SOURCING & LOGISTICS


Cardinal Health Specific challenge the customer faced: We recently had a cus- tomer contact us about a mother who had been discharged with a new baby in need of specialized formula. The mom had only a few days of the formula sample on hand. Not only was this new mom adjusting to her brand-new role as parent, but she was also navigating the complexities of healthcare and receiving products in the home. The specialized formula required for the baby is considered “special order,” meaning we order on-demand and products typically have a longer lead-time. However, under- standing the urgency for this patient, we collaborated with our customer and the product manufacturer, as well as across our business, to deliver product for this patient before her sam- ples ran out. How the challenge was addressed and solved


directly or by assisting the customer: Our cus- tomer took the lead in helping the patient nav- igate insurance coverage. When our customer informed us of the situation and its urgency, they asked if we could escalate the distribution process for their patient. We quickly stacked hands to escalate a new order with the prod- uct manufacturer and were able to expedite product before the patients’ sample formula was depleted.


Erika Burkett


Erika Burkett, director, Customer Service Management, Cardinal Health at-Home


Metrex Specific challenge the customer faced: We recently worked with two customers, one a large non-acute care organization with facilities across many states and the other a large academic medical system with acute and non-acute facilities in a regional area. The challenge they faced was in changing their disinfectant wipe products due to the hurdles they faced in moving their staff and organizations to new solutions after years of use with their previous products. While changing wipes may seem on the surface to be a simple task, this challenge was magnified by their multiple locations, shifts and departments/floors that all had to be brought along the journey while ensuring staff remained compliant to protocols (e.g., properly following kill times or using the right product in appropriate situation) so patient safety was not compromised. Even factors like the brackets on the walls that held the wipe canisters had to be considered as part of the change. Both customers were very interested in changing their disinfec-


tant wipes to newer products for clinical and financial benefits, but the scope and effort to implement the change and retraining staff made them rethink their decisions. The burden to execute the change fell on their clinical staff who had conflicting priorities and limited bandwidth. They needed help or the change might not happen at all! How the challenge was addressed and solved directly or by


assisting the customer: Metrex stepped up by offering resources, both human and materials, to assist the customers in implement- ing the change. Each customer has unique needs, so Metrex asked customers what was needed to make the new product introduction easier and successful. It came down to three key areas: Educational/transition materials for staff to easily reference to understand the new products and where/when they would be used; resources (people) to help educate their staff in-person on-site; and clinical resources to connect with staff virtually for in-service and clinical training.


Metrex produced and provided custom conversion wall charts to educate and remind staff of the previous product(s) and what new product was replacing them with essential instructions for use information. We offered new wall brackets as well as stickers to use on existing brackets to identify the new products. Metrex and our sales partners at MedPro Associates provided on-site in-person resources to assist the clinical staff in the tran- sition and training of staff. In one case five people were provided to spend up to three weeks working with the various locations and teams. And two clinical resources were offered virtually to help cover more users and locations with in-service and clini- cal training.


Our sales team also assisted the customers’ materials manage- ment teams in calculating the amount of new product needed and setting new PAR levels (as these typically change when converting due to the differences in Unit-of-Measure between manufacturers).


All this was offered as a value-added service to our customers and was not something they paid for additionally. The positive customer reaction to the service and support provided has shown us how important this can be for some customers, and as men- tioned before can be more important than pricing or clinical claims.


David Nelson, director, Marketing, Metrex


Medline Industries Specific challenge the customer faced: Medline is an integral and proactive partner in Stanford Medicine Health Care Supply Chain manage- ment and optimization of workflows. Working with Stanford’s [electronic data interchange] and data analytics partner, GHX, Medline helped solve previously lunsolvabler problems around auto-substitution, price assurance and exception management while creating new industry best practice standards along the way. 1. Specifically, Stanford Medicine Health Care Supply Chain was facing three main challenges: Auto-sub had never been successfully used in Lawson, one of Stanford’s ERPs


Joseph Riggio


2. Conventional wisdom was that Auto-sub and TruePrice, Medline’s best-in-class price assurance solution, could not and had never been able to run at the same time


3. New and comprehensive internal structures and processes were needed to support resulting automation and alignment with GHX’s reporting. How the challenge was addressed and solved directly or


by assisting the customer: The first order of business was getting Auto-substitution to work with GHX’s My Exchange and Stanford’s multiple ERPs. The manual process of ordering substitutes from Medline was inefficient and costing Stanford labor, space and inventory carry costs – along with the risk of stockouts. Medline began drilling into the issues of interfacing Stanford’s multiple ERP systems and Medline’s inventory system, capturing the myriad of differences between the primary item and the substitute item to implement the automated substitution process for clinically approved equivalent alternatives. The partners recognized that technology automation alone


would not fully solve challenges around auto-substitution. Auto- sub required developing a robust infrastructure within Stanford and its partners industry partners – process, structure, and technology all needed to be enhanced. Both entities would have to develop new internal structures and collaborative workflow processes to support the automation.


8 December 2023 • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS • hpnonline.com


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