Tracking the Future of Post-Acute Care

The landscape of long-term care is changing rapidly.

In many of these organizations across the country, the daily work of managing supplies can still look remarkably manual. Nurses have to track items used by patients. Central supply reconciles product usage in spreadsheets. Reorder decisions are made without visibility to real-time data. And the scramble to keep inventory levels stable and documentation up to date can pull staff away from what matters most: patient care.

Medline is aiming to change that with TrackPoint™, an online platform built to modernize how long-term care and in-patient hospice providers manage their Medline inventory, track patient-level product usage, and capture services delivered across their facilities.

“We know that our customers, especially on the non-acute side, often don’t have access to inventory management solutions and charge-capturing systems purpose-built for them,” said Dave Kordik, vice president of customer technology solutions at Medline. “Everything is very manual. We saw an opportunity to provide a more streamlined, modernized application for them.”

A perfect storm of pressures

The timing of TrackPoint’s launch is no coincidence. Providers are navigating a convergence of challenges that make operational efficiency not just desirable but essential. Operating costs continue to climb, and a strained labor force means fewer staff members are shouldering more responsibility.

“You look anywhere across healthcare, they’re experiencing a lot of change, and expenses are going up,” Kordik said. “The labor force has been pretty strained as well. You’ve got to do more work with fewer people, with a higher scrutiny on trying to get things right, because everything is about managing expenses and maximizing revenue the best you can.”

Against that backdrop, the manual processes many facilities still rely on can create unnecessary risk. Errors in inventory counts can lead to rush orders or stockouts. Inaccurate charge capturing can mean lost revenue.

TrackPoint is designed to address these pain points in a single solution.

From facility-level to patient-level visibility

TrackPoint’s modern interface makes it easy to use from the beginning, while also including the tools users need, like tracking product usage for the supplies customers purchase from Medline down to the individual patient.

TrackPoint helps facilities manage large volumes of supplies by providing visibility into inventory across locations, simplifying replenishment, enabling bulk item management, and streamlining ordering directly through Medline’s supply network.

For facilities with private-pay residents, accurate documentation of product usage is directly tied to revenue. For those operating under a per-patient-per-day supply model, understanding exactly how much product is being consumed is critical to protecting margins. And for clinical leadership, patient-level data offers a window into care quality itself.

“They can see what products and how much product they’re using on a patient,” Kordik said. “It helps them monitor the care of the patient, because now they can go back to see what products were actually used. Is someone overutilizing product or underutilizing product or not using the right product?”

That same data flows back into smarter inventory decisions. When a facility can see exactly what’s being dispensed, it becomes far easier to set accurate reorder levels and PAR levels, all of which can lead to reducing waste, preventing shortages, and aligning supply spend with patient needs.

Services, not just supplies

One of TrackPoint’s more distinctive features is its ability to track services provided at a facility, not just physical products. Facilities often offer services like wheelchair rentals, beauty salon treatments, and bathing assistance, all of which need to be documented and, in many cases, billed. The feature was born directly from customer feedback, and allows facilities to create custom services, set pricing, assign them to individual patients, and generate reports, all within the same solution they use for their Medline supply management.

“Many providers still rely on manual processes for inventory management and charge capture. TrackPoint helps by automating certain workflows so they can save time, reduce administrative burden, and focus more on patient care.”

—Dave Kordik, Medline vice president of customer technology solutions

Built in-house, shaped by customers

TrackPoint was developed internally at Medline with direct input from customers throughout the design process. That approach has given the solution a distinct advantage: agility. Because Medline owns the technology, the team can respond to customer needs and roll out enhancements faster than would be possible with a third-party solution.

“TrackPoint was built side by side with customers, and we will continue to enhance it over time,” says Justin Samaniego, Medline’s director of digital product management. “Our goal is to keep adding features that streamline purchasing, capture utilization, and improve operational efficiency.”

TrackPoint integrates with PointClickCare®, one of the most widely used electronic medical record systems in long-term care, allowing patient information and usage data to flow seamlessly between systems. It is also built into Medline.com, meaning customers with an existing login can be up and running quickly, with no separate software installation required.

That integration speaks to what Kordik sees as TrackPoint’s real differentiator: it isn’t a technology solution in isolation.

“It’s not just a tech solution, it’s that it directly ties into the value that Medline can bring from being a manufacturer and distributor,” he said. “It’s a comprehensive package that we can bring to the table, where we can help solve problems along the entire supply chain.”

A low-lift launch

Implementation has been designed to be as frictionless as possible. After an initial demo and signed agreement, Medline’s team partners with customers to collect the data needed for upload, walk through configuration options, set up user access, and provide hands-on training.

Once data is loaded, facilities can begin scanning barcodes and tracking their Medline supply inventory almost immediately.

For long-term care and in-patient hospice providers still navigating their supply chains manually or looking for a new solution, TrackPoint offers a clear path forward, one that is modern, purpose-built, and backed by a partner that understands the unique pressures of post-acute care.