Group purchasing organizations (GPOs) offer health systems many benefits, such as lower costs and easier procurement processes. But GPO practices may be diluting these benefits, nullifying value for both health systems and providers.
Many GPOs allow virtually any supplier to join its contracts. And while this business model may appear to expand choices for providers and health systems, it actually creates deeper problems for patient care and outcomes.
The problem with many choices: They create care variability
Medical errors have been reported as the third leading cause of death in the U.S. “One of the major contributing factors is the amount of variability we allow in health care practice,” says Jimmy Chung, MD, chief medical officer at Advantus Health Partners.
A plethora of product options produce correspondingly varied quality outcomes. Health systems can improve their patient safety by reducing the number of unnecessary variations in their supply chain.
PPI: Moving from preference to data prioritizes patient outcomes
As a practicing general surgeon for over 20 years, Dr. Chung witnessed wide product variability in physician preference items (PPI). He believes health systems should challenge this practice, which leads to medical errors and waste.
Variation can be especially costly in the operating room. Surgery errors have the highest risk of severe patient injury and death.
“We want to eliminate the word ‘preference’ from PPI,” says Dr. Chung. “Advantus has negotiated PPI contracts that provide health systems with a portfolio based not on preference but on data. We select fewer items that have been tested to offer the best care for patients — and we know physicians are aligned with us on that.”
Less is more: Putting patients first in GPO decisions
When GPOs offer a wide variety of suppliers for one product category, patient outcomes can suffer in the long run. Health systems introduce unneeded variability through choice, which limits an organization’s ability to deliver on quality assurance.
Instead, a “less is more” approach limits supplier relationships to those that improve quality and outcomes while reducing waste. Advantus selects strategic supplier partners that have proven to add clinical value, offering health systems choices from industry-leading suppliers.
Advantus has vetted the highest quality vendors for each purchasing area and selects the best. That means you’re working with the first choice in service, pricing and quality delivery. We’ve done the quality assurance work so you can trust you’re getting top-tier product selection.
Lead with supply chain clinical transformation
After replacing the false promise of product choice with value-based principles, health systems can select products that are designed to deliver the best patient care. They can engage in clinical transformation, which is an ongoing process that evaluates and improves the way patient care and supply chain practices are delivered throughout an organization.
The Advantus Clinical Transformation team, led by Dr. Chung, can help you use evidence-based patient outcomes data to:
- Reduce clinical variation
- Guide product selection
- Optimize product use
- Reduce waste
- Control expenses
Learn more about the Advantus Clinical Transformation model, value analysis, clinical resource program management and surgical navigation.
