IOS continually identifies and shares best practices from our customers to help educate the healthcare community on supply chain automation. Each quarter, we recognize an organization demonstrating exceptional best practices in supply chain.
Congratulations to the Surgery Center of Fairbanks, the winner of the IOS Q2 2019 Best Practice Award. The Surgery Center of Fairbanks has demonstrated outstanding capabilities in streamlining inventory processes to optimize and reduce cost, tackling such issues as management of physical counting, labelling and organization of storage areas, and unit of measure.
The Surgery Center of Fairbanks Story
Goals
- Overstocked inventory
- Inaccurate counts of on-hand adjustment
- Par levels in need of adjustment
- Items without locations assigned
- Inaccurate prices in our system
- Large scale inaccuracies in unit of measure
- Locations in system to identify items on the shelves
Conant continued, “I saturated myself in learning not only what the items were, but also where they were and related processes. I needed to make intelligent decisions and lead this department, in which I’d not had much experience in the past.”
Results
Implementing the Envi solution helped the team move toward more automated processes and greater accuracy. “We had great customer service from IOS,” said Conant. “Our IOS implementation manager helped ensure an accurate conversion – she was here for our first inventory in the system. We worked together to organize our inventory locations, ensuring everything was in good order and labelled.”
To ensure ongoing accuracy, Conant leads a daily 5 minute huddle with supply chain to ensure everyone works together to minimize stock on hand, while running a highly efficient center. “I take a very active role in inventory, ordering, vendor and contract management, and with our GPO account representative,” said Conant. “It’s important to always know what’s going on and identify supply-related issues proactively.”
Working in partnership with colleagues, Conant is confident the Center now has accurate locations for every item in inventory. “Now, it’s easy to find an item, count and inventory it. In fact, our team reduced on hand inventory by almost a quarter of a million dollars in the first quarter of 2019.”
The team has driven an additional $80,000 in annual savings with GPO conversion. Price lists from primary vendors are now easily be uploaded into Envi to maintain accurate pricing in the system.
“We count on the great customer support from IOS, and as we look to upgrade our Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system, we’re also looking at the Envi interface so we can exchange data across systems.
“My advice to others would be – don’t be afraid of the system,” Conant concluded. “Get in there, learn it, ask questions, participate in inventory and do it regularly to get a handle on it. Meet your vendors, get to know your GPO. These things all help the Surgery Center of Fairbanks stay streamlined, accurate and driving toward cost reductions. We’re pleased that Envi has been a very active partner in achieving our goals this year.”
Summary of Best Practices
Hand’s on management and reduction of on-hand inventory
Price comparisons and negotiations with vendors on a continual basis
Collaborative team approach to supply chain management processes
Ongoing management of updated pricing
Assignment of inventory locations for each item
Conduct quarterly inventories to ensure system is “clean” with reliable data
Maximizing use of GPO contracts for best available price
