Speaker 1: 3 Tips on Reducing Supply Chain Cost and Achieving Better Clinical Outcomes Texas recently shared a pathway to clinical integration via supply chain, and I'd like to talk about it. As reimbursement rates fall, healthcare executives must be preparing their organization for sustainable cost control. The healthcare supply chain is still a major opportunity area for hospitals to cut costs. However, if your only strategy is to simply get the lowest price on supplies, then you may as well close the doors to your hospital right now, because that strategy alone has been proven it just doesn't work. In order to ensure financial success for your organization, healthcare providers must start connecting their supply chain cost to the delivery of better clinical outcomes. A clinically integrated supply chain introduces supply chain processes, tools, and technologies into the care delivery setting to identify conditions under which best outcomes are achieved under the most cost-effective manner. By streamlining supply chain operational processes and gaining visibility into the average cost per procedural case, a healthcare provider is able to uncover opportunities to lower cost without reducing the quality of care. At Texas, we realize that managing the complex healthcare supply chain is not a simple task, but you're at a crossroads. No longer can you just fix your supply chain. You have to transform it. Here are three tips to help you on that journey towards clinical integration in the supply chain. One, first, treat your supply chain department as a strategic asset. Gone are the days where your supply chain was just a transactional function of your organization. It truly is a strategic element of your hospital operation, and the quicker that you realize this and adopt it, the better off you'll be. Treat your supply chain leaders as you treat your CMO. Give the supply chain a seat at the big table. They can help you in ways that you need in this day and age. Second, invest in supply chain technologies. Basically, put your money where your mouth is. Trust me when I say spending money on inventory management software, point of care scanning, RFID technologies, and so on, these will be the most important financial and cultural decisions you make for your organization. You need data capture technology in order to control inventory and highlight effective outcomes based upon product utilization. If you're relying on manual processes and using the precious time of your clinicians in order to obtain data, you're inadvertently giving the impression that your organization is not really serious about connecting patient outcome to the supply chain. And finally, use analytics to enhance those clinical pathways. Once you've automated your inventory management processes with the right technology, you can make more transparent and data-driven choices. Just imagine the meaningful conversation between you and your supply chain team and a clinician on how to prevent financial waste and standardize on supplies to reduce variation, and at the same time, improve clinical outcome. Armed with this information, clinicians can understand how specific devices, drugs, items, all impacted their hospital's cost and their patients. If you want to achieve a supply chain greatness in healthcare, you must have a clinically integrated infrastructure. This will enable you to streamline your supply chain operation process, gain end-to-end inventory visibility, and ultimately connect overall procedural cost and patient outcome. I'm Bill Demby, and I hope you enjoyed this Texas Supply Chain blog.