Working together to improve clinical quality: clinicians and materials managers

One is a cardiothoracic surgeon, while the other has an MBA with years of experience in logistics. Phrases like nosocomial infection and glucose control spill from one mouth, while the other talks about stock keeping units and RFID chips. While one often travels in uncharted territory and maps a new course along the way, the other consistently has hard data upon which to base decisions. Now, imagine some of the difficulties that arise when these two individuals attempt to work together. It's no wonder there is a great divide between clinicians and materials managers. When you don't speak the same language and share the same goals, it can be hard to work together.

The challenge facing many hospital chief executive officers is convincing both groups that it is possible to work together in a cooperative manner, with the mutual goals of saving lives and saving money. Getting the two disciplines to understand each other is the first step.

There is significant common ground between people working in clinical arenas and primarily administrative roles at hospitals. This common ground fosters growth and opportunities to forge a productive alignment and alliance. Both disciplines agree the need to trim costs will be a consistent and mandated theme under our nation's current funding model.

Medical supplies represent an estimated 30 percent to 3,5 percent of a hospital's total budget, and health systems have few areas in which they can cut costs. Clinical preference products represent as much as 60 percent of the total supplies consumed in some hospitals, and this trend is growing. Material managers can help physicians understand the impact of their clinical choices affects patient costs. Physicians can help material managers understand the clinical impact of the right supply choice.

To overcome barriers between the clinicians and material managers, a growing number of supply chain leaders are hiring clinicians to work within the materials management department. OhioHealth Corporation, a 2,000 bed integrated health system in Columbus, hired R.N. clinical specialists to help them identify opportunities to improve standardization and utilization without lowering the quality of care. These nurses conduct clinical research on products, work with physicians to arrange hospital clinical trials and have been involved in a number of cost-saving quality initiatives. As a result of this comprehensive program, OhioHealth saved $15 million in supply costs in two years. The nurses also have enhanced the credibility of the materials management team within the entire health system. Other systems are creating physician driven Value Analysis Teams to drive the best clinical and financial supply chain decisions.

Yet, growing the relationship is not a simple task and can often require more than just changing a department's composition. Building trust will require both groups to learn more about the needs of the other. Building trust will require transparent sharing of credible information and data, allowing both clinician and material manager to make the right mutual decisions. The new breed of supply chain leaders will need to be more medically savvy. These individuals will move beyond the basement to the patient floors, the emergency department and the operating room, directly interacting with medical and clinical staff and watching how supplies are being used. Physicians will need to learn more about how their choices impact a hospital's cost structure and how supply management can impact the quality of care.

The challenge to cementing the relationship between materials managers and clinicians often lies in their conflicting goals: clinicians focus on patient care and saving lives while materials managers strive to save money. Progressive hospitals will manage to get the two groups to see the commonalities between their respective goals. More often than not, its hospital management and the materials management staff that needs to make the first step toward the table.

Increasingly, we understand that quality and safety is a multidisciplinary task. There is growing evidence that material managers see themselves as playing an important role in improving the quality of care. A recent survey by Sage Products Inc., showed that 91 percent of materials managers polled align their purchasing decisions in support of infection control efforts. Quality care initiatives within health systems have shown that having the right products and the right clinical care in place at the time of need greatly impacts and improves patient outcomes. Organizations that balance their purchasing decisions with their clinical priorities are often the most successful.

The Hospital: OhioHealth Corporation, Columbus, OH

The Problem: Barriers between clinicians and materials managers

The Solution: Hired R.N specialists to evaluate standardization and utilization.

The Vendor: VHA Inc.

Jeff Dunn, M.D. and Dave Markoski

Jeff Dunn, M.D., is a Cardiathoracic Surgeon and now serves as senior medical director in clinical performance at VHA Inc. in Irving, TX. Dave Markoski formerly served as a hospital materials manager and now is senior vice president for custom supply chain services at VHA.

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