SKU’d Chicken brittle


The healthcare industry lags some 10 years behind other industries when it comes to effi cient operations, information technology use and overall process management  includ- ing decision maing, the old saw goes. That yarn about the -year lapse recalls the elderly gentleman, seated in the rocing chair on his front porch,


screaming at the neighborhood ids to stay off his lawn. f course, in this day and age, it should be counted as a blessing to see ids actually playing outside and not behind the closed doors of their bedrooms waging online gaming battles. nfortunately, the old saw misses some teeth pun intended. ubscribing to the inherent value of real-world strategic storytelling posited by


a eynote at the AMM conference in an iego more than a month ago,  offer several examples that show cracs in hicen ittles warning, the sy is falling ets concentrate on T. or the last two decades, the healthcare industry has concentrated on a variety of initiatives designed to increase effi ciency in administrative, clinical, fi nancial and operational realms, a noble gesture that seemingly converges o n excellent patient outcomes and satisfaction. o weve been regaled with electronic healthmedical records,  systems, meaningful use justifi cations, supply data standards via , etc. All noteworthy causes for desirable effects. irst example eaching bac into the archives of my old ast oreward column in


April , you may remember a missive titled, lash oint, that rapped a promi- nent retailer highly regarded for its T-enabled supply chain acumen (just look past those well-publicized data breaches that affected scores of customers a few years back). hy Attempts to purchase specifi c toy action fi gures three selected characters within a famous superhero team for my then three-year-old triplet boys were complicated by a lac of T granularity. The retailer rep, armed with a bar-code scanner, could identify how much stoc he had of that particular superhero team, but he could not identify with precision how much stoc he had of a particular character on that team. ould upply hain in healthcare get away with that in terms of the variety of instruments in a surgical tray o   do econd example ast forward  years to late uly as our now -year-old triplet


boys went for their driving permits on their birthday. To avoid the riday crowds, we chose a state facility we knew was not as crowded as the one in our bustling hometown and we went in the morning. mart, eh ot so fast. hile the clers who were genuinely friendly and helpful and not at all lie those irritable grouches and harridans you see on television comedies reveled in woring with triplets, they uicly discovered some fl aws in their T registration system that would seuester the arlow family within their confi nes well past noon. ven though the boys had different names and ocial ecurity umbers, they shared the same birthdate, the same address and  the same initials. ts a arlow family generational tradition that all males bear . uch developments caused their system to smoe, spurt and wheee. o   do Third example oring recently with a major retailer to have two appliances repaired under warranty uncovered a fl aw in their T system. Although the retailer was able to call up my account details  including contact information, appliance brands and model numbers  the retailer assigned a third-party repair service to do the job that was not ualifi ed. hy or starters, the retailer reuired me to contact the business; the business owner then asked me to give him the model numbers of the units to be serviced fi nally, because one of the units turned out to be private-label- manufactured by a company he did not support he said could not do the job. ogically but theoretically, the retailer should have nown all of these details to match  with precision  the customer with a properly vetted and ualifi ed service technician. o   do o the next time someone tries to dis healthcare operations as being  years


behind every other industry, remember these examples, smir and thin to yourself... pffft, oay, maybe fi ve years. Tops.


4 September 2019 • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS • hpnonline.com


EDITORIAL Publisher/Executive Editor Kristine Russell krussell@hpnonline.com


Senior Editor Rick Dana Barlow rickdanabarlow@hpnonline.com


Contributing Editors


Managing Editor Valerie J. Dimond vdimond@hpnonline.com (941) 259-0850 Kara Nadeau


knadeau@hpnonline.com Susan Cantrell susan_cantrell@bellsouth.net


ADVERTISING SALES East Coast Blake and Michelle Holton (407) 971-6286


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EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Jimmy Chung, MD, FACS, CHCQM, Director, Medical Products Analysis, Providence Health & Services, Seattle; Joe Colonna, Vice President, Supply Chain, Piedmont Healthcare, Atlanta, GA; Karen Conway, Vice President, Healthcare Value, GHX, Louisville, CO; Michele DeMeo, CSPDT, CRCST, Independent CS/SPD Consultant, MDD Virtual Consulting; Dee Donatelli, RN, CMRP, CVAHP, Director of Value Analysis Consulting, TractManager, and Principal, Dee Donatelli Consulting, LLC, Overland Park, KS; Mary Beth Lang, former Executive Vice President, Cognitive Analytics Solutions, Pensiamo, Pittsburgh, PA; Melanie Miller, RN, CVAHP, CNOR, CSPDM, Value Analysis Consultant, Healthcare Value Management Experts Inc. (HVME) Los Angeles, CA; Dennis Orthman, Partner, Vice President, Consulting, Access Strategy Partners, Braintree, MA; Richard Perrin, CEO, Active Innovations LLC, Annapolis, MD; Jean Sargent, CMRP, FAHRMM, FCS, Principal, Sargent Healthcare Strategies, Port Charlotte, FL; Rose Seavey, RN, BS, MBA, CNOR, ACSP, Seavey Healthcare Consulting Inc., Denver, CO; Richard W. Schule, MBA, BS, FAST, CST, FCS, CRCST, CHMMC, CIS, CHL, AGTS, Director, Clinical Education, STERIS Corporation; Robert Simpson, CMRP, Retired President, LeeSar and Cooperative Services of Florida, Fort Myers, FL; Barbara Strain, MA, CVAHP, Principal, Barbara Strain Consult- ing LLC, Charlottesville, VA ; Deborah Petretich Templeton, RPh, MHA, System Chief of Care Support Services, Geisinger Health System, Danville, PA; Ray Taurasi, Principal, Healthcare CS Solutions, Washington, DC area


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