The Healthcare Hub

Four Ways to Engage Nurses in Supply Chain Optimization Initiatives

• Whitney St. Pierre, Executive Director, Product Marketing

Supplies follow a long pathway through the hospital, from the warehouse to the clinical care team. As a critical end user, nurses have unique visibility into supply chain inefficiencies and problems. This is one of many reasons it’s so critical for hospital leaders to incorporate nurses’ input before embarking on a supply chain improvement initiative. Nurses can reveal key supply chain vulnerabilities and weaknesses that other hospital staff members don’t see.

How a Value Analysis Evolution Led to a Performance-Based Contract Revolution

• Suzanne Smith, Solution Advisor, Lumere

When Value Analysis Director Kristin Sinke joined Michigan-based Spectrum Health in 2017, the value analysis team for the 14-hospital system consisted of herself and one other person. Within two years, she had helped create a completely centralized program comprising 14 full-time employees (FTEs), and in March 2021, the team launched its first strategic outcomes-based partnership with Medtronic, a global leader in medical technology.

Pandemic Presses Supply Chain to New Levels of Automation

Top Supply Documentation Challenges Nurses Face and How To Solve Them

• Lee Smith, DHA, MBA, BSN, RNFA, Chief Nursing Officer, Syft, a GHX company

As the conduit between patients and care, nurses have many critical responsibilities. One of the many tasks in a nurse’s day is properly documenting supplies, however, for many nurses, this is laborious and time consuming. In fact, a recent survey of 100 hospital nurses and frontline leaders found that more than 85% have difficulty documenting supplies used during procedures.

Selecting a Cloud-Based Supply Chain Management Solution

• Kishore Bala, Chief technology Officer, Syft, a GHX company

3 Critical Attributes for Hospitals
Hospitals across the country are evaluating their options when it comes to transitioning to a Cloud-based supply chain management solution. From an infrastructure and resource-optimization perspective, the advantages of the cloud over on-premise solutions are clear. Key benefits include flexibility and scale, enhanced security, automated software updates, and peace of mind that your hospital can continue operations in the event of an on-premise outage or other IT disruption.

Inventory Count Finds $46 Million in Hidden Value at One Hospital

Many hospitals underestimate the value of their inventory—by millions of dollars.

It's not uncommon for our inventory services team to identify hidden value during an annual hospital inventory review—anywhere from two to five times the hospital’s estimated inventory value—while working at facilities that haven’t had annual reviews for a couple of years or longer.

Inventory Count Services Yield Significant Benefits for Hospitals

Inventory services are about much more than just accurate hospital inventory counts.

A healthy supply chain starts with an accurate inventory. That's why so many hospitals rely on GHX Inventory Services to provide point-in-time inventory for year-end, mid-year, and baseline reporting. In the last decade alone, this team has conducted nearly 8,000 inventory counts, totaling almost $13 billion in inventory.

Inventory Count Uncovers Safety and Compliance Problems at One Hospital

Hospital inventory counts may reveal compliance and safety problems.

The inventory count team performs nearly 800 inventory counts at healthcare facilities every year. While conducting an accurate count is the primary objective, this work often unearths critical pieces of information for hospitals. In two cases, that information related to safety and compliance problems associated with controlled substances.

Discovering Nearly $200K Worth of Expired Products at One Hospital

The alarming rate of expired products we encounter while performing inventories at hospitals
Often, before my team and I go in to conduct inventory services at hospitals, I speak to the supply chain manager. Most are quick to assure me that we won’t find expired inventory during counts at their facilities but that is not always the case.

GHX Acquires Lumere to Advance Clinically Integrated Supply Chains

At GHX, we know the business of healthcare continues to evolve, driving critical changes in how data is used to advance clinical, financial and operational performance. Data show continued strong interest in making the move to value-based care, defined by the outcomes that matter to patients relative to the cost of delivering those outcomes. At the same time, many organizations say the transition to a system that rewards value, not the volume of services delivered, is moving too slowly, hampered by the silos that hold us back from collaborating effectively to deliver optimum patient care.