After a yearsong effort to engage more clinicians in supply chain decisions, the University of Miami Health System has inverted the cost-quality-outcomes concept, according to supply chain leader Nate Yuen.
The system partners with the Emergency Care Research Institute, commonly known as ECRI, to bolster supply chain strategies. Mr. Yuen, associate vice president of supply chain strategy and value analysis at UHealth, said the partnership has spurred all sourcing discussions to start with clinical quality and outcomes, rather than cost.
That doesn't mean spending has risen, according to an ECRI news release. In the orthopedic service line, an initiative to standardize products and manage costs led to more than $100,000 in savings.
Using ECRI data, UHealth's value analysis committee obtained a clearer picture of how medical products compared.
"This enabled us to show physicians what products they were using, respective utilization and costs for each item," Mr. Yuen said. "We found that demonstrating the true measure of how surgeons compare to their peers helps center the conversation."