Every quarter, Inventory Optimization Solutions (IOS) identifies and shares best practices from among our current users to help educate the healthcare community on supply chain automation, especially in the non-acute healthcare market.
Congratulations to Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates on being selected as the winner of the IOS Q3 2017
Best Practice Award. Neurosurgery & Spine Associates has demonstrated the true value of using supply chain tools and data.
Streamlined AP Process, Track Spending, and Actionable Data for Vendor Consolidation
Byron Grimmett
Carolina Neurosurgery & Spine Associates
Project Coordinator
Accurate Invoice Payment
Our goal in choosing and implementing a system was to gain visibility into our supply chain by tracking product and usage. We had no idea if we received what we were invoiced for. We also didn’t know if we were being invoiced our contracted price. Prior to Envi, it was a very manual process to audit our invoice accuracy. Now we know we pay the right amount on each vendor invoice, saving money. Another outcome for us has been the ability to audit pricing on invoices. We’ve seen multiple examples where we were billed above contract price. We have also noticed situations where the vendor was billing before the product had been received. Several times, we informed the vendor and received a credit back. That would not have happened before – we would have just paid the invoice.
Spend Analytics
The best outcome for us thus far has been the ability to track spending and the visibility we now have into what we are paying for. We use this data in our vendor negotiations, especially when they are offering a specific purchasing program for our organization. In the past, our only option to understand what the impact of these offers would be was to review old invoices. Now, with Envi, we run granular reports based on our filter inputs. We can see a precise picture of the impact of any change and then use this information in our work with the vendor to determine best pricing.
Keys to Success:
We track item usage, including our DME products, using barcode scanners and will soon be looking to track DME usage down to the patient. We have had issues in the past where we knew DME products were being handed out without being billed to the patient. The way we track usage in Envi lets us reconcile products taken out of inventory to billing records, ensuring no revenue is lost. Our next step will be to track DME usage to a patient, making our reconciliation process even more accurate.
How we did it:
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Training and consistent messaging from our executive team to keep high awareness of the importance of these changes to our organization
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Obtaining clinician compliance through ease of system use
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Getting front line folks to take ownership, allowing them to see the advantages and benefits of the system firsthand – now we have advocates that aren’t necessarily managers, but can share their experience with others
