Twice a year, nurses and supply chain workers at Birmingham, Ala.-based Encompass Health meet up at a Wound Summit to share best skin health practices.
Encompass nurses have attended the summit for the past five years to standardize wound care, according to a June 11 news release from Medline. The three-day event covers wound staging, how nutrition affects wound healing and care practices for patients at high-risk of infection.
With 162 locations, Encompass Health is the nation's largest owner and operator of rehabilitation hospitals. It has partnered with Medline for more than 20 years in a prime supplier deal.
The health system has long fostered collaboration between supply chain workers and nurses, the release said.
"It's a partnership," said Beth Mooney, BSN, Encompass' western regional chief nursing officer. "We have a national task force, and the supply chain is part of that. They get to hear what's on the clinician's minds, and we get to hear what's going on in the supply chain world."
The summit acts as a designated space for this cross-department communication, according to Cody Carter, who serves as a strategic sourcing manager at the system.
In addition to testing a device's cost-efficacy and clinical outcomes, "having the right product and knowing how much to use can impact savings in a larger way than price alone," Mr. Carter said in the release. "This is where the supply chain integrates with clinical."