June 21

Healthcare Supply Chain Manager’s Motto: Persevere to Save for Another Day

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Saving money isn’t automatic, certain, or always immediately possible, but it’s obtainable in almost all situations if you “persevere to save for another day”. This is the little known secret to never-ending savings for your healthcare organization.

Your Environment Needs to be Right to Save Money

No doubt, we have all heard the saying, “Strike while the iron is hot.” Well, this isn’t just an idiom that may be overlooked. It means, make use of an opportunity (savings in our context) when the time is right. From our experience, here are four circumstances when the timing is right for saving money:

  1. When a new department head or manager comes on board: If you have had a challenge making savings happen with their predecessor, then reopen the dialog with fresh eyes. These individuals are generally looking for a quick win for their new department, so “strike while the iron is hot.”
  2. When senior management mandates that they need to save money: A few years ago we installed a value analysis system for a teaching hospital that wasn’t getting much traction until the hospital started losing money. Then their senior management and their employees happily embraced our value analysis system that saved hundreds of thousands of dollars for them. Take advantage of these tight budget periods to get your savings ideas accepted.
  3. When a doctor dies, retires, or moves on: Oftentimes, a doctor outright refuses to entertain any changes of products, services, or technologies they use so their hospital can save money. Just wait them out until their replacement comes on board.  We can attest to the importance of this tactic, since sometimes we need to wait years to make even a small change at a client hospital.
  4. During regularly scheduled policy and protocol meetings: When I was a supply chain director, I would meet with every new department head and manager to review their healthcare organization’s supply chain policies and procedures. I would ask about the challenges they were facing in which I could be of help, as well as talk about savings opportunities that had been blocked/stalled by their predecessor. I believed this was a natural time to get acquainted with these new employees, educate them on important supply chain topics, and also a perfect time to start building a relationship for the future.

Strong Relationships Are the Key to Making Change Happen

All of the savings techniques in the world won’t replace a strong relationship with a department head or manager in making change happen. We remember an associate administrator we worked with at a large tertiary hospital who went out of his way to develop a relationship with his doctors; going on coffee breaks with them, attending their medical staff meetings, and socializing with them. The moral to this story is that he rarely had a problem when he asked a doctor to make a change in his or her products, services, or technologies because of the relationships that he built over the years with his medical staff. This is a best practice that you, too, should emulate to make change happen more easily at your healthcare organization.

Take a Long-Term View for Big Savings

Saving money today is a good thing, but generally the really big savings opportunities take time to convince people of their benefits. That’s why “persevere to save for another day” needs to be your motto for saving money. That’s right, supply chain professionals take a long-term view for saving money because they understand that it is their job to save money today, tomorrow, next year, and for many years.


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healthcare, healthcare organization, healthcare supply chain, hospital, save, save money, saving, saving money, supply chain, value analysis


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