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With a network of hospitals across Oregon and Nevada, including facilities using different materials management systems and no common item master, Health Future, LLC lacked a means to aggregate data across the system and gain an accurate picture of its supply expenses. Without this insight, Health Future was unable to identify strategic cost savings opportunities or make informed decisions based on accurate and up-to-date supply chain information.

The lack of visibility across its supply chain also posed significant barriers to achieving Health Future’s goal of becoming a true Integrated Delivery Network (IDN) and taking advantage of the cost savings opportunities enjoyed by IDNs across member groups.

To achieve greater transparency across the network and capture cost savings system-wide, Health Future needed a way to “see” across its disparate systems to assess its supply spend and turn that data into business intelligence for driving operational improvements.

Using a combination of state-of-the-art proprietary technology and MedAssets’ subject matter experts, Health Future was able to consolidate and analyze the previously disparate materials management data from across its own network for easy comparison.

The organization was also able to compare its supply chain performance against other IDNs with similar demographics using MedAssets Strategic Information (SI) solution. This exercise allowed the system to identify gaps and put project plans in place to address them. It also increased transparency and communication among materials managers and other accountable parties across the system, allowing Health Future to move closer to its goal of capturing more savings and sharing best practices by working as a high-functioning IDN.

A key benefit for Health Future was SI’s ability to integrate with the organization’s existing systems. Rather than incurring the time and expense of replacing its six different systems, Health Future was able to integrate MedAssets’ SI with its existing systems quickly and with no capital costs. They could aggregate important supply chain data while gaining access to critical reporting tools in addition to a dashboard and report generator for maximum data transparency and forecasting.

MedAssets group purchasing association, combined with the analysis tools of SI and consulting from Aspen Healthcare Metrics, a MedAssets company, enabled Health Future to fully integrate and optimize its contracts, including local contracts, for greater savings opportunities and more efficient operations across the system.

Since the organization began working with MedAssets five years ago, Health Future has achieved $14 million in savings.

The ability to easily aggregate and access data from across the organization has also led to the identification and review of individual facility savings opportunities through audits, price standardization opportunities, contract to non-contract reports, UNSPSC code reports, improvements in corporate distribution agreements, supply cost analysis, PPI cost analysis and negotiations and the identification of opportunities around I/V solution sets and pumps.

Libby Brown and Leslie Flick, Health Future’s Regional Account Managers, provide leadership for group purchasing initiatives in Oregon and Nevada. Libby sums it up this way: “I am even more successful in securing significant savings for our hospitals. The cost savings we have realized using SI have made a positive impact on our ability to drive operational improvements and help us achieve outstanding value in supply chain management for our member hospitals. With MedAssets, we are able to create and implement innovative solutions to provide hospitals significant savings, critical in these current economic times. With MedAssets, we have a true partner helping us meet our supply chain savings goals.”