Consolidating the Healthcare Supply Chain
A Direct Supply® DSSI™ Case Study
The healthcare supply chain has seen significant volatility over the last several years. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare organizations were forced to broaden their supply chain channels in an attempt to obtain necessary PPE supplies and equipment. As a result of these efforts, these organizations were losing out on cost savings opportunities.
Read on to learn how Direct Supply® DSSI™ helped significantly reduce a healthcare organization’s glove supply chain and drive significant annual savings.
The Problem: Lack of Visibility in the Healthcare Supply Chain
A 132 location healthcare organization lacked control over their procurement processes, with little visibility into the products purchased across their facilities. This organization approached Direct Supply® DSSI™ in 2017 looking for a comprehensive solution to monitor, visualize, and control their spend.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization needed to expand their purchasing parameters to obtain needed PPE supplies, including gloves. After the PPE supply chain settled down in 2022, the procurement team needed help regaining control of the glove purchasing and start taking advantage of their contracted pricing with their strategic suppliers.
Approach: Consolidation in Healthcare Supply Chain Management
The Direct Supply DSSI team started the optimization process for the glove category by looking at all their glove purchasing flowing through the DSSI platform. This analysis included looking at quantity trends, material trends, supplier trends and other important pieces of information. The DSSI Analyst reviewed thousands of pieces of purchasing data to identify the key trends for the organization.
After trend analysis, the DSSI team cross referenced this information with the specific glove contracts the organization had with their strategic suppliers, including terms, quantity requirements and potential rebate opportunities. This gave a clear picture of which glove products were the most advantageous from a pricing perspective.
The DSSI team brought the recommended products to the procurement team of the organization and discussed the potential cost savings if these changes were implemented.
At a Glance
53 glove SKUs and 4 glove suppliers
Results
7 glove SKUs and 1 glove supplier
$54,000 annualized savings
“Our eProcurement Manager is wonderful - that’s why the system works so well. We work really well together from a procurement standpoint on my side to her running the system for us. I would absolutely recommend it.”
- Direct Supply DSSI Customer
Results: Significant Annual Healthcare Cost Savings
Throughout the analysis, the Direct Supply DSSI team identified that this organization was purchasing 53 SKUs of gloves from 4 different suppliers. A majority of the SKUs being purchased were off-contract, meaning the organization received little to no cost savings. The DSSI team identified 7 key SKUs from one supplier that addressed the needs of the organization and drove the highest savings numbers due to their contracted program.
The recommendation provided by the DSSI team to reduce available glove SKUs from 53 to 7 and narrow suppliers from 4 to 1 saved that organization $54,000 on an annualized basis.
Your Healthcare Supply Chain Solution is Here
Direct Supply DSSI can help streamline healthcare supply chain management and solve healthcare supply chain challenges, all while reducing costs and providing actionable data and insights.
Interested in learning more? Read our blog “Redefining Procurement as a Service with Partnership and Technology” to discover more about our healthcare supply chain solution that is Taking Cost Out of Healthcare®.
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Schedule a 30-minute consultation with our team to learn how we can support your organization in achieving your procurement goals!