Lessons from Outside Healthcare: Turning your supply chain into a strategic asset

In this age of technology and disruption, we often look outside of our own industry for new ideas to make things better and more efficient. And, “while hospitals are not factories and patients are not cars, health systems can learn valuable logistics lessons from the automotive and retail industries,” noted a recent article in Becker’s Hospital Review.

Outlined in the article are seven supply chain lessons gleaned from industries such as automotive, electronic and industrial production:

Healthcare transportation in 2015 and beyond: What does the future hold?

The last of my blog posts discussing our roundtable at the Fall 2012 IDN Summit covers our participants’ commentary on what the future holds for them. What became clear from our discussion with these supply chain leaders is that health systems can no longer get by with the status quo.

Everyone acknowledged that doing things the way they’ve always been done is not a recipe for success. Health systems need to pay attention to previously overlooked areas, such as healthcare transportation, to see how they can improve and simplify the supply chain and ultimately better integrate the entire organization.

Better Efficiency Can Lead to Better Care and a Better Bottom Line

An industry survey conducted by HealthLeaders, entitled “Better Care and the Bottom Line,” recently caught my eye. As part of the survey, HealthLeaders asked 289 healthcare executives what they believe are the major drivers of waste in healthcare today and what they believe can help fix the problem. The respondents listed the following as the key contributors to waste:

Operational inefficiency
Overutilization of services
Lack of system integration

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