Infographic created by GHX illustrates the inefficient state of supply chain in healthcare.
Despite the fact the healthcare industry is fueled by scientific advancement, too many hospitals find themselves stalled at a crossroads, struggling to embrace business-focused technologies and best practices that will allow them to flourish in the decades to come. This is the troubling picture painted by results of a new independent survey released today by GHX.
The GHX survey of hospital senior executives indicates that operating room (OR) supply chain deficiencies have slowed organizational decision-making, increased costs and inefficiency — and ultimately impact the delivery of patient care.
Key research findings include:
- While other industries rely on supply chain as a critical business strategy, many hospitals remain stuck in the ‘supply chain Stone-Age’.
- The lack of supply chain visibility in the OR comes at a high cost. For example, implantable devices are estimated to account for approximately $50 billion as a market segment. Lack of visibility and control over these devices costs the healthcare industry an estimated $5 billion per year from inefficient, disconnected manual processes, and lost, expired and wasted product.
- Supply chain failings trickle down to trigger procedure delays, recall challenges for hospital ORs, etc.
While the research results point out a problem, they also spotlight a tremendous opportunity for industry, which is to find a way to transform the OR supply chain into a strategic function that’s as technologically-advanced as the OR itself – with an overall goal to lower healthcare costs.
