Hospital supply chain inefficiencies are costly
Nurse shortages, increased patient wait lists and global product availability are all-too-common problems and supply chain managed services can play a part to help address these challenges.
Negatively impacting human resources
These issues with product availability are diverting clinicians’ attention from addressing the surgical backlog – in fact, some 10-20% of nurse capacity is spent managing inventory. This time could be spent dedicated to patient care so it makes sense to reallocate resources so nurses are focusing solely on clinical activities and move stock management duties elsewhere.
Financially costly
Waste can be over 10% of spend for hospitals that don’t manage stock properly. On top of that, it costs hospitals around 12-15% of annual material spend to run a supply chain.
What is our solution?
With people, process and technology, Medtronic IHS enables hospitals to deploy a modernised materials management operation.
Medtronic provides on-site staff, back-office support and technology solutions as part of long-term hospital partnerships. Training, technology and analytic capabilities lead to:
- Disciplined demand and supply planning for surgical materials
- Stronger product management processes and analysis
- Better storage and stock layout
- Consumption tracking
- Integration of IT systems
- Significant financial savings and time freed up for nurses and clinicians happen within 3-6 months of launching the service.
100+
Operations staff
3.8 million
Stock movements tracked per year
121,000
Third-party products managed
>150,000
Procedures per year
Medtronic IHS implements end-to-end supply chain services and uses analytics to ensure optimal stock availability and cost control. The service is vendor-independent (managing inventory across all brands, not just Medtronic).
Medtronic’s proprietary system for inventory analytics ensures optimal supply chain performance.
Stock at risk provides visibility on over and understock, prompting users to take corrective action.
Financial controls bring insight on cost and usage per procedure and highlight opportunities for spend control and range rationalisation.
Supplier performance management shows risks to product availability and supplier reliability.
Product range review and rationalisation, through detailed consumption analytics, highlights unused products.
Stock reordering strategies enable hospitals to apply the best replenishment level settings and take corrective actions for products at risk of expiry.
Medtronic partners with a leading inventory management software provider to bring automation and standardisation to stock control. It provides simple and fast recording of materials consumption, integrates with RFID hardware and can interface with a hospital’s theatre management and procurement systems (a necessary component for hospitals wanting full integration and rapid reimbursement).
Large NHS teaching hospital in the UK – Cardiac Catheter Labs
IHS helped the hospital avoid £10.4m cost and ensure high performance operational levels.
University Hospital in Denmark - Neurosurgery Department
IHS reduced materials management running costs by 77% over two years.
Large teaching hospital in the Netherlands - Cardiology Department
The hospital saved an average of €450k per year and freed up 1.5 FTE of nurse time to allow them to focus on patient care instead of handling materials.
Gain more insights on what high-performing hospitals are doing to manage their supply chain.
Connect with one of our experts
We are a team of experienced and highly trained experts who help provider sreach their healthcare delivery goals. If you think we can help you, reach out to one of our advisors today for more information on what the Integrated Health Solutions team can do for your hospital.
