2017 SUPPLY CHAIN DEPARTMENT OF THE YEAR
Don Ladd and David Dixon building shelves for a new
storeroom at UMMC West
David Leahy – filling an on demand supply request at UMMC West
decisions for the building. Inventory Special- ists, overseen by Regional Managers, support supply chain operations for all of the clinics and ASCs.
Physician employment status really isn’t
a factor in how Supply Chain works with physicians, Born emphasized.
“We partner with employed physicians, academic physicians and independent phy- sicians,” she said. “Regardless of who their employer is, we try to engage all physicians in a similar way. We engage with them for ideas, bring them data, ask them questions, seek understanding for observations of varia- tion in how products are used and commit to ensuring that their clinical requirements are met by the products we offer.”
Those efforts reinforce the trust Fairview Supply Chain has gained with clinicians, but Born is quick to spread the credit among her team as well as share it with her predecessor “who established a positive reputation a long time ago,” she said. “We have long felt the support from our C-suite and clinical depart- ment leaders.”
Tech infusion
Supply Chain wields a lot of technological capabilities in various areas throughout the system, including automated drug and sup- ply cabinets from Omnicell and Pyxis for higher-cost products (but two-bin Kanban for lower-cost, and medium- to high-velocity products), and a materials management in- formation system where they also automate daily procure-to-pay transactions via elec- tronic data interchange (EDI) and produce more than 1 million automated transactions each year. Currently, their EDI transaction rate stands at 99 percent, which allowed Supply Chain to eliminate one FTE through attrition. GHX has recognized Fairview Sup- ply Chain as part of its national Top 50 “Best
in Class” for the past several years and as a member of the exchange’s elite “Millennium Club” for two consecutive years. To manage new product requests and product evaluations, Fairview Supply Chain relies on MedApproved’s web-based applica- tion to navigate the process system-wide. “We needed a documented, consistent approach to ensure appropriate review of requests by SCCI teams and a clear way of making decisions,” said Kelly Nelson, System Director, Business Development and Project Management, who left Fairview at press time last month after 13 years of service. MedApproved’s online application offered an “affordable way of accepting requests and allowing collaboration” among and within the SCCI teams, Nelson added.“Challenges were faced in the past where one site would make a decision to deny a request for a new product and then another site would approve it,” Nelson recalled. “Fairview’s current pro- cess allows us to document how the decision was made. It is possible to use products for certain procedures, but a product should not be limited at one site and allowed at another site for the same procedure.”
Supply Chain uses Blue.Point to record and analyze how products are used. “Blue.Point helps us benchmark the price we’re paying for items, but more importantly, helps us understand variation in how we are using products and offers evidence-based alterna- tive ways to use products,” Born said. Endo- mechanical products represent one example. “Blue.Point reminds us to look at the use of articulating products to see if there is an op- portunity to use a straight product or to fire the maximum number of times allowed prior to opening a new stapler. This helps us save money in ways that go beyond the price we pay for a product.”
Blue.Point usage pairs well with MedAp- proved, according to Laurel Sampson, System Director, Business Development and Project Management. “MedApproved is helping us decide what to bring into the organization,” Sampson said. “Blue.Point looks at how we use the product.” Supply Chain plugs into the Fairview’s Oracle/ PeopleSoft enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to ana- lyze expense data through its group purchasing organization (GPO) tools from Premier. With those tools, they can determine whether they are accessing the optimal contract and pricing tiers, can identify variation in supplier and item use within product categories, and can look at comparative ef- fectiveness data tied to clinical outcomes and quality.
16 July 2017 • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS •
hpnonline.com
Supply Chain pulls data from Fairview’s electronic health record system “to look at what products are used for different proce- dures and by different physicians,” Born in- dicated. “This is blended with the price we paid for these products through our ERP.” They’ve addressed peripheral and biliary stents, drug-eluting stents, pacemakers and ICDs, endomechanical products and vessel- sealing devices to date. “We have looked at differences in quantity per case and sizes of products used,” she continued. “Data do not usually tell us which product is most effective. However, when we identify variation, it allows us to have conversations with physicians to understand if there are reasons for different products or if physi- cians were simply unaware of the products being used by their colleagues or unaware of the cost of the items.”
Back in 2012, Supply Chain expanded its contract management system to function also as a system repository for product and purchased services contracts. The system’s automated tools enable them to review sup- plier performance expectations and man- age expirations, according to Mikhelson. Furthermore, Contracting developed a risk assessment tool that helps business owners understand specific contractual language when they agree to work with the IDN. Several years ago, Supply Chain also es- tablished a collaborative “Per Patient Day” shared-risk-and-reward relationship with Covidien (recently acquired by Medtronic) with incentives around availability and consumption patterns. The partnership has been so successful that they continue to add certain commodity products to the growing program, which now exceeds $1 million in Medtronic products, according to Born. HPN
Editor’s Note: For more details on Fairview’s award-winning Supply Chain team, including their promotional efforts, their growing System Central Sterile Services Department, as well as relevant statistics and a staff listing, visit
www.hpnonline.com/category/magazine/2017/ july-2017/.
Nancee Seibel and Nick Tenzin in the receiving department at UMMC West
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