The article notes that experts forecast supply chain costs will eclipse labor costs and become the new number one cost in healthcare. That shift, in conjunction with deteriorating margins, will force healthcare organizations to increasingly focus on the most effective way to manage their supply chain.How supply chain departments are structured, staffed or accounted for will change, causing a culture shift. And, as with most culture shifts, in order to succeed at bringing supply chain to the strategic level, healthcare organizations are going to need system-wide buy-in from everybody: C-suite, doctors, nurses.
In the days of old, hospitals would often try and “revenue” their way out of problems, but those days are gone. To succeed today, healthcare organizations must focus on new ways to manage their supply chain. It’s incumbent on all of us to look at new approaches to strategically improve how healthcare is delivered.