Broadlane unchained - Letters: readers respond

To the Editor,

In reading the Broadlane item in the Oct. 7 edition of HPNOnline Daily Update ("Brooklyn facility outsources supply chain to Broadlane") I could not help but notice the over-generalized use of the term "supply chain." When Broadlane and other GPOs use the term supply chain they are only discussing contracting and procurement, the two components of the supply chain that create revenue for them. However, the term supply chain is much broader than procurement and contracting, although they are included. Supply also includes inventory management, asset management, transportation, receiving, internal distribution, product storage, customer relationship management and process management. In order for a GPO or any organization to claim that a hospital has outsourced its supply chain to it when in fact it has only outsourced only one or two aspects of it is in fact misleading. And it continues to mislead hospital CEOs who generally think that the only legitimate supply chain issues are those which are handled by its GPO. This narrow focus causes great harm to hospitals and to caregivers by understating the importance of the other areas of supply chain management. I have had this conversation with Broadlane in the past but obviously to no avail.

Lynn James Everard, C.P.M., CBM

Co-Founder

Foundation for Healthcare Integrity

Coconut Creek, FL

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