In any hospital budget, equipment and medical supplies account for one of the most significant costs. These expenditures account to almost thirty three percent of the total operating charges of hospitals in America.
Looking for ways to decrease these expenditures is quite a daunting task for procurement teams and administrators. However, it is not impossible. With some right techniques up your sleeves, you can easily reduce the costs of supplies too.
1. Reduce The Wastage Generated From The Hospitals
By now you must be aware that equipment takes up a large portion of the hospital budgets. One of the biggest causes leading to this expense is waste. Because of poor procuring practices, hospitals create significant amounts of waste, which eventually raises their overall supply prices. This results in over purchasing supplies that expire before they can be used, amongst other issues too.
A healthcare center must have a proper management system in place. Also, an accurate procurement system is required which will help you to monitor the supply levels and the use of medical supply products.
Such a system will alert you when the medical supplies that are about to be out of stock at your hospital. This way you will know right away which supplies to buy well in advance.
Moreover, automating this procedure may also help to eliminate human mistakes, which is another source of wasted funds.
According to Bttn, who uses big data insights to help hospitals procure medical supplies more efficiently, recommends that they update their procurement systems and harness the use of technology to purchase their most needed medical supplies in bulk and at wholesale prices too. Aside from all the savings on medical supply costs, they can also improve efficiencies that reduce human error and non-productive work time too.
2. Buy Reusable Supplies
Non-recyclable medical supplies account for a lot of hospital wastage. While the use of certain non-recyclable products is inevitable, make sure to buy reusable supplies such as gowns, sheets, and other instruments as it may help to minimize the overall medical supply costs too for your hospital.
3. Become Partners With GPOs
Group buying organizations help the healthcare centers to decrease their costs and increase efficiency. Once you become a member of such a group, you get access to various discounts offered on bulk buy of supplies.
4. Lease Medical Equipment
In a fast changing business, equipment may quickly become obsolete within months to a year or so. Buying new medical equipment comes with a lot of additional charges. Leasing may save you money on upfront fees and save you from being saddled with equipment that rapidly becomes obsolete. Being equipped with the latest technology allows you to be more efficient and deliver better service to your consumers. Leasing medical equipment allows you that freedom while also helps you decrease your costs.
5. Proper Maintenance
At times, you may need to purchase medical equipment rather than leasing it. To save money and get the most return on investment, you will need to use it carefully in order to prolong the equipment’s life cycle.
Imaging equipment is one such tool that you will have to buy. Because it is so important to your business, you will need to be proactive in maintaining it.
6. Automate Various Processes
Errors in ordering, data collecting, and other supply chain procedures may result in cost increases. Hospitals aiming to save supply chain costs should look at methods to automate manual procurement procedures and remove the possibility of human mistakes.
7. Make Use Of Accurate Data Capture
Accurate data collection is an essential component of supply chain management in the healthcare industry. Medical centers should be aware of the required equipment and materials on both facility and patient operation levels.
This information helps to forecast the demand of the goods and the expenditures that the hospital might have to encounter to purchase them.
Accurate data collection may also offer the basis for establishing how and where costs might be reduced, such as identifying things acquired off-contract and merging those items into purchases from current contractual vendors.
There is no question that improving the efficiency and efficacy of a hospital supply chain may significantly cut expenses for hospitals, hence enhancing profit margins. Moreover, in a financial situation when insurance companies are paying pennies on the dollar and hospitals are having to write off more than they are paid for operations, it is critical to commit time and effort to finding savings wherever feasible.
Although simplifying a hospital supply chain may be tough, particularly for major hospitals that are acquiring additional practices at breakneck pace, there is a lot of value in engaging with individual providers to help them appreciate the advantages of being cost-effective within their practices. Hospitals may assist providers in adopting measures such as standardizing inventory by crunching the statistics.
8. Keep Track of Overhead Costs
Before any money-saving exercises can be done, the costs of the first few months must be recorded and properly classified. When you keep accurate records of your equipment, you will be able to see where you can save money. If your medical facility’s overhead costs aren’t recorded accurately and consistently, it becomes very difficult and time-consuming to make smart investments that will help your medical facility’s overall costs.
9. Keep an eye out for warranties
As a doctor, you put your patients and your reputation at risk if you don’t fix critical medical equipment properly when it needs to be done. To make sure there aren’t any problems with the parts, clinical engineers must make sure they are authentic before any machine is put in place. You will always get high-quality repairs and replacement parts if you work with a well-known and trusted third-party vendor.
Some medical equipment leasing companies even offer repair warranties, and the total cost of maintenance will be included in the lease agreement. This saves you money and time by not having to work with two companies.
It is important to keep your medical equipment in good condition after you get a good warranty. In order to save money and extend the working life of your machines, it is important to do this correctly. This is especially important if you choose to buy your equipment instead of borrowing money for it.
The Final Word
We hope that the points above mentioned helped you identify the ways in which you can reduce the cost of medical supplies and equipment for your hospital. Software also moves faster than hardware, so healthcare facilities should look to save money and extend the life of their equipment by retrofitting older systems with the most up-to-date software, which can save money and extend the life of their equipment, while also using medical supply stores online to find all the supplies you need and then purchase them at wholesale prices.
