Academic Webinar: Physician Preference Item Management

I’m sure many of us cringe when we think about physician preference item management. After all, it is one of the toughest areas to focus on in healthcare supply chain.


Natalia Wilson offered a great perspective in this webinar because she has been involved in PPIM research, and is also a practicing clinician.

I could relate to this topic because I am currently working with a Teaching Hospital in Dallas, TX on PPIM in Orthopedics. We have decided to pursue a capitated pricing strategy for total hip implants. We are currently a sole-source, which doesn’t offer much leverage with price negotiations. After meeting with some of the physicians and VP Surgical Services, we have been given permission to “crack the door open” to achieve better pricing. While we realize the docs are not going to switch product, they will at least trial some competitive products to put pressure on our sole-source vendor to provide more savings.


We have followed much of Natalia’s suggested strategy of engaging our internal and external stakeholders, and have been fortunate to receive buy-in from our physicians. Many of you work with well-renowned physicians and do not have the luxury of strong engagement. That is why it is important to understand and support what brings value to your docs.


Natalia also mentioned one of the difficulties of PPIM is access to good data. I cannot stress enough the importance of good data. If nothing else, a physician is more likely to evaluate reports or statistics if they are backed up by supporting information. There are some good tools that can provide dashboards or benchmarking studies such as ECRI, MD Buyline, SpendLINK (UHC) or Spend Compass (Advisory Board).


Looking at the broader view of a PPIM strategy, however, Natalia summarized the evaluation of the following areas:
1) Management within Supply Chain
2) Role of Internal & External Stakeholders
3) Physician Engagement Strategies
4) Education and Communication


While I won’t go into any more detail of each of these, I did want to stress that Executive Support is crucial to Physician Preference Item Management. With the current economic malaise, HCO’s are looking at high cost areas in the supply chain, which may provide opportunities in PPIM that didn’t exist before.

Click here to read more about upcoming Academic Webinars or to order a copy of the Physician Preference Item Management Academic Webinar on CD-ROM.