Sponsored Content Who’s managing your product recalls?


seamlessly, as soon as they happen? Can your various departments (e.g., pharmacy, surgical, dietary, lab, etc.) immediately iden- tify the products in question, determine their exact location and remove them from inven- tory as quickly as possible? Does your facility sail through unexpected audits because the necessary compliance data is current, orga- nized and immediately accessible? Does your facility have a track record of never missing a recall, not one? The answer to those ques- tions should be yes. But considering that more than a million Class I recalls remain on the shelves at healthcare facilities across the nation every year, for some, the answer is a sobering no. Defective medical products that fall into the Class I category are the most harmful be- cause they have the potential to cause serious injury and/or death to patients. And while rapid growth in the medical device industry has led to improved surgical outcomes for patients, it has also led to an exponential increase in Class I recalls. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) receives more than one million adverse event reports from device manufacturers every year. In fact, medical device recalls have increased 126 percent during the fi rst quarter in 2018 alone — more than twice the number reported just a few months prior. This trend is expected to continue, and it’s not just medical devices under the radar. Recalls for food, drugs and other products are on the rise as well. Is your facility prepared? If not, now is the time to be proactive because sticking with a poor, ineffi cient recall management strategy can lead to painful consequences.


H


Protect your patients, protect your organization The key to successful recall management is having a reliable, user-friendly, closed- loop system in place 24/7 that prepares every department in a healthcare system to handle recalls as they happen. But that can be tough for any healthcare facility to achieve alone. The process is complicated and time-consuming. It demands constant surveillance, full cooperation and awareness across all departments, a swift, appropriate response when recalls are discovered, and


ow would you rate your organiza- tion’s ability to handle product recalls? Are you able to process them


meticulous record-keeping. Anything less and recalled products are at risk of being overlooked, forgotten or poorly processed. That’s why four out of fi ve hospitals have subscribed to the National Recall Alert Cen- ter (NRAC), a nonprofi t product recall man- agement organization established in 1973 that offers a level of expertise and service unmatched by any other service provider. Made by hospitals for hospitals, NRAC is on the job 24/7/365 collecting the critical information hospitals need on active recalls and delivering it in real-time.


“We’ve tried to juggle the FDA’s websites


and keep up with our recalls and we just couldn’t fi nd a system that worked,” said Cindy Lang, Risk Management Director at Denton Regional Medical Center, a 13-hos- pital health system in North Texas and Oklahoma. “NRAC is one that works. It’s easy to use, it’s in real time, and if we have any concerns at all I send an email and I get a response within minutes.”


Proven track record


Having established long-term relationships with thousands of manufacturers around the globe enables NRAC’s proprietary network to collect and share recall information faster and more accurately than others. Alerts are automatically prioritized and the data is fi ltered several ways so only the pertinent details are delivered via NRAC’s unique triple-alert system — and only to depart- ments that are affected by the recall. There- fore, this streamlined system assures that a health system located in the Northeast will never have to spend valuable time sorting through pages of recall data on defective products in the Midwest.


“NRAC sends alerts to me every day and we’re able to manage those without much worry of not having one come through that we’re going to miss,” said Charmaine Thomas, Risk Manager at Floyd Medical Center in Georgia. “It has a tiered system that lets you know if a recall has not been handled and really helps us to be able to keep a pulse on our recall alerts.”


That’s because once a facility receives the information, NRAC continues to track and trace the recall until the disposition is complete. If a department doesn’t respond to an alert, follow-up alerts are escalated up the line in order to secure a fi nal disposition.


You can also upload your item master and NRAC will match recalls to your organiza- tion’s inventory so that the data you receive is precise and geared to your GPO contracts and purchasing patterns.


“It just makes all of our lives so much eas-


ier,” said NRAC member Teri Reinhertson, Director of Risk Management at Carepoint Health, a three-hospital health system in New Jersey. “We don’t have to wait for a piece of paper or wait for [the recall infor- mation] to come from three different places, and at different times and then go through it thinking did we do this, did we do that? We just look on the dashboard. The best part is that it’s not just one person doing the work because when you use the dashboard the different departments get the recalls and then we follow up to make sure that it’s done. When the FDA comes, I can just push a button, run a report and show them what we had, what we did, and it’s done. It’s been such a lifesaver.”


All day, every day


Whether it be a weekend, holiday, or 2 a.m. on a Tuesday, the system never stops work- ing because recalls don’t follow a schedule, they happen when they happen, and NRAC is there to catch them when they do. In 46 years, NRAC has never missed an active recall, not one. Clients also receive personal, one-on-one account management whenever it’s needed and are protected under NRAC’s $5 million insurance policy. Importantly, there are no contracts to sign — ever — so you won’t be locked into a three- or fi ve-year agreement.


Compared to other service vendors, not


only is NRAC the most complete recall management system available, it’s also the least expensive (grants are also available to help facilities offset the system’s already low cost). For little more than $10 a day — less than the cost of a single movie ticket — NRAC has you covered 24/7. Why not give it a try? A live, 15-minute immersive dem- onstration is available risk-free, and you can use and evaluate the system free of charge for as long as you need before making a fi nal decision. With Class I recalls at an all-time high, now is the time to do something about it. Contact NRAC for a free demonstration and trial period at 1-800-NRAC-NOW (1-800-672-2669).


hpnonline.com • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS • December 2018 7


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