The Next Evolution
The forward-thinking of UCHealth’s inventory managers has helped prevent stockouts
While it is invisible to a patient’s eye, ensuring clinicians’ access to needed products is a critical aspect of care. Predicting what storm, manufacturing shortage or trade policy could interrupt the supply chain is a difficult task — as is crafting resiliency plans to tackle these challenges.
That’s why Medline has worked closely with UCHealth when it comes to proactive backorder reporting (PBO). The methodology enables customers to identify, review and act on potential supply chain disruptions. Since inception, this process has been continually refined, thanks in part to feedback from Melissa Rivera, an inventory manager for UCHealth in Colorado. It’s an example of the close partnership Medline and UCHealth have formed with the shared goal of helping patients.
“In terms of patient care, it doesn’t just come down to having a really cool platform,” says Rivera. “It comes down to usability. How does it get products to the clinicians so they are able to provide care? That’s a huge impact on our community that goes beyond our patients in the beds.”
Real-time visibility with Mpower™ Foundations to prevent backorders
Rivera and her colleague, Charlene Berg, another UCHealth inventory manager, are now refining the next evolution of data reporting: Mpower™ Foundations, an interactive tool that allows inventory managers to have real-time data visibility and communicate quickly with Medline. The portal not only integrates PBO reporting, but it also allows an inventory manager to integrate their substitute item management.
“Previously, we would have an indication that an item would be going on backorder at the branch,” says Rivera. “Now, with the work that we’ve done, all of our substitute items are listed under that primary item. So if we can’t get our main widget, we’ve added in three different sub items stacked out.”
The two sides of the coin operate in tandem: The inventory managers are proactively notified of a potential backorder, and the substitution list mitigates the risk. That work requires a larger team who operates under what Rivera calls the “supply chain umbrella” at UCHealth. The value-analysis team, a cohort of nurses who work under supply chain, informs the list.
“They provide us with a really robust list of approved crosses on many of our items,” said Rivera. “That is our one source of truth, if you will, and from there we’ve built it out in a lot of different ways.”
Since UCHealth inventory managers are working with a large number of different facilities, they need to have a sense of what’s required not just for the system, but at each specific location. UCHealth is the largest health system in Colorado, with 14 hospitals and over 200 clinics. Rivera says they can use Mpower™ Foundations to quickly understand product status at various branches and tie in PBO usage data to get a holistic view.
“Three years ago we were pulling five or six Excel files and emailing them back and forth multiple times,” said Rivera. “Now we can pull up one online report, maybe ask one or two questions, and we can move forward.”
Having that visibility means a greater chance of dodging backorders and getting necessary products in clinicians’ hands.
“At the end of the day, we’re here for patient care and patient safety,” says Rivera. “So anything that we can do to quickly and safely provide the supplies needed to our clinical teams is going to improve our patient care.”
Key to success: AutoSub
Theresa Dixon, Medline field sales support manager, says that what has distinguished UCHealth’s use of Mpower™ Foundations is the inventory managers’ active use of Medline’s automatic substitution tool. AutoSub allows customers to identify substitutions for any of their primary products, so if one goes on backorder, an available item from the list can immediately tag in.
“The UCHealth team has a very in-depth auto substitution list,” says Dixon. “While some customers may only put one or two items on a list, they go about nine deep on some items.”
Medline data shows that customers who use the AutoSub solution have seen a 3-point improvement in unadjusted fill rates. The sheer size of UCHealth’s system means they order roughly 190,000 product lines a month. At UCHealth alone, AutoSub has automatically filled more than 9,000 order lines year-to-date, preventing more than 1,200 lines per month from being backordered. This has ensured timely delivery of clinically approved substitute products, quietly maintaining service continuity for over 230 critical SKUs that would have otherwise caused disruption in patient care.
AutoSub is Medline’s proprietary technology solution. Medline works with a health system’s IT team to make sure both sides’ ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems are communicating with one another by standardizing EDI (electronic data interchange) transactions, allowing for the automatic substitution of approved items. By proactively filling gaps in supply, AutoSub helps ensure uninterrupted patient care, even when primary products are unavailable.
“I work with them in the Mpower™ Foundations tool, and we’ll run all of our severe- or high-risk items, and I’ll recommend an AutoSub if they don’t already have it,” says Stephanie Selby, Medline’s prime vendor analyst who works with UCHealth. “I can also check the health of auto substitutions companywide and see what other customers are using. Then, they can take it to their value-analysis team to make sure it’s a good fit for clinicians.”
Berg noted that having AutoSub saves time that would have been spent searching for a substitution. AutoSub helps clinicians, as well. “Everybody knows from the little card that comes with it that this item is subbing for that item, and needs to go into this bin,” says Berg. “So, it takes a lot of time off of the end user.”
Communication, not just data helps prevent backorders
While the real-time visibility of data in Mpower™ Foundations allows Medline and UCHealth to make quick decisions together, that’s only the beginning of the communication the platform allows. The portal also tracks task management, where Selby can highlight what items don’t have a substitute, or any other flags for Berg, who can then take them to UCHealth internally.
“If an item isn’t on AutoSub yet, they send it out with options,” says Berg. “And that allows me to see where it’s used, in what facilities, and then I can share that information with the team, so I’m not making a decision for a facility that I’m not over.”
The combination of tech, talent and tenacity has ensured quality patient care without second guessing the availability of medical supplies.
“The work we do ensures that when the clinician reaches into the bin, they have the product they need, and they give the patient and their family the best experience,” says Rivera. “Having that trust in the healthcare you’re receiving is so important.”
