Maximizing GPO relationships
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By Judith Britton, RN, BSN, and Nancy Senne-Mikeska, RN, MSN, CNOR |
Procuring products for the OR and perioperative services suites through group purchasing organizations (GPOs) can help managers zero in on the best price for the best product. But purchasing under contracts with nationally focused GPOs can bring a lot more than the shared leverage that GPOs' volume purchasing power carries. You can get access to clinical support, cost-analysis tools and product comparisons, as well as help on problem-solving with product manufacturers.
Working independently, perioperative managers must conduct multiple lengthy meetings to evaluate similar products. They must develop and send out Requests for Proposals and continually monitor existing contract compliance. According to one study, by purchasing through a GPO, more than 40% of those staff and resource costs can be avoided.
To maximize the benefits offered under a GPO relationship, department managers should detail their support needs, not just the product requirements, to their GPO representative. Among the resources available are clinical recommendations from various national committees and councils, as well as white papers that perioperative managers can share with physicians to explain and support proposed product changes.
Of course, obtaining buy-in from surgeons is critical to standardizing purchasing and zeroing in on one or two products in a category, which is the key to reaching a GPO's maximum annual volume or dollar total tiers in order to achieve maximum savings.
After-purchase support from GPOs is just as important for the perioperative manager. GPOs offer best contracting practices and push suppliers for the best warranty and service terms. Buyers are provided state-of-the-art financial analysis tools, electronic catalogs and tools for communicating with other healthcare organizations that are members of the GPO.
GPOs also negotiate with manufacturers to ensure firm prices for the length of a purchasing contract period, or at least obtain agreements for annual caps on any product increases. Member organizations are also apprised of the continuing stream of product recalls.
Essential to maximizing these benefits is adopting a GPO-first philosophy. If you're looking to buy a particular product, first find out whether your GPO has that product on ist contract. If it's available, buying it through the GPO locks in the benefits we've been talking about.
Still, we can't stress enough that perioperative managers must do all they can to ensure their facility administrators and nonclinicians understand that any product to be purchased must meet surgeons' needs. Sharing inventory and financial data with physicians will gain their support for GPO purchases and standardizing purchases around fewer products. Creating the ability to monitor costs per procedure helps show surgeons what and how they are doing vis-à-vis their peers.
Britton is the director-data cleansing and supply chain data management services for Novation, LLC, Irving, Texas, which serves more than 2,500 members and affiliates of VHA Inc. and the University HealthSystem Consortium and more than 10,000 Provista customers. Senne-Mikeska is clinical resource coordinator responsible for the implementation of the Value Analysis Program at Edward Hospital, Naperville, Ill., a 236-bed, full-service medical center, and the first hospital serving DuPage and Will counties to be designated a Magnet hospital for nursing excellence. This column is based on a presentation Britton and Senne-Mikeska co-led during AORN's 2007 Congress.
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