The Journal of Healthcare Contracting

03/10/2021

Baylor Scott & White Health safely plows through costliest winter storm in Texas history
https://www.jhconline.com/baylor-scott-white-health-safely-plows-through-costliest-winter-storm-in-texas-history.html

02/10/2021

Outgoing Premier CEO Susan DeVore reflects on accomplishments, looks ahead to Premier’s future https://www.jhconline.com/outgoing-premier-ceo-susan-devore-reflects-on-accomplishments-looks-ahead-to-premiers-future.html

10/14/2020

The U.S. healthcare supply chain has undergone as tremendous amount of change within a short window of time. https://www.jhconline.com/the-process-of-change.html

The Process of Change The U.S. healthcare supply chain has undergone as tremendous amount of change within a short window of time. By Graham Garrison When trying to put 2020 into perspective, Brent Petty shared a quote that he heard through industry discussions. “We went through five years of chan...

09/02/2020

Read about leading supply chain leaders and their insights on initiatives, industry trends, and how their teams have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic
https://www.jhconline.com/august-2020.html

August 2020 Click here to read thecurrent issue online.(download pdf version) People to Watch in Healthcare Contracting Publisher’s Letter: What a year! Leadership decision-making and process improvement | A multi-faceted solution that includes an evidence-based process and a transparent method to...

03/25/2020

Do We Finally Have A Tipping Point For A Better Healthcare Supply Chain? http://www.jhconline.com/do-we-finally-have-a-tipping-point-for-a-better-healthcare-supply-chain.html

Do We Finally Have A Tipping Point For A Better Healthcare Supply Chain? By John Strong, guest writer (March 25, 2020) — This past Sunday afternoon, I was sheltering at home due to COVID-19 after walking our dogs about as far as either they or I could go and turned on the TV.  ESPN8 was replaying...

03/24/2020

Vizient advocates current supplies of chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine are prioritized http://www.jhconline.com/vizient-advocates-current-supplies-chloroquine-hydroxychloroquine-are-prioritized.html

Vizient advocates current supplies of chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine are prioritized The increased attention to chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine as potential treatments for COVID-19has created “a significant flood in demand that is impacting patients,” according to Vizient. Vizient said accor...

03/18/2020

Intalere’s Steve Kiewiet: Transparency is key http://www.jhconline.com/intaleres-steve-kiewiet-transparency-is-key.html

Intalere’s Steve Kiewiet: Transparency is key To help answer questions on how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the U.S. healthcare supply chain, The Journal of Healthcare Contracting reached out to Steve Kiewiet, Chief Commercial Officer, Intalere. He offered the following comments. JHC: What ar...

03/18/2020

AHRMM Senior Director to supply chain leaders: Review and implement CDC strategies http://www.jhconline.com/ahrmm-senior-director-to-supply-chain-leaders-review-and-implement-cdc-strategies.html

03/17/2020

Intermountain postpones certain non-elective medical procedures http://www.jhconline.com/intermountain-postpones-certain-non-elective-medical-procedures.html

Intermountain postpones certain non-elective medical procedures Beginning this week, Intermountain Healthcare and University of Utah Health announced they will start to postpone certain non-urgent elective medical procedures to prepare for an expected surge in patients needing hospitalization for CO...

03/16/2020

Leading IDNs are being judicious with supply orders “for the foreseeable future,” GPO executive says http://www.jhconline.com/leading-idns-are-being-judicious-with-supply-orders-for-the-foreseeable-future-gpo-executive-says.html

Leading IDNs are being judicious with supply orders “for the foreseeable future,” GPO executive says Editor’s note: As the coronavirus pandemic has evolved, JHC has reached out to several healthcare supply chain organizations to help assess the situation for our readers to try and make sense o...

02/03/2020

Coronavirus – FAQ & Insights
http://www.jhconline.com/coronavirus-faq-insights.html

10/25/2019

Proposed rules from HHS could change what’s accepted and what’s not in today’s expanding continuum of care http://www.jhconline.com/proposed-rules-from-hhs-could-change-whats-accepted-and-whats-not-in-todays-expanding-continuum-of-care.html

09/23/2019

Walgreens announced a partnership to pilot drone deliveries beginning in October to local customers in Christiansburg, Virginia
http://www.jhconline.com/healthcare-product-delivery-via-drones.html

Healthcare Product Delivery – Via Drones TOPICS:dronesWalgreens Walgreens announced a partnership to pilot drone deliveries beginning in October to local customers in Christiansburg, Virginia. Walgreens and Wing Aviation LLC, a drone operator certified as an air carrier by the Federal Aviation Adm...

09/20/2019

How a supply chain team is changing the flow of information and products at one of the nation’s largest healthcare systems
http://www.jhconline.com/a-makeover-at-cleveland-clinic.html

05/10/2019

Future Supply Chain Leaders of 2019
http://www.jhconline.com/future-supply-chain-leaders-of-2019.html

Future Supply Chain Leaders of 2019 Mark Thill Who are supply chain’s future leaders? Who’s going to shape the future of the healthcare supply chain? The smart, energetic and creative young people who work for you and with you. The under-40 crowd. Help the editors of the Journal of Healthcare Co...

02/14/2019

Join 7,000+ of your peers in the IDN, GPO, RPC contracting market and be in the know!

Subscribe to National Accounts Weekly at: https://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/d.jsp?llr=erddta8ab&p=oi&m=1128522681892&sit=5f4thswlb&f=0ead0b16-b5ae-4bfa-9ef8-fc984d701a70

02/14/2019

I recently came across a great list of the Top 50 IDNs by Net Patient Revenue. If you’d like a copy of the report, you can request it at http://www.jhconline.com/top50idns.html

Not surprisingly, HCA Healthcare topped the list with $35 billion in revenue from its 205 hospitals and corresponding facilities. Following that, however, there were many surprises.

Get your free Top 50 IDN report now by visiting http://www.jhconline.com/top50idns.html

09/12/2018

http://www.jhconline.com/women-leaders-in-supply-chain-3.html

Women Leaders in Supply Chain Mark Thill The Journal of Healthcare Contracting is celebrating the people in supply chain. Earlier this year, we recognized “Ten People to Watch in Healthcare Contracting.” In our October issue, we are featuring “Future Leaders in Supply Chain.” Who’s next? ....

06/11/2018

Help us identify tomorrow’s supply chain leaders http://www.jhconline.com/help-us-identify-tomorrows-supply-chain-leaders.html

Help us identify tomorrow’s supply chain leaders Mark Thill Who’s going to shape the future of the healthcare supply chain? The smart, energetic and creative young people who work for you and with you. The under-40 crowd. Help the editors of the Journal of Healthcare Contracting spotlight some o...

05/30/2018

With the GAMMEX® PI Glove-in-Glove System™, Ansell has found a way to make double-gloving efficient and cost-effective.

It’s called “Glove-in-Glove” because outer and inner gloves are pre-donned, so the surgical team can double-glove in just one don. The outer and inner gloves are aligned at the fingertips to minimize the need for adjustments upon donning. And the outer gloves come off easily; the smooth upper surface of the inner gloves makes it easy to accommodate any intraoperative changes.

Visit ansell.com/gigjhc2 or contact Customer Service at 1-855-868-5540 or [email protected] for samples and more information.

05/28/2018

Christopher O’Connor, president, Acurity and Nexera, notes that traditionally, people have come to healthcare supply chain management with expertise in another discipline, such as accounting, a clinical area, or business in general, “That will change as the number of [supply chain] degree programs grows,” says O’Connor, who has served as an adjunct professor at Cornell University, Iona College and SUNY Binghamton, where he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in healthcare and supply chain management.

05/25/2018

As a nation, we strategize, hypothesize and even fight about how we can provide affordable healthcare to all. Meanwhile, those in healthcare continue to go about their work, doing everything they can to improve patients’ health and lives. Supply chain executives are no exception.

But hard-working, well-intentioned doctors, nurses, department heads, technicians, administrators, supply chain teams, dieticians, etc., can only go so far in creating a sustainable healthcare system. Two recent articles convinced me of that.

05/23/2018

Advances in technology have led to unprecedented developments in the healthcare sphere. Medical device and service technology are improving patient care and creating efficiencies in the healthcare system. However, medical devices and services, like any computer system, are vulnerable to cybersecurity threats that could jeopardize patient health, safety and privacy.

05/21/2018

The HealthTrust University Conference (HTU) returns to Nashville, Tennessee, July 23-25, at the Ga***rd Opryland Resort & Convention Center. A record number of GPO members, clients, suppliers, physician advisors, advisory board members and staff are expected to attend the annual conference, which will feature education and information sessions, two general sessions, networking events, and a two-day best-in-class Vendor Fair.

05/18/2018

Double-gloving is a best practice, recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American College of Surgeons, the Association of PeriOperative Registered Nurses, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and other professional organizations.

However, it’s also a bit of a pain for your OR team. After all, donning two pairs of gloves can be time-consuming and awkward for the surgical team, as they must adjust the undergloves to ensure a tight fit and maximum tactility. Then there’s the excess packaging and waste associated with opening two pairs of gloves instead of one.

With the GAMMEX® PI Glove-in-Glove System™, Ansell has found a way to make double-gloving efficient and cost-effective.

Visit ansell.com/gigjhc2 or contact Customer Service at 1-855-868-5540 or [email protected] for samples and more information.

05/16/2018

Intalere says its upcoming member conference – Elevate 2018 – will be the best place to learn about solutions that deliver optimal cost, quality and clinical outcomes. The conference will be held May 20-23 at the Ga***rd Palms Resort & Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

05/14/2018

Sentara Healthcare believes patients, the clinical staff and suppliers deserve nothing less than ISO-9001 certification

"If you ask ‘Why ISO in healthcare?’ I state ‘Why not?’ As an individual, you rely and trust industries not realizing that they are ISO certified. You purchase vehicles, fly on airlines, take cruises, buy technology, use energy. The customers of all of these industries expect a certain service to have high reliability that their products and services will work as intended. From my perspective, we should expect the same thing of the products and services used in healthcare today." Sentara Healthcare

05/11/2018

“Laboratory is a key pillar to success with value-based-care programs from government and private payers alike,” says Patrick Bowman, Director, Strategic Accounts, Lab, McKesson Medical-Surgical. “A significant amount of a health system’s revenue is based upon value-based-care programs, which essentially score an organization’s ability to achieve certain benchmarks, many of which require both a higher level of patient compliance and completed laboratory results.”

Lack of control over those labs can have negative operational, financial and clinical consequences.

05/09/2018

Carolyn Blair has worked in a lab for about 40 years, first as a phlebotomist, then as a hematology supervisor in the hospital setting, and today as laboratory manager of the Diagnostic Clinic of Longview (Texas).

Charles Powell, M.D., meanwhile, has been practicing medicine for 19 years, including 16 years in the Army and Navy. Today, he is executive vice president of clinical operations for Healthcare Associates of Texas in Irving.

Despite all those combined years of experience, Blair and Powell still draw on the expertise and knowledge of their primary distributor – McKesson Medical-Surgical – to help keep their labs running efficiently.

05/07/2018

Five years after the launch of its new name and corporate structure, Premier owner and Certified Sponsor Capstone Health Alliance is running at full power and is eager to bring new services and opportunities to its members.

An offshoot of WNC Health Network (an Asheville, North Carolina-based alliance formed in 1994), Capstone officially took off in October 2013 after plans were formalized to separate the WNC Health Network’s group purchasing program from other operating divisions. Today the GPO has more than 250 hospital members in 23 states, and its purchasing volume exceeds $7 billion.

“We are proud to have more than 675 contracts in our portfolio, which are either Premier-enhanced contracts or Capstone local agreements,” says President and CEO Tim Bugg. “Our logic is that through aggregation and collaboration, there is opportunity everywhere.

05/04/2018

Making a Merger Work
Dameka Miller and Trinity Health plan the work, work the plan

Director of Supply Chain Management Dameka Miller is well-suited to help orchestrate those mergers and acquisitions from a supply chain perspective. Brought up in the Trinity Health system as an intern and purchasing agent at one of its smaller hospitals, Miller’s career has spanned supply chain, change management, consulting (for Trinity Health and Deloitte Consulting) as well as a regional director role with Premier. She assumed her current position with Trinity Health in 2015.

05/02/2018

A degree in business or healthcare administration is still a good bet for those seeking a future in healthcare supply chain management. How about a supply chain degree? 👨‍🎓

04/30/2018

HEDIS updates

Use of opioids from multiple providers.

This measure assesses the rate of health plan members 18 years and older who receive opioids from multiple prescribers and multiple pharmacies. According to NCQA, high dosage, multiple prescribers and pharmacies are all risk factors for dangerous overdose and death.

04/27/2018

HEDIS updates

Telehealth for behavioral health measures.

Telehealth is an effective, efficient way of delivering healthcare, and is becoming widely reimbursed by payers such as health plans, states and CMS, says NCQA. That’s why NCQA introduced telehealth in seven behavioral health measures for HEDIS 2018.

04/25/2018

HEDIS is a tool used by more than 90 percent of America’s health plans to measure providers’ performance on important dimensions of care and service. Because so many plans collect HEDIS data, and because the measures are so specifically defined, HEDIS makes it possible to compare the performance of health plans on an “apples-to-apples” basis.

Health plans use HEDIS results to see where they need to focus their improvement efforts. In addition, many health plans report HEDIS data to employers or use their results to make improvements in their quality of care and service. Employers, consultants, and consumers use HEDIS data, along with accreditation information, to help them select the best health plan for their needs.

04/23/2018

Ensuring a smooth continuum of care for discharged hospital patients, curbing opioid usage, and telehealth were all on the minds of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), as it issued new technical specifications for the 2018 edition of the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set, or HEDIS.

04/20/2018

In June 2016, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force updated its recommendations regarding colorectal cancer screening. Eight years earlier, the USPSTF had recommended screening with colonoscopy every 10 years, annual FIT, annual high-sensitivity FOBT, or flexible sigmoidoscopy every five years combined with high-sensitivity FOBT every three years.

Click below to read more about colorectal cancer screening updates.

04/18/2018

The USPSTF found convincing evidence that screening for colorectal cancer in adults aged 50 to 75 years reduces colorectal cancer mortality. However, about one-third of eligible adults in the United States have never been screened for colorectal cancer.

04/16/2018

Colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in the United States, according to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Colorectal cancer is most frequently diagnosed among adults aged 65 to 74 years; the median age at death from colorectal cancer is 73 years.