STRATEGIC SOURCING & LOGISTICS Ash Crowe
4. Product recalls cause delays due to lack of preparation. “Product recall management starts with a clear under- standing on what is stocked throughout the hospital and having visibility of these products in real-time. Unfortunately, some hospitals and health systems are not well-equipped with the right tools, processes and resources to effectively manage recalled products. Without strong processes in place, hospitals and health systems are potentially putting their patients at risk.”
Rick May
5. Restocking and inventory access remains problem- atic such that circulating nurses scramble to obtain what surgeons need – sometimes during procedures. “Creating a streamlined inventory deployment strat- egy starts with understanding what products are used where and how often throughout the operating rooms and procedural areas. Too often, the inventory deploy- ment strategy is created based on each person’s expe- rience and judgment and of course they are wrong most of the time. Hospitals and health systems will need to evaluate where best to store each product to minimize delays when retrieving products during a procedure. There is a balancing act between the cost of the product, critically to patient care and time to retrieve the product when it is needed.”
Ash Crowe, Senior Project Manager, St. Onge Co.
1. Restocking and inventory access remains problem- atic such that circulating nurses scramble to obtain what surgeons need – sometimes during procedures. “Preference cards moved from hand-written cards to databases without much increased sophistication to help truly improve the process. In most cases the items brought into a OR prior to the case are based on his- torical data, not updated frequently, instead utilizing real time information on what the physicians are using now to predict what will be needed tomorrow based on the case, complexity, and patient characteristics.”
2. Bad/erroneous data and/or lack of product data stan- dards cause/contribute to decision-making problems. “As systems grow more complex and the number of products continue to increase, it is becoming increas- ingly important to invest in clean data and quality data standards that make sure that all items can be easily found, documented, and billed appropriately.”
3. Physician preference items add to inventory and pro- cedural costs. “As new physician preference items come in, there is a more complex parallel effort that needs to be done to reduce (and hopefully remove) some of the items which are no longer being used as frequently.”
4. Inability to track product consumption/usage pat- terns for billing, budgeting, economic service line evaluation, etc. “Accurate tracking of consumption is important not just for the billing and budgeting but so that we can know more about what was used in the case and more accurately have the correct items in the room the next time that type of case occurs.”
5. Devices, instruments break down/malfunction due to improper maintenance, repair, service. “Just as it’s important to track the supplies and trays used in a case, accurate tracking of equipment and individual instruments used in cases would allow for more items
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to be proactively maintained instead of waiting for items to break in order for them to be fixed.”
Rick May, MD, Senior Principal, Advisory Solutions, Vizient
1. Other – Incomplete patient information. “Surgeons are often making decisions on which supplies and/or equipment to use based on incomplete patient infor- mation. To make the best possible choices, surgeons need current information regarding the patient’s his- tory, medical conditions (current and past), surgical history, patient-specific risks, functional status, etc. All of these are important in making appropriate equip- ment, supply, and surgical technique decisions.”
2. Lack of integration, if not interconnectivity or interop- erability, between electronic imaging, surgical and patient information components. “Lack of integration results in incomplete patient information, and this contributes to suboptimal decision-making. When surgeons have easy access to MRIs, X-rays, CT scans, lab results, consult information and a detailed patient history at the time of surgery, they are more empow- ered to have successful outcomes.”
3. Bad/erroneous data and/or lack of product data stan- dards cause/contribute to decision-making problems. “Surgeons are often required to make multiple, com- plex patient-care decisions on the fly at the time of surgery based on incomplete information. This deficit is often due to a lack of consistent, evidence-based data around the indications for certain supplies and/or equipment and also the long-term results associated with specific supply decisions.”
4. Ineffective, poor or no relationship with Supply Chain to help with product evaluations, contracting, sup- plier relations, etc. “In general, surgeons have a limited understanding about the entire supply chain process. They tend of focus on just getting the supplies and equipment that they think will work best for their patients without much regard for how it gets into their hands or how much things cost. Regular communica- tion between supply chain leaders and surgeons would help both sides understand the other’s concerns and priorities and foster a more effective approach to sup- ply and equipment acquisition and use.”
5. Physician preference items add to inventory and pro- cedural costs. “All surgeons are highly motivated to get great results for their patients, and most have developed their preferences around supplies and equipment based on years (or decades) of trial and error. Because of this they tend to have strong biases about what works and what doesn’t, and what they want to use in the OR. This isn’t about physicians being stubborn — at the end of the day, the surgeons bear the ultimate responsibility for the results of the surger- ies they perform. Effectively managing PPI requires establishing an ongoing relationship between supply chain and surgeons, so that both sides can understand the other’s goals and work together to achieve great patient care at a reasonable price.” HPN
Read on: Tackling top OR challenges, full speed, steam ahead at
https://hpnonline.com/21286570
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