Group purchasing organizations play an essential role in managing healthcare costs. As a regional manager, your focus is on enrolling new clients and ensuring contract compliance. You work hard to vet products and negotiate the best prices for members. Are your hospitals and health systems taking advantage of these opportunities to give the best care at the best price?
Chances are, you can think of several hospitals who fall short of compliance goals. Whether it’s from disjointed or offline purchasing habits or prior relationships, these facilities can cause you major stress. Not only are they holding you back from financial incentives associated with being contract compliant, but they could also be using inferior products that put patients at risk. The bottom line is, everyone wins when hospitals purchase on contract.
Healthcare labels are a great place to drive conversions and meet compliance goals. Labels are essential to healthcare — from the moment a patient enters the hospital until they are discharged. Caresfield makes it easy to convert your members, and we recently expanded our catalog to include sterile labels. Let’s look at how you can help hospitals provide outstanding care while purchasing on contract to help meet compliance goals.
Why Value Analysis Teams Purchase Off-Contract
There are two key reasons why members should use the vendors and products group purchasing organizations vet. First, it ensures your members get quality products at the best prices. In addition, it helps maximize rebates. By taking the time and worry out of comparing supplies, you empower your members to focus on delivering the best care. Why would healthcare facilities order off-contract?
There are many reasons hospitals may have low compliance rates. In the current environment of mergers and acquisitions, some purchasing teams may have deep alliances with past vendors. While changing to a new vendor may seem simple, your clients may hesitate to move away from a vendor who has always met expectations. In some cases, you may be asking to move on from decades worth of shared history.
It can be very difficult to let go of past relationships. In these cases, it may be helpful to connect with your client and the contracted vendor at a trade show. By talking one-on-one with a knowledgeable rep who has helped the purchaser’s peers in the region, you may help foster a new relationship that helps all parties. You could even coordinate dinner with your client and the vendor or grab a drink together at a social event.
Sterile Options from Caresfield
Sometimes barriers are technological. Some hospitals and health systems still use paper forms to request supplies. In these cases, group purchasing organizations are in a great position to prioritize and foster improvements. While some teams may resist a seismic shift to new technology, the reality is it makes their job easier in the long run and allows them to focus on finding the best tools for clinicians.
You could also run into situations where decision-making is split. Individual hospitals in the same health system may each order their own supplies. We’ve even seen situations where multiple hospitals in the same system order different variations of the same medication line labels. As a regional manager you can help these teams aggregate their purchasing, to ensure consistent use of the best solutions.
Whatever the hesitation, group purchasing organizations have the tools to help value analysis teams thrive. By working with exceptional vendors like Caresfield, you supply quality products that help drive positive clinical results.
Labels as a Tool for Driving Compliance
Healthcare labels help your members communicate clearly and focus on patient care. Labels can be a big win for you too. Whether in admissions, pharmacy, lab or phlebotomy stations, swapping labels is usually a low-impact change for your members, driving compliance and helping you meet internal goals. One way you can start a conversation about switching labels is with Caresfield’s newest option: sterile labels.
There are several reasons to recommend our sterile labels. Firstly, you’ve already vetted our labels, and know we offer quality products with terrific value adds. Secondly, as a small business, Caresfield’s labels can often help your clients reach diversity goals. Your members can get a quality product and show their commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Additionally, Caresfield makes it easy to convert. Your members can send in a sample of the sterile labels they currently use, have a short discussion about any changes they would like to make, and we will handle the rest. It is very easy for your clients, and an easy win for you too!
Working Together to Achieve Compliance Goals
Your members are focused on giving the best care possible. Their value analysis teams are looking for the best clinical supplies and prices. Let Caresfield help you connect all the pieces, so you can help members achieve their goals while increasing compliance.
First, find the customers who are spending the most off-contract. Reach out to your purchasing contact and try to find the root issue. Is it past relationships? Have they had quality issues? Are they aware of potential cost savings? Once you’ve found the issues, summarize the most-used off-contract items and provide them to a trusted vendor like Caresfield.
In the case of labels or specimen collection products, we’ll do the heavy lifting for you. Firstly, we’ll cross-reference the items and suggest drop-in alternatives. Often times, there is no discernable difference for your members. After that, we’ll provide free samples for clinicians to test in the field to help promote buy-in. If the clinicians have any questions or need clarification on printer settings, our phone and live chat are monitored by real people. We’ll help troubleshoot and ensure a smooth transition.
Finally, we’ll work together to find opportunities to aggregate purchasing. This ensures your customers are getting the best possible price on high-quality products. Above all, your clients will save time and money, both of which they can commit to increasing clinical outcomes. As a result, you’ll increase compliance rates, advancing your career. Imagine how many clients you can help and the praise you will receive as a trusted partner.
Start Converting Low-Compliance Members
If you’re ready to help your low-compliance members, Caresfield is here to help. Our Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships Kacie Bemmels has years of experience helping group purchasing organizations and their members maximize relationships. Schedule a meeting with Kacie to discuss your members’ needs and how Caresfield can help. You can also check out our blog post 6 Tips for a Headache-Free ID Band and Label Conversion to learn more about how we make it easy for hospitals to convert.
