Leading IDNs are tightening up management of “low-preference” and “commodity” supplies within their med/surg spend, and improving value with both quality improvements and cost improvements. The first big lesson these forward-thinking leaders learned? That frontline clinicians actually have strong and principled preferences about many “commodity” items.
Many supply chain folks that we know might say this is a commodity item, but not the ones who are a daily end-user of this product feel differently. ASP Global is able to define preferences in color, length, stretch, width, texture, packaging, and material for “commodity items” like this one. Quality improvement is achieved in this category by understanding and serving clinician preferences for these items.
Breakthrough cost improvement is also achievable in these “low-preference” or “commodity” categories. Committing spend to unlock new savings is a traditional strategy for healthcare sourcing. But what’s new today is the emergence of comprehensive, programmatic management of commodity spend through GPOs and other purchasing groups.