Speaker 1: Every morning, a single daily delivery of medical supplies is made to the Parkview North Hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana to replenish stock that was used the previous day. On the surface, there doesn't seem to be anything special about this delivery, but there is. It's part of a new supply management system in place at Parkview Health that is helping to recapture over $46,000 a day in unclaimed revenue. All hospital supplies are shipped directly from Parkview's own Consolidated Service Center. They arrive in the staging area already pre-sorted by nursing unit identifiers. From the staging area, unit-specific supplies are placed on carts by the central supply staff and transferred to corresponding nursing unit supply rooms all over the hospital. In the supply rooms, conveniently arranged supply bins are easily replenished. And with a few quick scans, inventory levels are updated in real time by the supply management system. It is a system that has benefited Parkview's clinical staff immensely and, more importantly, improved the delivery of health care services to their patients.

Speaker 2: The benefits on the cultural side of the house is that our clinicians no longer have to worry about ordering product. By utilization of a point-of-use system, they can simply use technology by grabbing a barcode gun, walking in, a couple clicks of the gun, and it identifies that products have been used. They don't have to count them, they don't have to order them, and they show up the next day to be replenished. So it takes, it allows the clinicians to do what they're designed to do, which is to provide excellent care to patients every day.

Speaker 1: With supply rooms for each nursing station just a few steps away, it's very convenient for clinical staff to come and get what they need whenever they need it. Ergonomic workstations equipped with voice verification technology and user-friendly touchscreens further streamline the supply management process.

Speaker 2: We've found also by locating the stocks on the floor where they need them in easy-to-get bins that they become very, very comfortable with running down to the supply room, grabbing the items they need, quickly scanning them out and taking them back to their patient room. They're not putting them in separate cupboards or little cubbyholes, they're there in a centralized location that's just a few steps away from their patient and a much more efficient system for them.

Speaker 1: One of the critical requirements in the design of the supply management system was to make its adoption as easy as possible so clinical staff would buy in. It's obviously been a success because the process is strikingly simple and fast, even for multiple items, or to support ongoing care procedures. Because supplies are guaranteed to be there when they need them, the Parkview staff have quickly become believers.

Speaker 2: Everyone told me that the clinicians weren't going to push back, that I wouldn't get support. And I've actually found the exact opposite, that when you go to folks and you explain to them why this makes good, best practice sense, they have embraced the change and utilized the tools to optimize our model.

Speaker 1: With a simple touch of the finger, data transfer is complete and the staff of the Consolidated Service Center immediately have the information they need to generate pick tickets for the next day's stock replenishment. Armed with this information, Consolidated Service Center staff begin pulling the required supplies from their warehouse locations and putting them into totes. The supply items are segregated by nursing unit location as they are picked. The completed totes are conveyed to a quality control area, where packing lists are printed and tote contents are verified to be correct and complete. From there, the totes are stacked together on pallets, again segregated by nursing unit. After all the day's orders have been filled, the pallets are whisked away to the shipping dock for transfer to the hospital the next morning. And another day in Parkview's supply management cycle is complete.

Speaker 2: Inventory management in a warehouse is the easy part, right? I mean, there are many software solutions that can help you manage stock within a warehouse. The harder thing to manage is the point of use locations. When you have multiple locations that you're trying to manage inventory virtually, how do you manage that outside of your warehouse? So you really need a system that is more robust than just a simple, what do I have on the shelf and how do I pick, pack and deliver the system? And that's what Texas brings to us with the SMS model.

Speaker 1: Under the watchful eye of the supply management system, Parkview Health has total visibility into inventory levels across their entire supply chain. From the centralized warehouse to every supply room in the facilities, guaranteeing that the right products are in the right place at the right time. With each touch of their fingers, clinical staff literally have a hand in forging Parkview's vision for the future and become active partners with supply chain management staff in a coordinated master plan to deliver more efficient, cost-effective health care to their patients. Day and night.