Effective supply chain management is no longer a back-office function—it’s a strategic imperative that directly impacts patient care, clinician satisfaction and financial outcomes. This shift in approach requires a shift in your team, too. These two specialized roles are revolutionizing health care supply chains: surgical navigators and clinical resource program managers (CRPMs).
Surgical Navigators: Optimizing Your OR Supply Chain
Operating rooms represent both significant revenue opportunity and potential waste for health systems. Without dedicated supply chain expertise, hospitals often task nursing or ancillary staff with inventory management, forcing them to split time between competing priorities. This approach leads to inefficiencies, frustration, paid overtime and ultimately compromised care.
What does a surgical navigator do?
A dedicated surgical navigator transforms OR inventory management by:
- Reducing waste through precision inventory control: Navigators work with OR leadership to ensure surgeons use approved products and maintain updated preference cards. Quarterly audits identify opened but unused items, allowing for continuous optimization.
- Providing real-time inventory visibility: Proactive management prevents supply shortages, tracks expiration dates and enables quick inventory adjustments. For multi-facility systems, our reallocation app facilitates product transfers between locations to minimize waste.
- Anticipating future supply needs: Our surgeon and interventionalist onboarding program introduces new providers to supply chain protocols, aligns them with contracted suppliers and coordinates across departments to accommodate specialized needs.
- Enhancing patient outcomes: By ensuring the right supplies are available at the right time, surgical navigators directly contribute to improved care quality while reducing costly waste.
The results speak for themselves: greater surgeon satisfaction, improved OR start times, fewer expired products, more reliable preference cards, optimized custom packs and expert handling of product disruptions.
>> Read more: Meet Surgical Navigator Janine
Clinical Resource Program Managers: Bridging Clinical and Supply Chain Expertise
Clinical transformation requires more than just good strategy—it demands effective implementation. This is where clinical resource program managers (CRPMs) prove invaluable.
CRPMs are certified clinicians with extensive clinical experience who bridge the gap between value analysis decisions and successful implementation. While many organizations rely on educators or department managers to implement supply chain changes, these staff often lack specialized training and face competing priorities, resulting in slow or failed initiatives.
What does a clinical resource program manager do?
Our CRPMs deliver measurable improvements by:
- Ensuring seamless product conversions: By engaging clinicians and executives from project inception, CRPMs develop comprehensive implementation plans that address inventory management and secure physician alignment before conversion begins.
- Quickly identifying and resolving product concerns: With direct involvement in daily operations, CRPMs monitor patient outcomes, address user dissatisfaction and recognize when conversion fatigue impacts adoption.
- Enhancing contract compliance through effective communication: CRPMs translate complex purchasing and utilization data into accessible information that engages physicians and clinical leadership.
- Driving clinical transformation: Through standardization, waste reduction and process improvement, CRPMs integrate supply chain excellence with clinical best practices.
A strong CRPM will drive product standardization, waste reduction, risk mitigation, process improvement, quality assurance and seamless clinical integration.
>> Read more: Meet CRPMs Angela and Mike
Partner with Advantus for Supply Chain Excellence
Advantus Health Partners offers two flexible engagement models to help you implement these critical roles:
- Program Development: We’ll help you establish and train your own in-house team using our proven education plan, enabling your organization to build internal expertise in just a few months.
- Staffed Solution: Let our experienced professionals manage these functions for you, providing immediate expertise without the recruitment and training investment.
Whichever path you choose, Advantus delivers the specialized knowledge and support your organization needs to transform your health care supply chain from a cost center to a strategic asset that enhances patient care, improves clinician satisfaction and strengthens your bottom line.
Contact Advantus Health Partners today to learn how our Surgical Navigation and Clinical Resource Program Management solutions can elevate your health care supply chain.
