June 2023 – The Journal of Healthcare Contracting
What does it take to deliver best-in-class specialized medicine? Newsweek’s World’s Best Specialized Hospitals 2023 ranked Cleveland Clinic No. 1 in the world for cardiac surgery and cardiology and among the top hospitals in the world for specialized care, and supply chain plays a large – if unheralded – role.
In this issue of The Journal of Healthcare Contracting, we interviewed Brian Jones, senior director of the clinical sourcing team and physician preference items (PPI) for Cleveland Clinic. He provided us an in-depth look at how he and his team collaborate with Cleveland Clinic’s world-class doctors to provide patients with amazing care.
There are of course some very tech heavy, complicated processes involved. But I also noticed some good old-fashioned touches to making partnerships work. Mainly – the supply chain team makes itself available for the clinicians so these critical conversations don’t disrupt care. Cleveland’s clinical side is very busy in their practices and Jones told us the biggest challenge for the supply chain side is just finding time to work with them. It’s about being available at 6:30 a.m. before their OR times or when they’re done at 5 p.m. or 6 p.m. Jones’ team stresses being ready when the clinical side is available.
“It’s ensuring that we’re ready to go, we have all of the information and that it’s good, clean, accurate, understandable and actionable, and we can share it in a short amount of time,” he said.
Preparedness. Accuracy. Availability. Those are some tried-and-true keys to supply chain success no matter the size and scope of the hospital, health system or IDN.
We hope you enjoy this issue of The Journal of Healthcare Contracting.