As we approach the two-year anniversary of the start of the pandemic, the mental and physical impact on healthcare workers continues to have consequences that will play out for years to come. Already this year we’ve seen an organized nationwide protest from nurses who say that working conditions have deteriorated as new waves of Covid-19 patients push hospitals to their limits.

The healthcare workforce is clearly taking a direct hit. According to an October 2021 survey by Morning Consult, “18% of health care workers have quit their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic, while another 12% have been laid off.” Moreover, nearly one-third of those workers who’ve kept their jobs say they’ve contemplated a career change.

Following nearly two years of disruption from a global pandemic, natural disasters, and even an unprecedented shipping canal blockage, trends that emerged out of necessity are now more likely the expected way of doing business.

In this post, Denise Odenkirk, Vice President of Supplier Sales for GHX lends her perspective on the driving forces behind the trends and the value to the industry.

*Republished in part with permission from BONEZONE, www.BONEZONEpub.com.

Removing inaccuracies and inefficiencies from data can help healthcare proactively address inevitable disruptions, pivot faster and build stronger supplier relationships. The result is a more resilient supply chain that helps to drive better patient outcomes and cost savings. But with constant changes and multiple data sources, keeping item data clean is arduous.

Fortunately, supply chain teams can now turn to new capabilities in their cloud ERPs to synchronize data cleansing, correct errors, and fill gaps. This includes all item data (e.g., item masters, P.O. history and contract data) that multiple teams depend on.

During a recent webinar, GHX’s Pete Nelson and Keith Lohkamp, Senior Director, Healthcare Industry Strategy at Workday, discussed how and why automation has evolved to accelerate the transformation to cloud-based, digital supply chain management. They were joined by Prisma Health Director of Supply Chain Information Systems Leslie Thomas, who described the bold steps that her organization took to integrate a cloud-based data management solution and service that keeps their supply chain data current and synchronized.

Just as Sherlock Holmes relied on physical evidence to solve mysteries, modern-day supply chain leaders must use clinical evidence in the value analysis process to help make cost-effective, patient-focused product decisions.  

As hospital leaders seek to reduce clinical spend while improving clinical outcomes and financial resiliency during the protracted COVID-19 pandemic, reliable evidence has never been more important. Supply chain professionals are feeling pressure to more rapidly gather and interpret clinical data and insights for frontline care teams – often without formal training in interpreting scientific literature.

The critical PPE shortages that overwhelmed so many hospitals in the early days of the COVID pandemic raised broader issues about supply chain resiliency. Health systems continue to deal with the impacts of shortages and cost overruns and the need to balance a return to “business as normal” with the recognition that COVID-19 rewrote the rules for what “normal” even means.

Now, as health systems look to recoup lost revenue through elective surgeries, a new variation of the resiliency question is being asked: How can the industry better manage the supply chain to both improve patient care and control costs? Healthcare leaders addressed this question from multiple angles during a recent GHX webinar

We are in a new era of healthcare compliance. The landscape has changed. As health systems emerge from the worst days of the pandemic, it's imperative that providers reengage their staff to continue the ongoing process of compliance.

The relaxed HIPAA restrictions and compliance regulation waivers that were designed to help hospitals provide care without the red tape are unlikely to last forever. Regulations may become even more stringent as a result of the pandemic, which will increase the need for compliance and safety just as 9/11 did for travel and airport security.