SCMetrix

Knowledge Summaries

SCMetrix™ disseminates recent research findings to the health care supply chain community through this site. On this public knowledge page are summaries and abstracts of leading research available to SCMetrix™ benchmarking subscribers.

Value Drivers and Performances Outcomes in the Health Care Supply Chain

Every day supply chain professionals are challenged by a diverse set of performance expectations as they attempt to efficiently and effectively manage their inpatient and outpatient supply chain operations. The purpose of this study was to identify the key outcomes, processes, and practices that are expected to drive healthcare supply chain improvement over the next three to five years. To address these questions, we conducted an online expert panel study with a group of 21 healthcare supply chain professionals. The experts were selected from a diverse group of organizations across the country, including regional and community health centers, national healthcare provider networks, healthcare consulting firms, and group purchasing organizations.

Key findings include:

Maximizing the use of clinical data to improve quality of care and standardization and value analysis initiatives were ranked as the most important in driving substantial supply chain performance over the next three to five years by over 60% of the panelists.
Contract management including pricing, eligibility, compliance, and rebate management tasks was identified by 84% of the panelists as either the first or second most important driver in improving supply chain performance.
Hospital-physician collaboration received considerable attention from the expert panel as a means of improving supply chain performance. More than half of the panelist rated it as the most important supply chain improvement practice, followed by strategy integration which received 21% of the panelists number one ranking.
Measuring supply chain performance by procedure appeared as the number one ranking for nearly 60% of the panel members. Another 32% of the panel members selected by adjusted patient day as most important in developing consistent, reliable, actionable and credible performance indicators.

Process Models for Health Care Process Improvement

The health sector supply chain delivers value to its customers and trading partners through a number of related, yet distinct, supply chain processes. Each of these processes typically entails not only the physical movement of the product and its associated order information, but also the planning and execution of information and financial payment flows. From structured interviews of leading health care organizations, health care processes including supply & demand management, contract management, order fulfillment and service delivery, returns/recall management, customer service and stakeholder relationship management. Detailed process steps are defined for all processes in the health care industry.