The goal for leading healthcare supply chain organizations is a design where the supply chain management team becomes clinically and technologically driven in all their activities. Such designs shift the focus from traditional administrative compliance towards the patient’s needs and to the clinical requirements for meeting them. A change such as this requires a different way of thinking for supply chain professionals as well as the stakeholders that they serve. As in any business transformation we need to meet four conditions:
- A clear, well articulated vision and strategy with a description of the value to be accrued to the multiple stakeholders
- The leadership & organizational will to change
- High quality data management and integrated applications for SCM decision-making
- Comprehensive business processes that support the strategy
Organizations that possess these characteristics are positioned to succeed. We have seen several healthcare organizations that are on this path to such change. Many are also adopting the FISCO model that we introduced in last month’s blog. As part of our research we have also identified the four core capabilities that these organizations must develop in order to succeed.
- Value from standardized product identification such as GS1 /GTIN/GUDID
- Access to data from sources such as IoT, Visual/Voice Capture, Clinical Evidence
- Decision making through analytic tools such as cognitive computing, artificial intelligence, and descriptive/predictive/prescriptive analytics
- Information integrity through digital ledgers and possibly blockchain
Developing these capabilities may require investments in information technology, organizational expertise, and external partnerships. With these four core capabilities in place, supply chain management organizations can leverage and effectively operate highly valued SCM business processes such as:
- Value based selection to ensure that clinical needs are directly connected to sourcing decisions
- Sourcing by category managers possessing expert market knowledge
- Efficient product/order fulfillment to meet clinical needs
- Risk management programs (recall management)
- Dashboards/Control Towers for operational excellence
By following these practices, healthcare systems can develop fully integrated supply chain organizations (FISCOs) that are clinically and technologically driven. Evidence has shown that this leads to a high performing healthcare system. Interested to find out. Stay tuned to these blogs or give us a call.
