Dr. Vicki Smith-Daniels and Dr. Dwight Smith-Daniels have conducted extensive research into improving the financial and operational performance in the OR suite. One of the main reasons for their research is the lack of empirical evidence in the healthcare supply chain industry. To broaden the scope of their research, they looked at the manufacturing industry for evidence of best practices. Manufacturing uses an evidence-based approach and incorporates practices such as lean manufacturing or Six Sigma.Measuring performance and quantifying the results is difficult - especially since many healthcare organizations rely on distributors, GPOs and/or consultants to provide tools and resources for performance measurement. In addition, best practices tend to be limited to one hospital provider or system, rather than a group of providers.
The research has shown that some of the important elements of high performance supply chains in the surgical suite include physician engagement, value analysis, analytics, and IS Integration. Clinical collaboration is essential in best practices because the stakeholders include end-users, physicians, as well as supply chain staff.
Through one of the online polls conducted, we learn that two of the greatest factors in surgical suite improvement include inventory monitoring and custom procedure packs. Since the results were taken across several hospital organizations, it allows us to start building evidence toward a best practice.
The presenters stressed that practices over time build capabilities which breed better performance. Successful supply chain strategies will move from short-term focus to long-term sustainability.
Click here to read more about upcoming Academic Webinars or to order a copy of the Supply Chains and the Surgical Suite: Measuring the Impact of Best Practices on Financial and Operational Performance Academic Webinar on CD-ROM.
Inventory monitoring can be done either manually or by using an inventory handling software which records all of the transactions done on a certain stock. Doing this manually would be a hassle and it would take long, so it's better to do inventory monitoring using software. For manufacturing, healthcare, and other types of businesses, this is very important just so that no costs (miscellaneous or not) would be questioned.
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