Constitution Surgery Alliance

THE CONSTITUTION SURGERY ALLIANCE STORY

CSA: A Story of Well-Planned Growth

As an organization that has grown in both locations and specialties, CSA has moved to a single instance of Envi® to allow supply chain management and oversight at both a corporate level and for individual facilities. Part of the decision to migrate to Envi throughout CSA came from the ability of the solution to integrate with the clinical systems in use in different locations.

Bridging Disparate Systems

Each of the CSA centers had a stand-alone version of the early IOS materials management solution. In addition, many of the centers were using a different clinical system, making it difficult to create a cohesive strategy for order, price and item management.

By migrating to today’s Envi solution, CSA now provides corporate support and oversight of supply chain processes, with the ability of each center to act in a facility-first manner. Through Envi, each has an approved item list, allowing them to place and receive orders directly. When they find a product not on their item list, they can use punch-out capabilities to get what they need.

As new items are identified, the CSA corporate supply chain analyst Andrew Chenail assists with products and pricing, ensuring they’re appropriately vetted, sourced and priced. He leverages Envi to report at both the facility and corporate level, providing visibility to all products and purchasing throughout the system.

Creating a Unique Envi Environment

Each surgery center places orders directly with vendors through Envi using a master list of supplies, with pricing specific to their center. Then, each directly receives supplies and manages inventory onsite.

To add new products, centers call on Chenail, who ensures they are correctly identified, classified and described. “I run a series of checks weekly and monthly, to identify any items that were ‘free-formed’ or punched out, which need to be added to our formulary.” Descriptions had historically been a challenge, as centers customized based on physician preferences. Yet Chenail recognized the importance of standardized descriptions as a key to improved analytics.

“We’ve changed the process to manage descriptions, overcoming unique methods of identification to correctly identify products, eliminate duplicates, ensure best pricing, and most importantly, support accurate analytics. To keep our descriptions consistent, I’m acting as the Envi administrator to add new products. This lets me work with the centers to ensure they have what they need, while providing accuracy and consistency.”