IOS continually identifies and shares best practices from our customers to help educate the healthcare community on supply chain automation. Each quarter, we recognize an organization demonstrating exceptional best practices in supply chain.
Congratulations to Advanced Urology Institute (AUI), the winner of the IOS Q4 2019 Best Practice Award. AUI has demonstrated outstanding capabilities in using the Envi solution to manage an enterprise wide formulary, create intuitive experiences for their users with inventory templates, manage contracts and leverage reporting tools to build visibility across the organization and within individual facilities.
The Advanced Urology Institute Story
Using Envi to Support a Growing Organization
- Fully automated 3-way match
- Multi location capabilities
- A solution that can address growing needs, with the support needed to enable their expansion
- Reporting tools to create visibility at both the individual organization and enterprise level
DeMarco and team use Envi to manage supplies in over 40 locations at six facilities in the clinic group, and two surgery centers, with two more surgeries centers scheduled to go live. Envi bridges the geographically diverse organization, and delivers reporting tools that provide visibility for all users.
Results
While DeMarco manages contracts at the organization level, users in the clinics and surgery centers do their own requisitioning, directly from a customized “favorites list,” which are user templates developed by IOS based on feedback from AUI. Users work from a list of the on-contract items they purchase most often.
“A day in the life of an Envi user at AUI involves an office manager or nurse, who logs into Envi and creates a requisition from their inventory template or the AUI catalog,” said DeMarco. “The req comes to my department for approval and transmit. When we became AUI, purchasing was the first thing we centralized. We stopped significant expense bleeding and today, can immediately identify any instances where we’re overcharged, charged for extraneous fees like expedited shipping, shipping and handling fees, or any other add-on charges. We’ve eliminated 100% of these charges and in the first year, saved nearly $100,000.”
As multiple locations came together to form AUI, it was clear capabilities varied, especially when it came to 3-way price matching. DeMarco continued, “Some systems could do two parts of the 3-way match but none could exchange data with our AP system, so we’d have to do manual matching. We knew that wouldn’t be sustainable, and with growth, we needed automated 3-way price matching. We do this with Envi.”
“I wouldn’t want to do my job without IOS – their team is truly part of my business,” concluded DeMarco. “They help solve problems and when I need an enhancement to the system, I pass it to IOS through my account manager. We’ve been able to suggest several key new features that are now part of Envi. Our physicians want to deliver the care that’s right for our patients, and with Envi, we maintain our patient focus and deliver the cost-effective care they need.”
Summary of Best Practices
- Control purchasing with customized favorites lists
- Consolidated product formulary at 40 locations in eight facilities
- Manage contracts and accurate contract pricing across enterprise
- Maintain 3-way price match ensures correct prices and allows invoices to be seamlessly paid
- Exceptional use of Envi reporting capabilities for both enterprise and facility level management
- Adding logins for physicians who want to see their facility’s performance
