Efficiency is the keywordThe supply chain "is just one of many areas of healthcare where the move is towards what we call the real time enterprise," said Vi Shaffer, Gartner's research vice president and industry services director for healthcare. This move is characterized by a need to understand and reengineer all of the in-between processes. "Supply chain is one of those areas that has had process engineering techniques and waste reduction techniques like Lean applied to it for many years. A lot of vendors have featured on the core demand aspects and delivery aspects of supply chain management." |
 McKesson's Pathways Materials Management supply chain management solution links the entire healthcare chain into a single, integrated process. |
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3 TRENDS TO WATCH
Vi Shaffer, Gartner's research vice president and industry services director for healthcare, sees the following trends shaping the supply chain management market for 2009:
1.EFFICIENCY: Health organizations are focused on making the process of ordering and delivering the supplies more efficient, Shaffer said. Supply chain management can make up 30 percent to 35 percent of a hospital's operating budget. The promise of more efficiency can make SCM systems an attractive sell. 2.VISIBILITY: Providers want more visibility into the supply chain, and new products should reflect that desire. Real-time notifications of breakdowns in the chain and the ability to deal with complex processes are particularly important. 3.KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS: SCM systems should offer drilled-down metrics for all parts of the supply chain to help educate organizations and help them impact areas that need attention. "(SCM) is fundamentally a KPI-driven philosophy, taken back to what can we influence in real time," said Shaffer. |
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VENDOR SHOWCASE |
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Boston Software Systems |
GE HEALTHCARE |
Broadlane |
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McKesson Provider Technologies |
MedSynergies |
Oracle |
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Premier |
MediClick |
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User Reviews |
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| "MySpend pretty much paid for itself in about two hours after I started with it. In 24 hours, we had the interface set up and we were up and running. We are definitely most pleased with our move to Premier." Steve Broughton, director of materials management, Carteret General Hospital (Morehead City, N.C.). |
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| "The Oracle E-Business Suite is fundamental to our ability to enable straight-through processing with our largest medical and surgical supply vendors, reducing costs and driving new efficiencies across our organization. Oracle Applications will also play an important role in our newest supply chain initiative - our consolidated warehouse. Through our e-commerce initiatives at The Ottawa Hospital, we are pioneering best practices in supply chain automation that we hope will serve as a model for other healthcare organizations across the country as we pursue our shared goals of enabling high levels of care as well as improved operational efficiency.” Cameron Love, Vice President, Planning, Support Services and Clinical Programs, The Ottawa Hospital. |
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| "Not only are Broadlane’s services proficient, necessary and advanced, they are relatively easy to incorporate into our organization. The transition has gone much faster than I would have reasonably expected. We have made more true progress in just a few months with Broadlane than in years with our prior vendors and efforts. I feel like a testimonial, but the results are real and critical for us as we move through this economic malaise.” Peter Holden, president and CEO, Jordan Hospital. |
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| "Since we automated our supply chain processes, we have avoided millions of dollars in capital expenses to purchase and implement a new MMIS system. We increased the number of suppliers with which Woman’s can conduct business electronically from seven to 50. We more than doubled EDI transmissions from an average of 28 percent to more than 80 percent of items ordered. The process of verifying and transmitting purchase orders utilizing EDI order processing and scripting automation (from Boston WorkStation) went from 100 percent manual to 62 percent automatic. We used to verify exceptions of ordered EDI items manually. Now, it’s 100 percent automatic. The PO transmissions that can not be transmitted EDI are sent fax via a fully automated process from completion of a requisition to the transmission & verification of the sent fax utilizing the Boston WorkStation scripting tools. More than 90% of all medsurg items ordered in the hospital are procured automatically. Michael K Maggio, MMIS systems manager, materials management, Woman's Hospital, Baton Rouge, La. |
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| "MediClick understands our challenges and provides the support we need to improve our materials management process. We benefit from the SaaS model and can access the latest enhancements without any interruption to our system. It has given us visibility that we have never had before." Tom Harkenrider , director of supply chain management, Children’s of Dayton Medical Center |
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