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Today hospitals and health care organizations are looking to health care supply chain professionals to help support patient care activities. No longer is the supply chain department and its staff relegated to a purely operational position of providing inventory and stocking.  The supply chain now has a voice at the table with representation on committees and working quality improvement projects. With collaboration, there is a major fiscal, administrative, and operational role to play.

The lack of end-to-end supply chain visibility in the medical device channel contributes to an estimated five billion dollars ($5B) of inventory waste for the U.S. health system today. (PNC Healthcare and GHX, 2011) RFID is a key technology that is enabling health systems, distributors and manufactures to partner together to remove this waste. Successful implementation of RFID in a healthcare delivery organization takes careful planning, execution, and change management agility.

With all of the significant changes happening in the health care field, this is an exciting time in supply chain, but certainly a challenging time. It presents the opportunity for us to take a look at how health care supply chain as a field has evolved over the years, and where it needs to go in order to support these changes. Author: Dave Reed, Vice President, Healthcare Solutions, Cook Medical Download Article

The AHRMM Cost, Quality, and Outcomes (CQO) Movement was launched in 2013 to advance the role of the health care supply chain in delivering better quality care at a more affordable cost and in a manner that delivers the highest value to patients. The CQO Movement explores the inter-relationships between cost, quality, and outcomes (as defined below) as opposed to the more historic view in which these factors were considered separately, often by different functions within the hospital environment, e.g., clinical, financial, etc.

Lisa Fohey, director of supply chain, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, leads an overview of the main principals of project management and change management and how they can be combined to lead program success.

Lisa Fohey, director of supply chain, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, explores the principles of project management and change management to guide supply chain professionals in project management success.

AHRMM’s Learning UDI Community (LUC) is a health care collaborative effort, in collaboration with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, established to address issues impacting the adoption and implementation of the Unique Device Identifier by developing a common understanding and approach within the health care setting.

In an effort to capture broader insights on UDI adoption from across the health care field, AHRMM, with participation by the FDA, held LUC Data Quality Workshops during four conferences in 2017. During these workshops, conference attendees had the opportunity to voice their opinions on the state of UDI data quality, hurdles to UDI adoption and what recommended practices are necessary for providers and suppliers to effectively capture the UDI and use it in meaningful ways.  

Explore the new delivery methods of health care, how community resources and organizations are now working together to reduce patient episodic care, and how it affects the supply chain. This webcast is also available as an AHRMM podcast.

In this short webcast, Tom Redding, managing director of healthcare services at St. Onge Company, describes a general approach to network supply chain assessment to identify areas for improvement. Project scope and data collection will be discussed, along with an example assessment of a health care system and the potential savings outcomes.  

  Price: Member: $79.00 | Non-Member: $99.00 Continuing Education Credits (CECs): 1 hour

  Price: Member: $79.00 | Non-Member: $129.00 Continuing Education Credits (CECs): 1 hour Order eLearning Course    

  Price: Member: $79.00 | Non-Member: $99.00 Continuing Education Credits (CECs): 1 hour Order eLearning Course    

  Price: Member: $365.00 | Non-Member: $480.00 Continuing Education Credits (CECs): 6 hours Order CMRP Bundle    

  Price: Member: $79.00 | Non-Member: $99.00 Continuing Education Credits (CECs): 1 hour

In this AHRMM webcast, Karen Morlan, administrative director of supply chain operations at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), explains the process of PAR optimization to reduce supply chain and nursing staff time, how to maximize the value of a purchase order, and effective strategies to eliminate the need to stock pile. This webcast is also available as an AHRMM podcast.

With significant pressures on hospitals and healthcare systems, it is incumbent upon those who recognize the benefits of UDI to build the business case for UDI adoption in the healthcare delivery environment. As the one discipline that works with operational, clinical, financial and technical leaders, supply chain professionals can help build the business case that documents value for multiple stakeholders.

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Overview: The Business Case for the UDI work group, a formal work group of the Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management’s (AHRMM) Learning UDI Community (LUC) is comprised of more than 75 members representing the association, manufacturing/supplier, hospital, regulatory, consulting, group purchasing organizations (GPOs), and solution provider communities. Within this group are five sub groups that are addressing one of five process flows that could potentially change following healthcare organizations’ adoption of the UDI.

The CQO movement is the health care supply chain’s fitness tracker. It engages supply chain with leaders across the healthcare environment to apply a new approach. To start with your own CQO KPI, look for your Bigfoot within your organization to identify top priorities. After looking at those top priorities, apply the CQO perspective.