Supply Chain

Working with group purchasing organizations and aggregators can help ASCs cut supply chain costs, according to an article in Medline's Outpatient Outcomes magazine.

Poorly managed supply chain operations can negatively affect an ASC's bottom line through a surplus of expired supplies, as well as lost and incorrect orders, according to Medline.

Lack of structure leads to a lack of focus and priority for ASC supply chain staff, according to Vizient, a healthcare management consulting company.

The U.S. health care system loses hundreds of billions of dollars every year on fraud, waste, abuse and error.1A large portion of these errors are attributed to pharmacy spend, including forged prescriptions, duplicate claims, data entry errors and intentional overcharging.2In…

After labor costs, devices, implants and medical supplies are an ASC's greatest expense, according to Westchester, Ill.-based Regent Surgical Health.

Because ASCs don't have the purchasing power of large hospitals, they should consider taking advantage of group purchasing options, according to Westchester, Ill.-based Regent Surgical Health.

Streamlining processes such as removing time consuming supply chain tasks can help clinicians focus more on caring for patients, according to Alpharetta, Ga.-based Surgical Information Systems.

For ASCs — where inventory management looks much different compared to hospitals — the shift to value-based care comes with big opportunities and risks, said Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems' Ruben Taborda, senior director of supply chain customer solutions.

Focusing on case costing analysis helps ASCs determine what the underlying drivers of operational performance are, according to Westchester, Ill.-based Regent Surgical Health.

A dedicated supply chain manager can make a huge difference for an ASC's bottom line, according to Z5 Inventory CEO Carl Natenstedt.