HAVING MY SAY Driving sustainable purchasing
decisions Collaboration key to accessing more green products and services in the supply chain
by Jeffrey Brown, Executive Director, Practice Greenhealth O
ver the last two decades, the healthcare sector has become increasingly aware that how we care for patients, staff and the community and the impact we have on the environment are
undoubtedly connected. It’s no surprise that caring for the environment has become a natural extension of our work to achieve the triple aim: better population health, improved quality of care and fi nancial savings. Practice Greenhealth has worked with over 2,500 hospitals commit- ted to improving environmental performance. Together, we’ve zeroed in on areas where facilities can make signifi cant impact. Over the years, we’ve found that purchasing is one of the healthcare sector’s biggest areas of opportunity and risk.
Green purchasing is smart purchasing Today, we know that certain materials and products can have nega- tive impacts on patients, staff and our communities—impacts that run counter to healthcare’s healing mission.
Some products contain harmful chemicals believed to play a role in rising chronic diseases and conditions, including some cancers, birth defects, learning and developmental disabilities, infertility, asthma, and neurological disorders. These chemicals can escape from products and make their way into our bodies and the environment. Others use vast amounts of energy and water and produce tre- mendous waste, costing hospitals millions of dollars that could be saved through smarter purchasing decisions. Virginia Mason is a powerful example. This Seattle-based hospital saved $3 million in supply costs over three years after instituting a reprocessing program for single-use devices.
Greening the supply chain: A game changer for the health care industry Practice Greenhealth’s Greening the Supply Chain Initiative was launched in 2011 to accelerate the use of environmentally preferable purchasing practices and drive a shift in the market for safer products. Bringing together suppliers, group purchasing organizations, hospitals and health systems, we’ve made great accomplishments in four short years.
Identifying green products and suppliers Our fi rst order of business: Make it easier for purchasers and suppliers to identify, source and purchase environmentally preferable products. We developed Standardized Environmental Questions for Medical Products, Version 1.0, to help drive the contracting process. The questions cover key environmental priorities in healthcare, including packaging, manu- facturing, use, and the end-of-life impacts of medical products. Next, we created a supplier directory to assist hospitals with safer purchasing deci- sions. The directory is a great source of information on environmentally preferable products and services.
Measuring more than initial cost
Purchasing decisions can focus too narrowly on the upfront price for medical products and services. Evaluating only the initial purchasing price is not suffi cient for controlling costs and delivering better care. When it comes to purchasing, there are submerged costs—such as delivery, energy, water usage, and disposal fees—that are not considered during procurement decisions. Hospitals may actually be paying more
Supply Chain-focused CEO nominations wanted for HPN’s 2016 S.U.R.E. Award
Forward-thinking CEOs recognize how important and integral Supply Chain is to their organization’s success and quality outcomes – and Supply Chain leaders understand how critical a CEO’s power and support is to their efforts.
Since 2005, Healthcare Purchasing News’ annual S.U.R.E. Award for Supply Chain-Focused CEOs has been our way to honor supply chain-enlightened CEOs who Support, Understand, Recognize and Empower the supply chain department to achieve bottom-line savings and top-line revenue. If that sounds like your hospital president/CEO, please nominate him or her for HPN’s 2016 S.U.R.E. Award. Winners will be profi led in the January 2016 edition.
Nominating your CEO is easy. Just email us a few detailed paragraphs describing how and why they deserve the spotlight to
editor@hpnonline.com. Deadline for nominations is Tuesday, November 3.
Help us share your success. Nominate your outstanding CEO so that the industry may learn from them and be inspired. Visit HPN’s Online Hall of Fame at
www.hpnonline.com/hall_of_fame.htm to read about our previous S.U.R.E. Award winners.
Please comply with the following rules:
1. Nominations must be original and exclusive to HPN. We do not accept original or edited entries submitted to any other publica- tion or online media outlet currently or within the previous year.
2. GPO and distributor support is commendable, but we’re looking for internally-driven details.
60 September 2015 • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS •
www.hpnonline.com
3. Any nominated executive (or nominator) must be willing to share relevant basic fi nancial details with our readers – specifi cally an- nual revenues, annual expenses and annual purchasing volume.
4. Only administrators/CEOs are eligible for consideration (no COOs or executive/senior vice presidents).
HAVING MY SAY
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