Make Room for Non-Acute Care
How times change. In the past, post-acute care, primary care and urgent care were afterthoughts to many administrators and supply chain executives in acute-care hospitals, as well as to GPOs and many manufacturers of medical devices and equipment. That’s no longer the case. And that’s why the most recent ANAE Annual Conference in Chicago gave plenty of airtime to the non-acute supply chain. ANAE is the Association of National Account Executives.
Here are some highlights.
A panel of three supply chain executives discussed the challenges of integrating ambulatory care and inpatient facilities: Michael Darling, vice president supply chain, St.. Luke’s Health System, Kansas City, Missouri; Mark Drafton, director, ambulatory, Sutter Health, Sacramento, California; and Jennifer Sellis, program director, supply chain, Northwestern Memorial Healthcare, Chicago.
As IDNs gather more non-acute sites, supply chain professionals must answer a range of questions, they said. Examples:
- “Is it prudent to standardize products and equipment across the acute and non-acute sites? And if so, how do we do that?”
- “How many distributors do we need to service far-flung sites — large hospitals and small clinics alike?”
- “Is it possible to track cost-per-patient in the non-acute setting?”
- “How can we incorporate our non-acute-care settings in value-based contracts?”
- “Can our GPO offer contracts of value for both our acute- and non-acute sites?”
Value-based contracting
Value-based contracting involves risk, and is dependent on data, concluded a second panel of executives, each from Premier-member organizations: Kitty Williams, director of value analysis, Riverside Health System, Newport News, Virginia; Rose Fabry, director of value analysis, East Alabama Medical Center, Opelika, Alabama; John C. Horne, senior vice president and chief supply chain officer, OSF HealthCare System, Peoria, Illinois; and George Hersch, vice president of material management, Norton Healthcare, Louisville, Kentucky. That said, the opportunity for entering value-based contracts is greater than ever, they said.
Distribution considerations
As IDNs continue to expand their non-acute-care presence, efficient distribution of medical products and equipment to these sites becomes a growing concern. Three experts in non-acute-care distribution offered their take on the subject: Scott Wakser, senior vice president, non-acute corporate accounts, Medline; Jody Dobson, vice president of business development, health systems, McKesson Medical-Surgical; and Brad Clark, general manager of strategic accounts, eastern U.S., Henry Schein Medical.
Deep dives
Tom Lubotsky, chief supply chain officer for Advocate Health Care, Downers Grove, Illinois, shared his vision for partner relationships between providers and suppliers. Drawing upon the work of Harvard Business School professor and author Clayton Christensen, Lubotsky said that the strongest business relationships demand mutual give-and-take. In other words, providers should be concerned not only about what their suppliers can offer them, but what providers can offer their suppliers. “You have to drive value both ways,” he said.
Gary Fennessy, chief supply chain executive at Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, offered a “deep-dive look” into the Chicago-based IDN’s supply chain operations, including contracting, distribution and regional aggregation. Fennessy also shared ideas about effective ways suppliers can work with Northwestern.
The ANAE conference concluded with a panel discussion on the driving forces of change in today’s healthcare supply chain. Speakers were Joe Walsh of Supply Chain Sherpas; Larry Dooley, vice president of national accounts for K2M Inc., Leesburg, Virginia; Chris MacKay, director of corporate accounts, Breg Inc., Carlsbad, California; and Maria Hames, partner, Healthcare Links, Cortlandt, New York.
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