Improving data-driven decision making is the area supply chain leaders deemed most critical to the future of supply chain in healthcare, according to a survey of the Best 50 provider organizations conducted by the Global Healthcare Exchange.
For the survey, GHX asked its Best 50 to identify priorities and necessary outcomes for healthcare supply chain in 2018. The Best 50 is a list of top performing providers in the U.S. and Canada honored for efficient operational performance and reducing costs through the supply chain.
When these supply chain leaders were asked to identify three supply chain outcomes needed in 2018, five areas emerged as most important:
- Data and analytics for better decision making (59 percent)
- Standardization of data and business process across the organization (53 percent)
- Contract optimization (47 percent)
- Driving integration across supply chain business and clinical processes (42 percent)
- Broader management of non-labor spend (29 percent)
In addition, the Best 50 identified five priorities their organizations will focus on in 2018.
1. Improving procurement and inventory controls with innovative strategies or collaborations.
2. Advancing product standardization to drive cost improvements.
3. Improving clinical system integration by adding supply workflow into EMRs or automating processes.
4. Optimizing contracts by implementing a contract management system or new compliance contract models and decreasing off-contract spend.
5. Enhancing system integration when it comes to mergers and acquisitions by integrating newly acquired or affiliated health systems as quickly as possible.
"Supply chain leaders understand how critical quality data is to solving the large issues of cost, quality, and outcomes in healthcare," said Bruce Johnson, president and CEO of GHX. "There is consensus among this elite group that quality data is critical to steering their organizations' decision making, but that it also has the ability to improve the efficiency of business processes and is at the heart of linking business and clinical processes."