Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: Managing Order Guides

Artificial intelligence in healthcare is becoming popular, making impacts in areas such as caregiving, data collection and analysis and administration.

Direct Supply® DSSI™ is bringing AI technology into healthcare procurement to save time and money and drive positive outcomes. Learn about the impacts of AI in procurement and how artificial intelligence in purchasing is Taking Cost Out of Healthcare®.

Overview: AI in Procurement 

The senior healthcare sector faces headwinds in staffing, funding and utilizing technology to support their operation. Direct Supply® DSSI™ leverages AI technology to increase efficiency in the healthcare procurement process. This is accomplished through saving money and minimizing customer impact of supply chain pressures, particularly in the world of food procurement. 

How it Works: Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Procurement

The Direct Supply DSSI teams built artificial intelligence technology to address food procurement challenges in healthcare procurement. This technology provides visibility and actionable insights that save healthcare organizations time, giving them more time for patient and resident care. 

Food procurement often requires purchasing products from numerous supplier distribution centers based on facility demographic region. One challenge associated with this process is that distribution centers have different product quantities at any given point in time. It is difficult for healthcare procurement professionals to easily manage these nuances across distribution centers and individual facilities. 

Our patented OGM® 3 tool allows healthcare organizations to build centralized order guides that solve these challenges. Centralized order guides allow procurement teams to fill gaps in ingredients across distribution centers, ensure product consistency across facilities and maintain control over products being purchased. 

Centralized order guides allow procurement professionals to:

1. Manage products on an ingredient-level
2. Ensure ingredient coverage for all facilities
3. Deliver product consistency across food distribution centers
4. Save time through automatic discontinued resolution

Using Artificial Intelligence in Purchasing: Stock-Out Alternative Recommendations

In addition to simplifying the order guide management process, our OGM 3 tool supports the ordering process as well. This tool tells a Direct Supply DSSI platform user when an item is not available due to limited inventory and makes an equal alternative recommendation using AI technology. 

Among existing customers, this technology reduced canceled orders due to product stock-outs by 48%. 

For example, if your food broadliner has a limited quantity of pre-cooked slice-and-eat bacon, our OGM 3 tool will immediately inform you that limited supplier inventory will not support your order. At the same time, the system will automatically present another pre-cooked bacon product at a similar or lower price, saving lots of back and forth between your team and your food broadliner to find replacements after the order is placed. 

The Bottom Line: Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare

Direct Supply DSSI is transforming healthcare food procurement through the use of technology. The AI powered OGM 3 tool has transformed the order guide management process for hundreds of senior care providers, allowing them to quickly adapt to changes in the supply chain. 

Interested in learning more? Read our blog “Healthcare Supply Chain Strategies – Navigating Shifts in Behaviors and Inflation Impacts“.