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Digital Transformation Increases Value of Supply Chain Workforce
Healthcare executives’ concerns around labor issues are well-documented. Equally well-noted is the role of digital transformation in easing many staffing challenges.
As labor shortages add to executive stress and frustration, technology like spend management analytics, visualization tools, and strategic sourcing automation can lead to better outcomes. Digitize the spend management process where possible and return valuable time to your staff. That in turn contributes to a high-performing supply chain workforce.
Supply Chain Workforce Turns Data Into Advantage
Data is the foundation of supply chain transformation, but as volumes increase, so does the burden of managing the data properly.
Data-as-a-Service has emerged as a solution that brings a pipeline of enriched, normalized data to supply chain analysts and others. Quality-enriched data is also essential to build engagement between clinicians and the supply chain workforce.
Analytics Tools Lead to More Powerful Supply Chain Workforce
Digital transformation in the healthcare supply chain contributes to more efficient, less frustrated teams. Analytics-enabled solutions, digital tools and holistic platforms enhance workforce agility and flexibility.
Digital transformation also changes the dynamics between supply chain, physicians and device companies, giving more power than ever before to the data-driven supply chain workforce.
Let Clinical Spend Technology Do the Heavy Lifting
As the supply of available data grows, more and more hours are required for the traditional approach of manual data collection, normalization and visualization. It’s a heavy lift on top of an already heavy workload.
Contract cycles have also traditionally been labor- and time-intensive processes that never seem to go away. There’s no path for a stretched supply chain workforce to get ahead without help from tech.
Clinical spend technology can do more heavy lifting in the back-end operations of strategic sourcing, and digitization allows automation and end-to-end data flow. Now hospitals have more technology available to meet the demands of their contracts and even take them to the next level.
Bid and contract management are ripe for digitization, and in many hospital enterprises, that’s already under way. Thoughtful, purpose-built solutions for the medical supply chain shorten contract cycles, reclaim staff hours, and spread efficiency.
Digitize End-to-End Strategic Sourcing Workflow
Some organizations now use end-to-end spend management platforms that provide one common environment for all the tasks and players involved in strategic sourcing. A cloud-based platform can also support digital contract systems and supplier networks.
Frustration is reduced. Job satisfaction improves. And the supply chain workforce has more visibility, control and clout than ever before.
Technical Excellence Contributes to High-Performing Workforce
Technical excellence in the form of enriched data, analytics and automation helps teams analyze clinical device opportunities in a fraction of the time.
This has the side effect of speeding up contract cycles and letting supply chains tackle more savings opportunities in a year. What once took months can be done even better in just a few days using the technology advantage. The impact on workforce efficiency is transformative.
An adjacent workforce, clinical service line leaders, also finds new ways to work as a result of supply change transformation. Accessible data stories can show physicians how they compare and how to improve medical device utilization. This leads to a more cohesive, data-driven spend management strategy overall.
Bots as Part of Hybrid Supply Chain Workforce
Given the spread of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare, it’s not surprising to see AI adoption growing in the supply chain function, too.
At some point, accessible data and trained AI could determine how medical devices are selected and purchased. AI-driven bots have the potential to tackle the overwhelming complexities and scope of medical device sourcing and spending.
A bot (short for robot) is an application designed to simulate repetitive human activity without manual intervention. Bots could become part of a hybrid supply chain workforce using robot-assisted rather than robot-selected medical device selection and sales.
What would that mean for the supply chain, providers and patients? Can AI bots be leveraged for the good of healthcare delivery? Leaders should be thinking about what clinical spending could look like when an AI bot is in charge of medical device selection.
Digital Transformation: A Process, Not A Stage
It’s inevitable that the healthcare supply chain will experience digital transformation, but it won’t happen all at once. Digitization must be an ongoing initiative in order to keep up with evolving needs and technology.
Innovations in clinical spend management continue to transform how analysis, sourcing and contract work gets done. That in turn has pushed the supply chain workforce into a more visible, strategic role. Smart leaders will leverage every advantage this more digital resource has to offer.