Article

Close the Loop on Your Supply Chain

June 12, 2024
Pharmacy technician or nurse looking at inventory stock
While all non-acute healthcare organizations use one or more supply chains, the facilities may not be fully leveraging them to ensure on-time deliveries, enable accurate forecasting and provide competitive price contracts. That’s why implementing a full-service supply chain to simplify and maximize all aspects of the supply chain—from ordering to sustainable sourcing to accurate fulfillment—is needed for today’s organizations. 

Full-service entails coordinating and integrating the myriad functions and activities of various organizations, including suppliers and logistics companies, to ensure the efficient delivery of products from initial supplier through end user location. 

A full-service strategy offers a comprehensive approach to managing and leveraging all aspects of a supply chain’s operations. It ultimately enables facilities to close the loop on their supply chain to:

  • Eliminate gaps in procurement
  • Provide visibility across the supply chain
  • Allow accurate predictions into deliveries and product needs
  • Identify and mitigate any potential disruptions

A group purchasing organization (GPO) can play a pivotal role in these processes. A GPO helps members get the most value from their supply chain, which is critically important as processes become increasingly complex and, in some cases, stretch further around the globe.

SQUEEZE MORE VALUE OUT OF THE SUPPLY CHAIN

Rising prices across many areas of non-acute healthcare challenge facilities to deliver quality care while maintaining profit margins. 

Facilities are often following procurement best practices and using data to inform buying decisions, yet they’re limited in what they can do on their own with their staff resources. That’s why they need the supply chain expertise of a GPO that has established relationships with reputable suppliers and also has the ability to capture and share essential data.
 
For example, a GPO like Provista that specializes in non-acute healthcare procurement can help members drive more value and savings from their supply chain and contracts, including contracts that fall outside of medical and surgical. 

GPOs help standardize purchasing to minimize the number of individual transactions needed for procurement and also optimize inventory to reduce waste while avoiding costly overstocking. Plus, GPOs help ensure products meet compliance and quality control requirements for members.
 
The value and savings enabled by GPOs include cost avoidance, too. For instance, standardizing products typically reduces administrative time and therefore costs. Likewise, GPOs can help with planning and transparency to avoid the need for rush orders or emergency purchases, which encourages a more efficient supply chain. 

 
HOW A GPO HELPS WITH KEY COMPONENTS OF A SUPPLY CHAIN

GPOs help members streamline procurement and product sourcing by working with reputable, industry-leading suppliers. This ensures facilities can choose from a large portfolio of offerings to get the products and brands they want, on time and at competitive pricing, which is what organizations should come to expect from their supply chains.
 
At the same time, facilities know that delays and disruptions are inevitable. GPOs often have data from across the supply chain for insights into any bottlenecks, potential delays and time to delivery. Similarly, accurate data can be analyzed to inform buying decisions, ensure facilities are using the most optimal contracts and predict demand more accurately.
 
The data, coupled with GPO expertise, can minimize product spoilage, balance supply with demand and avoid shortages of essential products. In addition, members can use data and GPO relationships to consolidate suppliers. Spreading more money across fewer suppliers can allow a facility to get better tier pricing, larger rebates and reduce the number of deliveries, improving receiving and inventory efficiency.
 
Sustainability is also now becoming more of a focus in supply chain operations. This is especially true for facilities implementing or monitoring environmental, social and governance initiatives. GPOs can help improve sustainability in the supply chain by encouraging suppliers to make packaging, transportation and processes more environmentally friendly.

“A full-service, well run supply chain and procurement program leads to well-run non-acute healthcare facilities. ”

SIMPLIFY THE CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION PROCESS

Because GPOs often work behind the scenes with suppliers, distributors and others, many of their members don’t fully understand the GPO’s critical role. The downside is that if there’s a procurement or delivery problem, the GPO is often blamed, even when it’s not the GPO’s fault.
 
The reality is that non-acute healthcare procurement is highly complex, and GPOs help make processes smoother with less friction. For instance, GPOs provide market insights and negotiate favorable terms for members, ensuring cost-effective, reliable access to the products and services that facilities need for uninterrupted business and clinical operations.
By centralizing negotiations and management, GPOs handle supplier relationships and contracts, reducing the number of individual agreements a facility must oversee. This simplifies procurement, saves time and ensures consistent terms across suppliers to make contract and supply chain processes more effective. Some ways GPOs deliver this ongoing value is by:

  • Reviewing contracts and a member’s spending behaviors, then recommending the best contracts to meet a facility’s individual needs
  • Ensuring accurate pricing on items members are procuring and using every day
  • Handling any pricing discrepancies
MORE THAN A TYPICAL GPO

Provista offers all the benefits of a traditional GPO—and more. Provista has the experience and partnerships across non-acute healthcare to empower members to get the most benefits out of their purchases and supply chain.
 
With more than $135 billion in purchasing power, Provista connects members with top contracts from leading suppliers. Provista also delivers the data and analytics capabilities members need to make the most informed buying decisions. Provista also offers a user-friendly materials management platform, called Envi, to make procurement easy, transparent and automated for members.
 
A full-service, well run supply chain and procurement program leads to well-run non-acute healthcare facilities. 

 

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