The COVID-19 pandemic compressed a decade of healthcare transformation into mere months. This confluence of events has placed even greater pressure on healthcare organizations to deliver high-quality service, but at a lower cost and on a patient’s terms. As we continue down the value-based care path, one overlooked opportunity is the redesign of the healthcare supply chain.
Here are a few ways modern supply chain management will play an increasingly critical role in supporting the goals of value-based care:
Data will become a competitive advantage
Value-based care requires healthcare organizations and physicians to obtain more financial risk for patient outcomes. That makes it essential to understand the total cost of care. In a value-based care environment, supply chain data must become abundant. Organizations must gather accurate cost, utilization and outcomes data to drive informed decision-making and understand the full cost associated with managing patient care.
Outcomes will be improved by aligning stakeholder interests
One of the aims of value-based care is to minimise clinical variation and drive better patient outcomes while achieving the overall financial goals of the organization. Reducing unwarranted variation starts with engaging clinicians in the redesign of care and taking steps to standardise product use.
Better results will be co-produced with patients
In a value-based system, patient-reported outcomes and real-world evidence require knowing more than just the technical outcome of a procedure. Physicians and their supply chain partners must work with patients to understand social determinants of health, such as food security, health coverage and available transportation and, ultimately, extend care from the hospital into the community to better support individual needs more fluidly.
Risk will be shared with supplier partners
Performance-based contracts allow health systems to move from contracting for the lowest price to working with manufacturers that can deliver the best patient outcomes. As the industry moves in this direction, supply chain teams play a pivotal role in identifying strategic partners that will analyze data sets across patient populations to find opportunities to improve care.