Vance B. Moore, a director at Omnicell and former President and CEO of ROi says, “What’s compelling about The Group Savings Organization (GSO) model is that it applies the specialist model we use in clinical care to hospital purchasing, bringing more focus, expertise, and rigor towards harvesting savings. Healthcare has a perpetual chronic condition when it comes to spending, and it requires a specialist model for better outcomes. I’m excited to work with The GSO to help organizations regain control of that spend in ethical ways with sustainable results.”
More than a hundred years ago a few enterprising individuals banded together to create the first Group Purchasing Organization, GPO – with some ‘help’ from legislators it was able to keep its model of bulk negotiating and issuing rebates to its members. It did not take long for sellers to adjust their strategies in effort to “play the game” by providing a modicum of discounts and in effect locking in higher prices than individual organizations could have obtained. The financial pressure on hospitals demands a more proactive approach.
The GSO is saving hospitals millions of dollars by connecting them with experts, known as affiliates, in cost reduction and spend recovery for almost all expense and capital categories. These affiliates operate in a diametrically opposite manner to GPOs. The affiliates of The GSO are compensated on the amount saved or recovered, not a percentage of the amount spent. These affiliates are agnostic about vendors or products and most critically, the affiliates of The GSO work on real-time transactions. The success of these affiliates relies on the most immediate pricing analytics tools, recognizing that pricing in today’s world is not something that is static.
This new model allows for GPO pricing to be the cost ceiling with The GSO affiliate helping hospitals find a new floor. As importantly, GPO negotiated prices represent only a portion of the hospital’s total expenditure. The Group Savings Organization gives you the ability to address these other areas as well, areas. Robert J. Maloney, Jr. the Chief Operating Officer of Erlanger Health System adds “Working with The GSO, I see the positive impact first hand every day and believe its value proposition will ultimately benefit many organizations as the entire industry continues to face an unprecedented need to prioritize cost savings.”
Significantly more than being a hub for subscriber hospitals to access affiliates, the Group Savings Organization provides other critical solutions at no charge. Modules include a modern contract management solution with customizable workflow and approval, hierarchy, and interdependence linkage with open and conditional search capability. The asset management module can operate as a standalone repository for hardware, software, biomed equipment or if required it can interface with the RTLS of your choice. One of the under-utilized resources within every institution is the creativity and innovative spirit of its employees. Hospital management has often tried to tap into this usually by having idea ‘boxes’ (either physical or electronic) or consultant driven programs that dissipate after they depart. The GSO has solved this problem as they have successfully developed and deployed the SPARC Employee Workshop. This is a comprehensive employee lead and GSO supported cost reduction program, where all the savings remain at the Hospital. SPARC begins with employee’s ideas and continues through prioritization, selection, and implementation. The GSO adds comprehensive project managers, tracking, and reporting for these projects all at no charge with no commitment required to work with any affiliate.
Lynn Dejaco, CFO at Erlanger Health Systems says, “The GSO is critical in helping us maintain our firm financial footing. Every hospital CFO should look at them as a potential new tool in helping take out costs. In our first two years The GSO affiliates have reduced our costs by more than $25million dollars.”