply chain department. “I truly believe that one of the defining characteristics of labs that operate well-bal- anced budgets is the presence of a symbiotic partnership between lab and supply chain,” he continued. “In these instances, lab lead- ers can lean on supply chain partners to create impactful purchasing habits that ultimately affect the bottom line of the lab.” Second: Allocation of personnel and
resources. “In today’s current labor climate, labs are also facing a workforce shortage while being asked to do more,” Krhovsky noted. “More testing, quicker turnaround times, additional shifts, implementation of new technology and automation—all while shorthanded, and in many instances, underfunded. With this staffing crisis as the backdrop, it is easy to understand why many lab leaders and their managers and supervisors are sensitive to spending too much time searching for items within their labs, negotiating contracts with sup- pliers and/or attempting to find out why a product hasn’t arrived in the lab on time. “By working with Supply Chain execu- tives and their subsequent partners, lab leaders can ensure they have sound supply
Chart 1: Hard-to-find lab supplies • Nitrile Gloves • Vacutainers (Sodium Citrate 3.2%, Lithium Heparin, etc…)
• Universal and LTS Sterile Pipette Tips • Swabs and Transport Media Kits (including Viral Transport Media (VTM), Universal Transport Media (UTM) and Phosphate Buffered Saline (PBS))
• Spectrum Saliva Collection Kits • Saliva Direct Collection Kits • Neutralizing Antibody Testing • Rapid Over-the-Counter Point-of-Care (POC) Antigen (Ag) tests
Source: Accumen, September 2021
chain strategies to drive workflow efficien- cies, build processes for issue resolution regarding backorders and product avail- ability, and most importantly, keep their staff at the bench leveraging every minute of their time to execute the critical work at-hand,” he added. Third: Availability of product and access
to technology. “If COVID exposed anything within the healthcare market, from both a provider and supplier standpoint, it was the availability of inventory on critical, pandemic-related supplies,” Krhovsky said. “In our world within laboratory, this was most apparent with swabs, VTM (Viral Transport Media) and COVID tests. With lab leadership absorbed with the day-to- day testing demands that erupted during COVID, there was little-to-no-time avail- able to look at procuring new swab options or understanding the constantly moving target of new test technologies. Although equally overwhelmed during COVID, this is exactly why supply chain departments exist. I think it was evident that the hospi- tals that had the most active supply chain teams, with the deepest supplier relation- ships and networks, were inevitably the facilities that faired the best.”
The pandemic fostered a new healthcare environment where it’s now more critical than ever for Laboratories to have all the necessary supplies they need to perform the tests ordered in the time requested, according to Accumen’s Jurinic. “As we have witnessed over the past year, not having the necessary supplies on hand can have an adverse effect on patient care,” he said. “Laboratories rely on Supply Chain to provide this support function, along with the associated heavy lift on the cost analytics, the tactical and strategic part of the supply chain. This allows laborato- rians to focus and spend their time putting out quality tests that clinicians can rely on and appropriately diagnose. This makes timely lab results arguably one of the most
important aspects of accurate diagnosis and ultimately treatment. It’s no surprise quality lab results in a timely manner result in better patient outcomes.”
Strain emphasizes the importance of Laboratory’s processes that directly affect critical patient care outcomes as motivation alone for the department to partner with Supply Chain.
“A medical laboratory produces tens of thousands life-dependent results daily informing physician decisions that may alter short- or long-term outcomes,” Strain said. “Each result relies on a variety of chemicals, reagents, blood products, kits, specimen collection, quality control stan- dards and other products and devices to accomplish this work without fail. “For decades, laboratories have used the concept of data-driven task assignments to ensure their in-lab supply chain is highly functioning – burn rate, expiration date, seasonality, inventory, lead times, order placement, labeling upon receipt, documentation, alerting section leads new reagents are available to quality control and other key laboratory operation steps centered around products and devices.” Supply Chain can – and should – consult with Lab on all of it and be welcomed by the Lab, she added.
Sargent concurs. “The clinical lab needs Supply Chain to create PAR locations with min/max, place orders, check on back orders, determine the quantities required for standing orders and blanket orders,” she said. “The next step is to understand usage due to consistent orders, reduce the number of standing or blanket orders, adjust PARs, get involved in the equipment needs, purchases and services to provide a methodology to track costs, savings and reliability.” HPN
Visit
https://hpnonline.com/21237999 for the sidebar, “Opening the channel between Supply Chain and Laboratory.”
Chart 2: Top Laboratory Supply Chain Issues • Products arrive too late in the day
° Deliveries at an agreed upon time before lab supply chain staff end of shift
• Products do not arrive on expected date ° Hospital and reference laboratories run 24/7 ° Notification of time delay or back order not received
• Temperature sensitive deliveries
° Boxes from suppliers to clearly state refrigerator or freezer temperature sensitive materials ° Supply chain process for goods to be delivered directly to lab and by- pass dock ° If not directly delivered then dock to have refrigerator and freezer storage capabilities
Source: Barbara Strain, September 2021
hpnonline.com • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS • October 2021 35
° E.G. Put away in lab often includes labeling of each unit of measure with date &/or time stamp or other special handling once received
° With it's slim margins laboratories use processes to avoid high freight costs by balancing short lived expiration date inventories
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