Tackling the Complex and Nuanced Ostomy Market

Ostomy. It’s a complex and nuanced healthcare market, where 90% of a patient’s care takes place in the post-acute setting. These patients have had colostomy, ileostomy or urostomy surgery, and there is no one-size fits all when it comes to products for them. Throughout their care journey, patients face the challenge of selecting and getting just the right product for their specific need. 

“Wherever surgery takes place is where the decisions begin about what products to use and for how long,” says Jacob Bychowski, Medline Program Manager for Home Health and Hospice. “Yet there are so many different types of ostomy products and so many different types of patients, it’s nearly impossible for care teams to plan for their transition to the post-acute setting.”

A white paper published by the Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society (WOCN), helps spell this out, explaining why patients must go through such a lengthy process of trial and error to find a pouching system that meets their unique clinical needs. Key factors coming into play, the white paper notes, include:

• Ostomy supplies are not a one-size-fits-all.
• Because of individual requirements posed by body contours, skin type, type of waste, the level at which the intestine extends through the ostomy site, as well as environmental concerns, products are not easily interchangeable.
• The stoma size and shape may change over time and as health conditions arise, necessitating updates to the patient’s product needs.
• Each patient must have access to compatible products to avoid medical consequences.¹

The Long Tail of Ostomy

In the ostomy category, approximately 80% of the volume comes from 20% or so of the SKUs. These are products such as pouches, skin barriers and adhesives used by both hospitals and post-acute care facilities with little worry that they may be unavailable or on backorder. The remaining 20% of volume, however, is “long tail,” meaning it’s made up of low quantity, not readily available, yet nonetheless clinically sensitive items that require a unique supply chain strategy.

“These products can cause risk and a lot of heartache for patients and caregivers if they’re not readily available,” Bychowski says. “It matters that we’re able to say that we can get these products to them quickly without them having to pay exorbitant freight costs.”

In fact, according to research published in the Journal of Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nursing, ostomy complications were the reason for readmission in 62.4% of patients. Slightly more than 1 in 5 patients (20.7%) had a subsequent ED visit within 120 days—39.7% of which involved ostomy complication.²

A Total Solution through Strategic Partnering

Through a new strategic partnership with Coloplast, a global company that develops, manufactures and markets medical devices and services for ostomy, continence, skin and wound care, Medline is finding new ways to address the market’s supply chain complexities and help lower this risk.

A key feature of the strategic partnership is a Low and Slow Ostomy Program that’s designed to address the unique needs of ostomy patients without spreading inventory too thin or taking too long to get supplies where they need to be.

In most scenarios, Medline asks customers for a three-month usage list and does not stock more inventory than they can commit to. Because of ostomy’s long tail, however, customers aren’t able to say with certainty what a patient will need in six months. “They could have a formulary that allows for them to have the basics, but there’s always going to be one or two things outside of that that they didn’t expect,” says Kira Holguin, Medline Senior Vendor Relations Manager of Distributed Products.

Under the program, any Coloplast item purchased by a customer is automatically preloaded into Medline’s ERP (enterprise resource planning) system. When a customer orders something, the system will first search the customer’s primary branch or warehouse, and if the system can’t find it there, it will be routed to one of Medline’s four low-and-slow ostomy hubs located throughout the country. “It’s a learning system, so if there’s something we don’t have, the system will start assuming these into the logic moving forward,” Holguin explains. “This way, we get better and better.”

Since starting the program last June, Medline has seen an average of 3,700 lines per month come through—items that would have otherwise experienced some sort of delay. “We knew this was a pain point, but I don’t think we knew how much of one it was,” says Rob Kemp, Key Account Manager for Coloplast, who says he was shocked to see the number of new lines coming in each month. “It’s a big impact when it comes to onesie-twosie orders that home health needs.”

Interest in ostomy from a distribution standpoint is intense, Holguin says, which is why Medline wanted to be sure it made the right decision in choosing a strategic partner.

Standing out among the criteria Medline uses in selecting strategic marketing partners was Coloplast’s leadership in innovation, with the SenSura® Mio portfolio, which utilizes BodyFit Technology (a highly stretchable, elastic adhesive) so that people with an ostomy can twist, bend and stretch comfortably. The  portfolio also includes the SenSura® Mio Convex Flip, which is the only barrier designed to fit outward curves of the body with less creasing and folding.

“Ostomy is a very individualized, intimate selection, and patients should be able to get the products they want and not be forced to select from the 20 things that are available,” Holguin adds. “This partnership enables us to provide a more holistic and total solution for them.”