For many hospitals and health systems, 2021 represents a year of financial recovery where every opportunity to regain some of what was lost during those frantic days of the pandemic is underway. Deep financial holes need to be filled and challenges are being posted to department leaders, especially supply chain leaders, to save money wherever possible.
Inova Health, a northern Virginia-based health system serving 2 million patients annually, is facing those 2021 challenges. Much of the challenge to improve their financial health was placed upon Patti Hoch, Inova’s recently hired Senior Director of Sourcing, Contracting and Value Analysis, who also inherited the additional challenge of having to fill several open positions in her strategic sourcing group due to staff turnover.
Despite these challenges, Hoch has continued to achieve remarkable savings for Inova due in large part to strategy of filling critical sourcing roles with experienced clinical staff and developing their contracting and negotiating skills, a strategy she outlined in detail in a recent webinar.
Hoch also leveraged an effective pairing of complimentary companies to supplement her staff and lead savings initiatives: Kermit and RDA (formerly Ron Denton & Associates).
RDA provides on-staff supply chain experts to lead your department
As Hoch filled her open strategic sourcing positions, it was clear there were still knowledge and experience gaps that needed to be addressed. Although the new strategic sourcing team had plenty of relevant clinical experience and deep-rooted professional relationships with key surgeons, what they lacked was real-world experience in running an effective RFP process.
With the highly complex spine and total joint contracts coming due and aggressive savings goals on the table, the option of learning on the job was not viable.
Hoch turned to RDA, an end-to-end healthcare supply chain management resource, to provide seasoned, expert mentorship for her freshman team. Hoch called upon RDA and their Rapid Response Teams (RRT), which is designed for quick deployment of supply chain expertise when critical, time-sensitive issues crop up. RDA placed a seasoned supply chain executive to provide mentorship to the new strategic sourcing team while assisting with the day-to-day process of running a complex bid process across a multitude of vendors.
“When we initiate our RRT process, we only assign former healthcare supply chain executives with at least 20 years’ experience because we know that in order to truly make an impact for our client, they need a resource that has ‘been there and done that’ in order to make an immediate impact,” said Angie Haggard, CEO of RDA.
What was unique at Inova for an RRT engagement was the opportunity to work with Kermit and their team of experts in PPI spend management.
Kermit provides expert PPI negotiation and a bill-only solution to ensure savings are achieved
While RDA provided the boots-on-the-ground mentorship and support for the new Inova sourcing team, Kermit provided command and control during the complex spine and total joint RFP processes. This involved laying out a detailed project plan for every aspect of the RFP process, using purpose-built technologies to analyze and benchmark vendor submissions, and mobilizing PPI experts in key spend categories to evaluate vendor submissions and arm the RDA resource with the required information to guarantee a successful outcome at the negotiation table with the manufacturers.
“Combining our PPI knowledge and purpose-built software with RDA’s seasoned supply chain resource at Inova enhanced both of our abilities tenfold,” said John Owens, Kermit Co-Founder and Director of Support Services. “It was like being a head coach with a veteran quarterback on your team: you knew when you called the play that you had someone on the field to execute it.”
In order to ensure that the negotiated savings were realized, Kermit deployed their proprietary bill-only software at Inova Health to audit every bill sheet for contract compliance and provide real-time savings tracking.
The Kermit & RDA results at Inova
The results are impressive: Inova is on path to achieve more than $6.8M in savings through the spine and total joint spend categories and a plan in place to save two to three times that amount in 14 other spend categories, like trauma, biologic, breast reconstruction, and sports medicine.
In addition, the success of the project puts Inova’s strategic sourcing department in a position for long-term, sustained success. The newly appointed strategic sourcing team at Inova gained the skills and experience required of the job through real, intensive projects, receiving mentoring every step of the way.
How can Kermit & RDA team up to help your hospital or health system?
After a successful engagement at Inova, Kermit and RDA have joined forces to help other institutions facing similar challenges as Inova. Does your hospital or health system have aggressive savings goals? Does your strategic sourcing team require additional mentorship and training to achieve those goals?
To show the power of this partnership, Kermit and RDA are offering a complimentary PO analysis and strategic sourcing analysis to show real potential savings that can be achieved through an engagement.
Complete the form below and you will be contacted within one business day to schedule your free analysis.