Solutions

Hospitals can benchmark their performance on two different supply chains-the functional supply chain for commodity materials and supplies and the clinical supply chain for physician-preference products. SCMetrix™ benchmarks performance at the facility level including supply expense and operational indicators collected for key departments and service line. For hospitals interested in a more focused approach, optional benchmarking is offered at the DRG level including a limited number of medical and surgical DRGs that have important supply characteristics with respect to pharmacy and device/implant use.

At the core of SCMetrix™ benchmarking solution are supply chain practices and capabilities. Based on statistical evidence from other industries, SCMetrix™ attaches importance to identifying best known practices in health care supply chain beyond just differences in patient populations, regional characteristics, economies-of-scale, and other organizational factors. SCMetrix™ measures a hospital's degree of practice implementation in a number of areas such as sourcing policies, inventory and distribution models, automation and technologies and clinical collaborative practices.

Based on successful implementation of benchmarking performance improvement framework in the manufacturing and retailing industries, SCMetrix™ engages supply chain professionals and patient care delivery professionals in measuring and evaluating supply chain capabilities and performance. Financial and operational value drivers are measured by standard definitions including AHRMM-HFMA's supply expense definition. Organizational factors known to influence hospital performance such as case mix index, level of trauma center, and type of hospital-physician model are also captured in the tool through direct input by the SCMetrix™ primary hospital point of contact. Other SCMetrix™ participants provide perceptual assessments of the degree of practice implementation and an evaluation of the hospital's supply chain capabilities in supply-intensive departments and services such as orthopedics, cardiac, and diagnostic radiology.