Bob Hornsby
System director, supply chain management, Riverside Health System, Newport News, Va.
Riverside Health System consists of five acute care hospitals, a psychiatric hospital, a physical rehabilitation hospital and the IDN’s Hampton Roads specialty hospital, along with an array of outpatient diagnostic and treatment facilities; $1.3 billion net operating revenue.
From the time he was in high school, Riverside Health System has been an integral part of Bob Hornsby’s life. During his college years, he became acquainted with both clinical and non-clinical aspects of the health system, eventually settling into materials and supply chain management. Today, he is responsible for all supply chain management functions within Riverside Health System.
The Journal of Healthcare Contracting: What has been the most challenging and rewarding project you have been involved in recently?
Bob Hornsby: One of the most rewarding projects I have worked on over the past few years has been the creation and development of Riverside’s value analysis program. We are fortunate to have two registered nurses on our team, excellent committee chairs and executive level involvement on our steering committee. We have clinical, non-clinical and pharmaceutical teams that consistently review product utilization and best practices with quality patient care as our focus. Since the inception of the value analysis program, we have documented over $43 million in savings. Another area where we have seen a great improvement is our procure-to-pay process. We have accomplished this by moving our PO accounts payable specialists into the same office as the procurement and sourcing staff. Old barriers between the accounts payable and purchasing departments were broken down when each became more knowledgeable of the other’s needs. This move, along with the implementation of an imaging system to manage and approve invoices, has significantly reduced the number of days it takes us to pay our suppliers. We are proud to be paying our invoices within 11 days.
JHC: Please describe a project you look forward to implementing in the next year or two.
Bob Hornsby: We are constantly looking to evolve our value analysis program to continue to realize the successes achieved to date. As part of this evolution, we have become a member of several of our GPO’s PACER (Partnership for the Advancement of Comparative Effectiveness Review) groups. Each group is made up of multi-disciplinary teams to include a physician champion. Each team reviews clinical evidence and outcomes to identify best practices and thereby reduce unnecessary physician preference items (PPI). We will also be working closely with our team members in quality and safety to ensure that this becomes a central focus in our value analysis decisions.
JHC: What is the most important quality you look for in a supplier partner?
Bob Hornsby: In our line of business, it is imperative that we have the products and services we need to ensure quality patient care. Working with a supplier who goes above and beyond to help us to meet the requirements of our customers is extremely important.
JHC: What is the greatest change we can expect to see in healthcare contracting in the next five years?
Bob Hornsby: It will become even more important for departments within each health system to break out of their individual silos and work together. Changing reimbursement structures will require additional process analysis. Evaluation of products and services may now require the input of departments that may have been previously left out of the decision – the voices of Quality and Safety, Population Health Management, and Revenue Integrity will become much more influential in future value analysis decisions.