learning center and mobile health center. The organization aims to improve the quality of life for the diverse communities served by providing culturally appropriate,
accessible, and affordable quality care. La Clinica’s outreach programs provide a safety net for the most remote and vulnerable community members.
Growth and Diversification Led to Infrastructure Improvements
La Clinica was originally founded to serve the needs of the migrant and seasonal worker community in Jackson County, Oregon. In response to the increasing need for affordable primary and preventive healthcare, the organization has continued to expand to serve the entire
community, with approximately 86,000 residents in the target population.
“As a Federally Qualified Health Center, we’re regularly audited by the Health Resources and Services
Administration,” said Jonathan Lewis, Purchasing Coordinator, La Clinica. “Before we implemented Envi, it
was difficult to track the inventory within our organization. We could report on what we’d purchased, but it was challenging to report on what remained in inventory and what had been consumed.”
“As we continue to grow and diversify – we’re now covering more types of primary, preventive and urgent
care, and expanding focus to overall family medicine – we’re delivering care across a broader spectrum of care settings, health issues and patient groups.”
Before selecting and implementing Envi, the organization had no purchasing software and no way to track inventory that was distributed throughout care locations. “That was really the biggest driver for Envi,” said Lewis. “We needed to be able to see inventory in each location and wanted to increase visibility to information like product expiration dates and lot numbers.”
Lewis led the charge to look at potential systems that would address the inventory and purchasing needs of La Clinica, selecting Envi to effectively and affordably meet their needs.
30 Envi-based Locations Increased Visibility
With Envi now implemented, Lewis is able to support about 30 different locations all using the Envi platform to track purchasing. Since implementation, Lewis has conducted a physical inventory at all locations and added barcode labels for tracking. “We can now use Envi for usage tracking, ordering and receiving for all those locations.”
The organization has customized Envi to flexibly meet their needs. “Our larger sites can order product to be directly shipped to them,” said Lewis. “The clinical sites have larger stockrooms and/or more stock areas – we don’t have a central warehouse that’s big enough to accommodate supplies for all of our locations. With Envi, we can order and ship directly to the location that needs supplies.”
While some sites now use scanners to automate usage tracking, some of the school-based health centers
enter data manually, mostly because of lower product consumption.
Creating a Custom Envi Environment
Each of the larger clinical sites have a “point person” who is in charge of ordering, receiving and uploading
usage. “I function as the administrator and help train new employees on Envi as they come on board,” said Lewis. “At school-based health centers, ordering duties are split up between our office specialist and the MA or nurse on duty. In those locations, our office specialist places orders, but receiving and usage are usually completed by a team effort that includes the office specialist, MA and/or the nurse.”
Most sites use vendor punch-out to order from their distributor, while Lewis and team look to create a more established formulary to support purchasing. “In the future, our buyers will be able to order as needed, but from a more consolidated list.”
The most significant benefit La Clinica measures with Envi
is being able to see total inventory across the organization. “With Envi, we’ve improved ordering processes. To give an example – people often order items in larger case packs than they need or can use before they expire. With Envi, we can see who has a surplus of items and can redistribute them in the organization, reducing spend and over-ordering. We’re beginning to implement new order approval processes, so we can build even more efficiency and better manage units of measure. We’re working to reduce over-ordering and can save on extraneous shipping and delivery costs.”
Once the final location is live on Envi, Lewis and team are planning to implement 3-way price matching, streamlining back-end AP processes and ensuring invoices paid are for complete and accurate POs.
Envi Best Practice Highlights
- Improving visibility to inventory throughout the
diverse organization - Helping reduce ordering, improving overall order
management by focusing on unit of measure - Improving managment of expiration dates and lot
numbers
Recommedations
For organizations looking to improve their purchasing and inventory management, Lewis recommends looking at the organization as a whole, and understanding details like how many locations are needed, how many staff members will be using the system, and who can help champion use. “If you have multiple sites, you’ll need champions you can depend on. From an administrative view, create a process to determine how you’ll track usage and order management. You’ll want oversight that helps you verify everyone is tracking usage, ordering and receiving supplies correctly.”
