hc1 began its strategic sourcing process in February of 2020. The date is important to note as this was the start of the COVID-19 pandemic that swept across the nation. Memorial was also later responsible for two million doses of COVID-19 vaccinations for one million people in the state of Florida. The healthcare system was one of five organizations to receive the Pfizer vaccine at that time. Prior to receiving the vaccine, Memorial had been proactive in caring for its community at the early onset of the pandemic and provided drive-through clinics.
Memorial’s leadership team and clinical teams were focused on meeting COVID-19 demands, supporting patient safety, and protecting the community. Over the course of the pandemic, hc1 and Memorial continued strategic sourcing initiatives, being sensitive to Memorial’s COVID-19 demands.
Creating opportunities in an already successful environment
First, hc1 completed a thorough diagnostic process. This included assessing Memorial’s current spend, identifying opportunities, creating a long-term strategic sourcing roadmap, and immediately addressing urgent expiring contracts or possible vendor consolidation.
Memorial was aware of pricing and supply issues, but often healthcare systems lack the time or resources to fully address known problems. Therefore, healthcare systems welcome additional resources in the form of consultants to benefit from seeing the ‘big picture,’ presented in a concise manner, including a review of contracts by category and any discrepancies in pricing. Memorial was aware of issues that could be resolved and open to the expert guidance provided by hc1 to continue to create savings and overall performance improvement.
A key component was support from Memorial’s leadership. “Ed was always engaged, willing to listen, and ready to seize opportunities,” states Brent Bolton, VP/GM, Strategic Sourcing and Supply Chain, hc1.
Savings within Memorial’s latest segments
Memorial has standardization, equivalent pricing across the organization, and was already receiving aggressive pricing. Many of the typical opportunities for improvement that hc1 would recommend were already complete. However, Memorial had unique opportunities to improve within its chemistry and tissue segments.
- First, tissue was registering at a high cost for the system. Memorial was able to reap savings on its tissue spend, the third highest cost savings opportunity.
- Next, Memorial obtained price decreases on its chemistry spend – seeing significant savings within six months. Hematology pricing improvements were also an opportunity.
- Lastly, hc1 facilitated sourcing for hard-to-find lab products and mitigated supply chain disruptions. hc1’s subject matter experts and national leverage enabled a process for Memorial to accelerate desired cost savings results.
