STRATEGIC SOURCING & LOGISITICS
STRATEGIC SOURCING & LOGISITICS
pandemic-driven logistics expansion ASCs, physician practices must welcome new additions to the service line-up by Rick Dana Barlow
Photo credit: daniilvolkov |
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ealthcare’s operational response to the COVID-19 pandemic inten- sifi ed interest in what Healthcare
Purchasing News calls “remote care,” or anything outside of a hospital setting in much the same way that remote work represents anything outside of the offi ce. This migration also has been enabled by automation, electronics and informa- tion technology, including telemedicine. If anything, in healthcare, the “remote” designation serves as something of a respectful update to the worn-out alter- nate care” title of the 1990s and even its nonacute successor.
Although healthcare in general has been migrating slowly out of the hospital set- ting for decades, the pandemic arguably accelerated the exodus, save only for the most critical, serious and triage-worthy of cases, including surgeries. With the market-driven rise of retail and urgent care outlets and IT-related convenience e.g., telemedicine that were reinforced by pandemic protocols, healthcare as an industry has shown that delivering care remotely, while not yet perfected, may very well represent the future of general healthcare delivery, save for the most critical, serious and triage- worthy of cases. his new era raises curious questions.
ow does this development affect the supply chain when the standard cus- tomer base now includes more ambula- tory surgery centers, physician offi ces, retail and urgent care outlets, imaging centers, mobile surgical suites and even the patient’s home?
ow do the larger distributors handle the infl u of many smaller delivery points involving lower units of measure at lower price points than the old class of trade argument enabled?
ow do the smaller and specialty dis- tributors and third-party logistics service companies gain credibility?
ow does maon usiness fi t into the mix from a price point and service level view
astly, what about the hospital-based supply chain eecutiveleader who must oversee product and service fl ow within his or her own facility and affi liated sites within the system or integrated delivery network that now must incorporate myriad patient homes? think the fundamental question, as healthcare takes its last mile’ ourney into the home, is how do we make the right decisions on who provides the clinical ser- vices, who provides the technology to best replicate traditional brick-and-mortar care, and who has the logistics infrastructure to support an almost infi nite number of deliv- ery points?” posed Shaun Clinton, CMRP, Senior Vice President, Supply Chain anagement, eas ealth esources. t’s not a simple question to answer. ven if someone answers this question, the provi- sion of care has always been dependent on the most variable of machines, the human body. model static enough to deliver reliable and safe care must also be fl eible enough to account for this ambiguity. o matter, more and more care will be offered in the home thanks to all these advance- ments, the key is how to do it right.
10 May 2022 • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS •
hpnonline.com
Homeward boundaries ooking at the distribution, inventory and logistics product and service oppor- tunities beyond the hospital that have emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic for the last two years, one might be surprised at which remote care segment attracted the most bu and ooming interest. n fact, the traditional non- acute” class-of-trade pricing arguments really didn’t factor into this area – yet – as it did for the ambulatory surgery center/ outpatient segment and physician prac- tice segment. ome think this relatively new segment of interest might spur innovation among those preceding it. What’s noteworthy is how quickly clini-
cians, patients and insurers have become more comfortable with hospital-at-home a programs during the past two years,” observed Chris Luoma, Senior Vice President, Global Product anagement, . n fact, a recent report from Forrester anticipates that the number of hospitals that deliver care at home will triple this year alone. ut uoma sees the hospital-at-home segment adding a new layer of compleity to supply chain logistics. he challenge is fi nding ways to pro- vide products and services in real time across distributed care environments,” he indicated. his will require supply chain teams to think differently, beyond acute care supply management, and instead
Chris Luoma Casting a remote care net for
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