Smarter procurement could save NHS millions each year

A campaign that could save the NHS millions through procuring medical supplies more efficiently has been launched.

Towards IHE profiles for e-supply in the healthcare domain

Procurement and supply belong to the crucial supporting processes in hospitals. By providing the right products at the right time in the right quantity in the right place, these processes are of major importance for patient safety and the success of the primary hospital process cure and care. Though of such an importance, the hospital's internal and external procurement and supply processes are still not performed seamlessly by information systems, due to a variety of electronic standards for procurement and supply. These different standards and missing guidelines for electronic procurement and supply in the healthcare domain lead to little or no interoperability between the participating procurement and supply systems. Consequences can be delayed or wrong supply, and increased costs. To overcome this deficiency this work describes the derivation of a common guideline for the implementation of electronically enabled supply processes in the healthcare domain based upon the identification of commonly used electronic standards and detailed specifications of procurement processes in hospital facilities.

From BPS guideline to BPS directive: has the hospital procurement bar moved?

There have been an increasing number of concerns regarding procurement practices in the public sector, together with intensive media scrutiny of those practices in the health sector. Yet, notwithstanding those concerns, only Ontario and British Columbia have developed a comprehensive procurement framework to address these issues. Ontario has recently replaced its relatively new procurement practices guidelines with a broader directive. The author explains the major differences between the policies and points out what may need to be changed as hospitals and providers seek to comply.

State systems Advance Planning Document (APD) process. Final rule

The Advance Planning Document (APD) process governs the procedure by which States obtain approval for Federal financial participation in the cost of acquiring automated data processing equipment and services. This final rule reduces the submission requirements for lower-risk information technology (IT) projects and procurements and increases oversight over higher-risk IT projects and procurements by making technical changes, conforming changes and substantive revisions in the documentation required to be submitted by States, counties, and territories for approval of their Information Technology plans and acquisition documents.

Healthcare reformers are focusing on value; are you?

Beginning federal fiscal year (FFY) 2013, value-based purchasing (VBP) would implement a withholding of 2 percent of Medicare reimbursement, which would then increase gradually to 5 percent in FFY16. A hospital's percentile ranking in a VBP performance measurement system would determine the amount of payment, if any, it would receive from these withheld funds. To receive incentive payments, hospitals will need to raise their performance on the measures.

[Infusion pumps and patient safety]

INTRODUCTION

Infusion pumps are important clinical tools where controlled and precise infusions are needed. However, there are a number of potential risks for patient safety in their use: There is a risk of free-flow, i.e. an uncontrolled infusion that may have fatal consequences to the patient; staff is often poorly trained to use these devices, and often the devices themselves do not offer much support in this regard.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Technical and organisational data regarding the use of infusion pumps in the hospitals of the Copenhagen Hospital Corporation (CHC) were collected and analysed. Critical incidents reported to the CHC Incident Database were analysed.

RESULTS

Forty-two different infusion pumps are in use by the five CHC hospitals. There was a total of 919 volumetric infusion pumps, 71% having set-based free-flow protection. Critical incidents were in 40% of cases caused by user-error, the most common being setting an incorrect infusion rate. Discontinuation of the infusion was reported in 27% of incident reports, the causes being disconnection or kinking of the infusion line; this resulted in two cases of awareness under anaesthesia.

CONCLUSION

Centralising the decision process for procurement and establishing a central library of standardised equipment might well reduce patient safety risks and any under-use of equipment. Usability testing prior to procurement decisions is vital; such testing should be performed by validated methods and not simply by putting the pumps to test in a clinical setting. More knowledge about user-friendly designs of medical equipment is needed.

Excellence in supply chain management--trends and strategies to enhance profitability. Panel discussion

Supply-chain management--the art of getting the most at the least cost from the products and services purchased by an organization--has transformed industries such as manufacturing and retailing, and can potentially do the same for healthcare. VHA is committed to keeping its members educated on current thinking and best practices in supply-chain management. In support of that mission, four supply chain experts gathered in Chicago recently at Modern Healthcare's offices to discuss the issues they face in their organizations and the strategies they've found most successful in addressing them.

"Beyond 'broke'": three steps to improve how your hospital buys, uses, and repairs equipment

By approaching problems in the hospital as an observational researcher, biomeds can begin to think about the problems in a different way, which may point toward opportunities to solve these problems. Of all of the people in the hospital, biomeds are in the best position to address these issues because they see how the products are used and what goes wrong. These three steps are just a starting point for moving beyond product repair and maintenance so biomeds can improve product use in their hospitals.

Benchmarking as a tool for the improvement of health services' supply departments

This paper presents a benchmarking study carried out on the supply departments of Quebec's health services. The paper begins with the definition of a methodology to collect the information needed, both environmental (to enable institutions to be sorted into homogenous groups) and performance related. The analysis of indicators and the data envelopment analysis (DEA) models allowed classification of each hospital's performance and explained the operational approaches used, either at a general level or for each subprocess of the supply chain. It was observed that important economies of scale may be achieved with better co-ordination and with the regrouping of the supplying activities, both for purchasing management and central store management. The study showed that the best performance of central store services comes with flexible administrative structures, by receiving packages as small as possible and by using employees from the lowest range of the hierarchy. Purchasing services should employ highly qualified and well-paid staff. Although such services are relatively small with respect to their purchase volume, they show a higher activity rate. As a result of the discovered performing strategies, the possible economies range from 20% to 30% of the actual supply-chain management cost.