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MEMORANDUM

Date: November 3, 2023

To: Mrs. Alice Taylor, Chief Executive Officer, Cleveland Martin Hospital

From: Djenane Spence Andre, Certified Nurse Operating Nurse

Subject: How to overcome supply challenges and drive efficiency in surgical

services?

Overcoming supply challenges and driving efficiency in surgical services is crucial for
improving patient care, reducing costs, and enhancing the overall effectiveness of
healthcare facilities. At Cleveland Martin South Hospital, negotiating better deals with
suppliers and reducing costs are not used daily. This process will be devoted to a fishbone
diagram of the symptoms, causes, and consequences. My goal is to come up with a
concrete solution that can justify these issues and improve the operating room supply
chain demands.

How to overcome supply challenges and improve the efficiency of surgical services?
There are several ways to improve the efficiency of surgical services and overcome supply
challenges. Here are some keys to achieving this:

Optimization

Optimize the supply chain: Supply chain managers must seek business models and
organizational structures that address these challenges, maximize efficiency, and achieve
extraordinary results, regardless of the environment. The hospital produces medical care
and services for the benefit of the patient and the patient, like any other client, must
appreciate the quality of the care he has received and declare himself satisfied with it or
change doctor or establishment ( if possibilities allow). Like any company that produces
services, the hospital is part of an approach to improving the quality of services provided
to patients. Healthcare establishments must identify the requirements and needs of the
population in terms of quality, because non-quality can generate inestimable costs. Indeed,
hospital logistics is part of the dynamic of the search for overall performance where
activities are organized and structured with the aim of patient satisfaction in terms of
quality, quantity, time, safety and at the lowest cost. It should be noted that the number of
techniques and technologies which have demonstrated effectiveness in the industrial field
are today adopted, adapted and tamed by hospital centers (Costin, Chitou, 2005).
Furthermore, to improve the quality of care, we must first improve the functioning of
establishments and implement real management tools.
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Digital platform
Invest in a digital adoption platform: There is a platform to solve them all! The tools you
use, the processes you put in place, and how you work with other business units are more
important than ever. Thanks to the numerous e-procurement projects that we have
supported so far, we have extensive expertise in procurement issues.

Identification of key areas of spending

Identify key areas of spend: Procurement departments identify key areas of spend, qualify
suppliers in line with business objectives, build critical relationships, and handle strategic
negotiations. The evolution of health spending depends on three types of factors:
economic factors, demographic and health factors and finally technological and
institutional factors. not all of them had the same importance in the past. The effect of
technical progress on health spending is ambivalent. While in all sectors of the economy,
it helps reduce costs, this is not necessarily the case in the health sector. The inflationary
effect of technical progress on health expenditure is frequently used as one of the
explanations for the correlation between GDP and health expenditure at the
macroeconomic level. However, the complexity of the link between medical-technical
progress and health spending makes it quite difficult to model or identify it at the
macroeconomic level. Most often, technical progress does not appear clearly in
econometric equations. Its effect, assumed to be generally inflationary, is “captured”
through a temporal trend or directly in the value of the income elasticity of health
spending. The last major factor in the evolution of health expenditure relates to the
functioning of the healthcare system: type of financing, degree of risk pooling, degree of
control of the training and installation of professionals, method of pricing and regulation
prices, etc. Are there institutional arrangements that are more effective than others in
terms of controlling spending? This is undoubtedly the case, even if it is not easy to
identify them.

Focus on sustainable value creation

Focus on sustainable value creation: Procurement services must focus on sustainable value
creation. On an entrepreneurial level, value creation consists of increasing the productivity
of a company to better remunerate investors (shareholders, privileges, etc.). This capacity,
which can go hand in hand with the search for sustainable growth, is achieved when
investments generate a return greater than the weighted average cost of capital. The
objective of a company's value creators (its managers) is to create this shareholder value in
order to increase the wealth of its owners and shareholders. The value creator is the one
who best knows how to respond to all of a company's investors, shareholders and
creditors, meaning seeking and making investments whose rate of return is higher than the
average cost of capital linked to the risk borne by these investments. Value creation is the
keystone of performance management tools (Value Base Management). It justifies
strategic and operational management of the company in line with the expectations of
shareholders.

Optimize opportunities for the procurement function

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Optimize opportunities for the procurement function: Procurement departments must

optimize opportunities for the procurement function. As a procurement manager, you face
constant challenges to streamline complex procurement and purchasing processes while
achieving results, reducing costs, and saving time. Since the crisis has accelerated digital
transformation, it has also highlighted the need to leverage better and adopt procurement
technologies to address these challenges. The main challenges facing procurement
managers:
 Inefficient and labor-intensive processes (despite investment in suitable purchasing
tools)
 A lack of standardized processes
 Ineffective internal and external training
 Complex onboarding and support for casual users
 Inconsistent procurement processes
 Difficult supplier management (identifying the right supplier, monitoring supplier
performance, ensuring a stable supply of quality products, monitoring the supplier
base)
If left unresolved, issues can escalate into costly losses, increased costs, and a direct
impact on your return on investment (ROI).

Strengthen collaboration with business units and suppliers

Strengthen collaboration with business units and suppliers: Procurement departments must
strengthen collaboration with business units and suppliers. Good communication between
all parties can strengthen the relationship between you and your suppliers. It can help you
better understand their needs and expectations while allowing you to share your own goals
and challenges.

Embracing procurement technologies

Embracing procurement technologies: The crisis has accelerated digital transformation.

Supply chain management is an extremely complex process that involves multiple steps. If
the company still uses spreadsheets to manage its supply chain process, it's time to
consider investing in digital technology. If the company wants to get the goods it needs in
today's highly competitive market while controlling costs, it must be able to make supply
chain decisions quickly and efficiently. This step requires analytical data, real-time
reporting, and accurate forecasting –data that cannot be obtained with manual
spreadsheets. New technologies, such as AI, can provide the data and insights you need to
identify market trends and more accurately predict future business needs. Implementing
the right technology can give your business the competitive advantage to build a strong
supplier network and flexible, resilient supply chain processes. Supply chain technology,
such as demand forecasting, inventory management, and warehouse management, helps
businesses save time and money while improving efficiency. For example, Sargento was
able to reduce transportation costs while improving process visibility by swapping manual
processes for transportation management technology.
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Conclusion

In a world where change is the only constant, procurement teams must demonstrate
flexibility and agility to deal with disruption. Once considered a business unit focused on
cost reduction and transactions, procurement is now considered one of the most strategic
processes within an organization. Procurement services identify key areas of spend,
qualify suppliers in line with business objectives, establish critical relationships, and
handle strategic negotiations. But that's not all… Before the pandemic, many businesses
relied heavily on international suppliers. When COVID-19 closed borders, these
international, and even some domestic, trade sources halted deliveries and many of these
businesses were unable to obtain the supplies they needed. They were therefore forced to
seek out local and regional suppliers, who were already stretched thin to meet demand.
Many businesses found themselves unable to stock shelves, procure the raw materials
needed for production, or transport goods from point A to point B. These difficulties still
impact businesses today.
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References
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2016). What is Patient Experience?
Retrieved from Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality:
https://www.ahrq.gov/cahps/about-cahps/patient-experience/index.html
Kauh, MD, C. Y., Blachley, MS, T. S., Lichter, MD, P. R., Lee, MD, JD, P. P., & Stein,
MD, MS, J. D. (2016). Geographic Variation in the Rate and Timing of Cataract
Surgery Among US Communities . Retrieved from National Library of Medicine:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5767078/
Nash, M. (2019). Prepare patients for cataract surgery. Ophthalmic Professional.
Patrick, T., Patel, N., Tajik, A., & Chandrasekaran, K. (2017). Improving health
outcomes through patient education and partnerships with patients. National
Library of Medicine.