An Amerinet Success Story
Challenge
Challenge Faced with rising supply chain costs, Northern Arizona Healthcare (NAH) – the largest healthcare organization in Northern and Central Arizona – requested an Amerinet Savings RoadmapSM to analyze and compare its current spend with opportunities within the Amerinet portfolio. “The data provided to us was very clear, but our quest to standardize on the opportunities presented in the Amerinet Savings Roadmap proved to be a challenge because our organization is comprised of multiple facilities, so it can never be just one person making a decision,” said Perry Davidson, senior buyer at NAH.
Solution
With suggestion and supervision from the Amerinet on-site utilization manager, NAH brought together empowered clinicians, directors, materials managers and senior buyers from each facility, along with the secretary to the director of materials management, to form the Inpatient Value Analysis Team (VAT) task force. The mission of VAT was to review the opportunities presented from the Amerinet Savings Roadmap during organized, bi-weekly video conferences. The Amerinet on-site utilization manager obtained product samples and technical information in order for the team to make informed decisions. “In some cases, we were able to make an immediate decision to switch suppliers,” said Davidson. “If a product needed further review, then the team was required to complete their evaluations by the next meeting to ensure decisions were made in a timely manner.”
Outcome
In the first nine months after creating the VAT task force, NAH saved $237,000 in annualized spend with a success rate of 61 percent in presented contract savings opportunities. “An implementation checklist process was developed to ensure staff from the multiple departments and facilities carried out the decisions approved by this task force,” said Davidson. The checklist process addressed the steps involved with contracts, inputting the product information into MMIS (Materials Management Information System), in addition to notifying the vendors of usage for inventory, the warehouse for stocking and distribution to floors, the clinicians for communication to the units, and to the buyers for purchasing.
“We are pleased that our GPO, Amerinet, has taken an active role in helping to drive down costs. Because our on-site Amerinet utilization manager has taken a leadership role, we continue to have many, many cost-savings opportunities to evaluate,” said Davidson.