The Cost, Quality, and Outcomes (CQO) Movement within healthcare is the recognition that cost, while important, is only one of many components that need to be considered by supply chain professionals. Quality of patient care, patient experience, and financial and reimbursement outcomes are also vital components that support value-for-service models.
In August of 2016, the Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM) of the American Hospital Association convened a diverse group of healthcare leaders from across the nation at its 3rd annual CQO Summit to discuss the supply chain's most important challenges and opportunities. The CQO Summit presentations and roundtable and panel discussions were recapped in the white paper, which is available on the AHRMM website. The following is a brief summary of the white paper.
The Delivery and Integration of Care: Imperatives and Realities
Harry Reynolds, director of health industry transformation at IBM Global Healthcare and Life Science Industry, was the Summit's keynote speaker. Reynolds shared his unique perspectives and insights from more than 45 years of experience in healthcare, concentrating on areas of healthcare policy, strategy and operations, and how data analytics and supply chain can play an increasingly important role in this new and rapidly changing environment.
Roundtable Discussions and Breakout Reports
Attendees participated in roundtable discussions of topics from the keynote presentation. Common themes emerged across the discussion topics and included:
- Data transparency and reliability are imperatives to healthcare success.
- The measurement and the ability to benchmark progress, which is also dependent on data.
- Supply chain's unique position and the opportunity it presents; a core role for supply chain is that of conduit or liaison across the continuum of care.
- As the delivery system extends its reach to post-acute care and population health, supply chain needs to participate and understand how external resources and capabilities can be leveraged to advantage system integration.
- To succeed in the role as liaison across the continuum requires inclusiveness and skilled communications. Supply chain must able to engage and align stakeholders across all points of care.
- Quality must be established as a core mission that drives clinical, operational, and financial outcomes.
Supply Chain's Role in an Alternative Payment Model World: A Facilitated Panel Discussion
A supply chain's role in an alternative payment model environment was discussed by Mary Beth Briscoe, M.B.A., CPA, chief financial officer at University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital, Joseph Bosco, M.D., vice-chairman of clinical affairs, director of the Center of Quality and Patient Safety at NYU Langone Medical Center and Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at New York University School of Medicine, and Laura Kowalczyk, J.D., M.B.A., associate vice president, supply chain services, UF Shands Hospital. Karen Conway, CMRP, executive director, industry relations at GHX, and AHRMM board chair-elect, moderated the discussion.
Conway asked panelists to share one thing they would like supply chain to do to facilitate success in the face of new payment models. Dr. Bosco suggested that defining a process for identifying the cost-effectiveness and value of the items used, the protocols followed, the potential discharge scenarios, etc., would contribute to ensuring success.
Observing that supply chain can impact spending and outcomes, Briscoe focused on organizations' Medicare file on spending per beneficiary (MSPB). She advised supply chain professionals to partner with Quality Departments to locate and utilize the MSPB information to identify care and cost trends. By analyzing the MSPB data, supply chain can provide physicians with the clinical value information Dr. Bosco was requesting, including clinical pathways, readmission rates, and more.
Kowalczyk recommended that supply chain also identify and understand local community agencies and services available to patients, and partner with them to meet the patients' needs outside of the acute-care setting as we move more into addressing the continuum of care.
Closing Remarks
The Summit concluded with the observation that supply chain must focus on commitment to higher quality care, increasing patient satisfaction, and improving efficiency.
Supply chain must establish itself as an integral partner in the care continuum in order to elevate the profession. The supply chain professionals must be seen as contributors who bring data, resources, and relationships to the table, who maximize their knowledge of CQO, and who exercise their leadership potential as they contribute to the transformation of healthcare.
