Supply chain improvements create better quality and promote patient safety, according to a new survey from Cardinal Health.
For the survey, Cardinal Health polled more than 400 healthcare providers from Oct. 19 to Nov. 4, 2016, on their perceptions of the hospital supply chain. Respondents included physicians, nurses, service line leaders and supply chain administrators.
Here are nine survey findings.
Patient safety
1. Twenty-four percent of respondents have seen or heard of an expired product being used on a patient.
2. Eighteen percent of respondents have seen or heard of patient harm occurring due to a lack of necessary supplies.
3. Fifty-seven percent of respondents have seen or heard of a physician not having the necessary product for a procedure.
Time management
4. Nearly 20 percent of clinicians' workweek is spent on supply chain management tasks.
5. Sixty-five percent of clinicians would rather spend this time with patients.
6. Sixty-six percent of respondents wished they did not have to perform supply, inventory and administrative tasks.
Inventory management
7. Seventy-eight percent of respondents still manually count inventory in some areas of their supply chain.
8. Nearly one-third of respondents said it's been six years or more since their hospital has implemented a new inventory management system.
9. Another 25 percent of respondents did not know if an inventory management system has ever been implemented or updated.
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