FEATURED CONTRIBUTOR
Robert Rajalingam
President, U.S. Sales, Medical Solutions
Cardinal Health
Editor's note: The following interview was originally posted on Becker's Hospital Review site.
Robert Rajalingam spoke on a panel at Becker’s Hospital Review 7th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable titled “Striking the balance between financial and quality initiatives” on Tuesday, Nov. 13.
Question: What major challenges, financial or otherwise, are affecting hospitals in the markets you serve?
Rajalingam: Hospital leaders share with us that they are faced with balancing extreme cost pressures with delivering high-quality care. One of the drivers of that are the silos that often prevent operations and supply chain efficiencies from enabling clinical outcomes.
We have found that better products can deliver new wins in the operating room, such as switching to non-latex materials, and service enhancements, such as lean methods and healthcare professional education, that deliver better care and cost savings across acute and post-acute settings.
The key is to combine product or service changes in the form of workflow optimization, education, tools and integrated data-enabled services, so that operational wins are more likely to help clinicians to do their jobs well.
Q: What's one of the most interesting healthcare industry changes you’ve observed in recent years?
Rajalingam: The consolidation of healthcare systems to enable care quality and efficiency.
Consolidation benefits can be extremely challenging to realize, and cost-savings as well as clinical coordination have been elusive for some. But we’re also seeing what consolidation is doing to deliver tremendous benefits at scale that lead to better cost management and more efficient operations. It also creates opportunities for greater coordination across clinical offerings, powered by best-in-class supply chain operations.
Q: What do you see as the most vulnerable part of a hospital’s business?
Rajalingam: Health systems have tremendous opportunities to reinvent the patient experience as a result of the shift to outpatient care. But this shift has risks that some systems are overlooking, and opportunities that require the right support to achieve.
Systems that are not prepared operationally to support care delivery in new settings across the care continuum will struggle to take advantage of the quality/ cost promise of in-home and post-acute care scenarios. For example, our at home portfolio and products are designed with this movement in mind.
We believe this is about supporting care, both in an out of hospital — powered by a cost effective, efficient supply chain that supports great clinical care and outcomes that follow the patient from hospital to home.