SUPPLY CHAIN
“ From a non-clinical perspective , P2P is a classic indirect procurement P2P process . Keep it simple and limit the number of buyers , because in healthcare you don ’ t want people like nurse unit managers spending precious time ordering things .”
Yet from a clinical perspective , P2P is more involved .
“ You ’ re dealing with products that literally touch patients and have a direct impact on their lives ,” he explains . “ It ’ s also a different way of thinking about how you manage inventory because availability is critical . How is inventory warehoused ? Who ’ s watching stock levels and placing orders ? Is it insourced or outsourced ?”
In the healthcare organisations he ’ s worked with , the clinical staff are consulted about what should be stocked , but they don ’ t do the counting or scanning . Instead , a third party would go into the ward stockrooms , swipe barcodes to determine supply inventories and reorder as needed .
“ Unlike non-clinical P2P , equipment and supplies aren ’ t ordered one ward at a time . Orders will be larger , to meet the day-to-day needs of many wards . That means organisations will need a warehouse that ’ s either staffed by its own personnel or outsourced to a third party .”
These insourcing and outsourcing decisions are likely to be the first big decisions a healthcare procurement team would have to make in establishing its clinical procurement strategy .
From a non-clinical perspective , healthcare S2P processes aren ’ t that different from any other industry . “ It ’ s about understanding the markets to decide your strategy and involving stakeholders to make sure you ’ re procuring the right goods and services .”
Yet from a clinical perspective , S2P can be more challenging . Stakeholders become much more involved , and you have to deal with something called ‘ clinical preference ’.
“ This can be as simple as a staff-wide preference for a dressing because it has unique adhesive properties . That ’ s their clinical preference and they refuse to use any other . Of course , sometimes clinical preference is more subjective than clinical . For example , a surgeon may have been trained to use a particular brand of device , tool , or prosthesis , making them hesitant to try another . Surgeons are also trained to be risk-averse , so they avoid variables
120 September 2023