What Happens When You Throw Old Thinking Out the Window

Today’s patient (consumer) is a new breed. They vote with their dollars and aren’t shy about online reviews. At the same time, healthcare leaders are struggling with declining reimbursements and evolving into an outcomes-based organization.

Mercy Health, like many other systems, is navigating these same challenges. Being the largest healthcare system in Ohio presents a number of challenges around standardization, process improvement and supply partnerships. All these pain points can make the difference between how much time and dollars are spent on high quality patient care so they decided to make a bold move.

Through a strategic partnership with Medline, Mercy Health is reimagining the traditional supply chain model and challenging vendors to be bold. In the partnership’s first year, the focus on product standardization already has eliminated nearly 2,000 SKUs, a 21 percent reduction. Mercy Health is also collaborating with Medline and other manufacturers to launch a dynamic and consolidated PPI logistics model beginning in the third quarter of 2018.

Over the course of the five-year agreement, Mercy Health is expected to realize a cost savings of more than 10 percent of their $1.3 billion annual spend on supplies and purchase services.

Read up on how Medline is helping customers to navigate supply chain complexity here.