Corewell Health Achieves a Single Source of Truth
What does it take to achieve periop data continuity?
The organization
Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Corewell Health, with 21 hospitals and more than 5,000 beds
The challenge
Consolidating 3 perioperative supply EMR systems and aligning with their ERP system
The outcome
Went live with integrated system in July 2024: 1 source of truth
When Michigan health systems Spectrum Health and Beaumont Health merged in 2022 to become Corewell Health, Corewell supply chain leaders knew they would need to merge three different perioperative supply systems. Then they realized that the items in one of the systems didn’t reflect what was on the shelves.
The data in their electronic medical record (EMR) system was not clean and did not synchronize with their enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Supply chain managers had no visibility of the supplies being used. They would need supply chain data analytics to address all the issues.
Here’s how Corewell Health supply chain leaders and Medline partnered to achieve data integrity and a single source of truth.
CHALLENGE
1 EMR system with data gaps was preventing consolidation of 3 EMR systems
“The biggest challenge was that the East Division had been maintaining items directly inside of our EMR system,” says Patrick Droste, Corewell technology manager. “It was not done by the supply chain team or any kind of centralized master data maintenance team. It was done by whoever thought they needed an item at a given moment.”
This practice led to items that were:
- Duplicates
- Incomplete
- Inaccurate
- Outdated
“There were records inside of our EMR system that contained an item number and a description—and that was it. No supplier, no manufacturer,” says Droste. “We knew we needed help. We were at a point where we had gotten everything we could out of our EMR system and had matched it to existing items in our ERP system. But we had all these other items on the list because they were actively being used and were on preference cards. We knew we needed to physically go onsite and find out what was really on the shelves.”
Danish Abbasi, Corewell director of technology and analytics, explains why they chose Medline to partner with them on the project.
“We were having a conversation with Zakiah Morgan, Medline’s IDN director, about some of our challenges, and she shared Medline’s areas of expertise. We could have sent anybody into the operating room areas to look at the items. But we wanted someone with a clinical background and knowledge. Medline is great with both. We needed them to review all the items being utilized, capture that information, analyze the data and get us a clean data set.”
The main goal: Have complete visibility of what supplies were being used.
ACTION
Medline creates a 7-step supply chain data analytics roadmap to success
Step 1: Scan all supplies on the shelves and specialty carts
“Our team went onsite in January 2024 for two weeks and scanned supplies at eight hospitals by bin, location and facility,” says Tracy Smith, Medline perioperative supply chain optimization market director. “We wanted to understand what they had on the shelf and to identify the gaps they had in their EMR item master and ERP item master.”
The team scanned more than 41,700 items and found about 16,000 unique SKUs.
“The most important thing is always patient first. Making sure we have price transparency and the right item, information and supplier being used.”
Danish Abbasi
Director of Technology and Analytics, Corewell Health
Step 2: Complete the crossmatch to confirm shelf items
Medline used scanning technology to crossmatch what was on the shelf and identify the global trade identification number (GTIN) and unique device identification (UDI) number.
“We used the GTIN as a reference point for the ERP system,” says Smith. “And we used that GTIN UDI number to determine what supplies matched so we could identify any gaps.”
Step 3: Provide the ERP system action file to the Corewell team
“We provided the Corewell team with the information we had crossmatched during our onsite time,” says Smith. “And we included an action file that outlined what they needed to do next.”
Abbasi had analysts get to work to make sure Medline had complete numbers.
“They made sure all items were scanned and all the information was there with the right reference number and item number,” says Abbasi. “We needed to understand percentage wise how many items existed in the item master that were on the shelves, and how many non-catalog purchases there were.”
Steps 4 and 5: Keep crossmatching to reduce missing/incorrect items
In step 4, Medline crossmatched the EMR item master with the UDI/GTIN database.
“At this point, we had determined that 12,000 unique items were connected within the Corewell system, so no action was needed on those,” says Smith. “We also identified what they had on the shelf as consignment. And there were some items, such as bandages and dressings, that were class one commodities.”
She adds, “However, there were 3,800 lines we scanned on the shelf that were not referenced anywhere in the ERP system. They did not have an ERP item number and did not show up in the system. Those 3,800 SKUs were unique SKUs, so they were missing. They had a huge gap in their system of supplies. Nearly 10% of the scanned items were not captured in their item file.”
The team also found labeling errors. Corewell has a periodic automatic replenishment (PAR) level system, but there were instances where the QR code and the items wouldn’t match. Or the item was in the wrong bin.
Step 5 involved crossmatching the ERP system action file to the EMR item master file to ensure the two files linked. At this point, the Corewell team had started adding the missing SKUs into their database.
Step 6: Clinically analyze the EMR system file to identify gaps
Here’s where preference cards came into the mix. Smith was able to use Medline’s PrefConnect™, a preference card management software, which increases preference card accuracy and efficiency.
“We crossmatched the EMR item master list against the preference cards and where the items were used,” says Smith. “We could then identify the hospital where clinicians needed to review the list.”
Corewell clinicians needed to review 270 records, and 247 records had to be added to the ERP system: down from the initial 3,800 that didn’t match.
During that time, Andreea Hategan, Corewell senior analyst, did the preference card supply mapping using supply chain data analytics.
“The Medline team had a subset of those items in my preferred list within our EMR system, so it was a back and forth between Medline and my team in identifying the items,” says Hategan. “They also provided updated pricing for Medline supplies to put in our system as we created the items. We had efficient communication and fast response, especially once we had the EMR crossmatch and started working on that. That’s when the real-time messages went back and forth.”
“The actual outcome we got from Medline was exactly what we asked for and exactly what we needed.”
Patrick Droste
Technology Manager, Corewell Health
Step 7: Facilitate virtual meetings with clinical service leads on remaining unmatched items
Hategan helped facilitate the meetings.
“Some of the unmatched items weren’t physically at the sites, but they looked like they were being used on preference cards,” says Hategan. “We told the clinical service leads that those items would have to become obsolete.”
Droste adds, “The main work now has been lining up the locations and the items and making sure that when the preference cards print, they’re in the right section of the preference card and in the physical location where the clinical staff are going to go find them to pull for the case. PrefConnect is going to kick things into high gear once we’re really all on one EMR system.”
Abbasi agrees, saying, “The most important thing is always patient first. Making sure we have price transparency and the right item, information and supplier being used. This goes back to the whole master data concept of having a clean data set.”
OUTCOME
Corewell Health goes live with 1 EMR system
On July 21, Corewell launched one EMR system that serves as their single source of truth.
“We’re unified systemwide on one EMR system across the whole enterprise,” says Droste. “It’ll be a big benefit to have everybody looking at the same data. And the data is accurate.”
Other big benefits?
- Increased economies of scale: fewer SKUs reduce costs due to buying in higher quantities
- Standardization of supplies and instruments across hospitals
- Accurate preference cards by using PrefConnect preference card management software
- Fewer unused supplies and less waste due to preference card accuracy
- Reduced risk of product expiration: Medline’s pre-project analysis showed a $100,000 monthly risk per facility
- More accurate bin labels for quick gathering of supplies
- Efficient inventory management and enhanced patient care
“With this project, the Medline team was focused on the outcome, not on managing a bank of hours,” says Droste. “It was a good working relationship. The actual outcome we got from Medline was exactly what we asked for and exactly what we needed.”
Abassi adds, “We consider Medline a strategic partner. They always provide visibility, information, partnership and support. We work together as one team.”
He offers advice to other hospitals and health systems struggling with supply chain data integrity challenges.
“First, realize and acknowledge that you have an issue. Then investigate and identify what it is. Once you understand your issue, work within your team, with your stakeholders and with your strategic partners on solutions. Medline is that strategic partner for us.”
