Value-based care often begins with the supply chain

Editor's note: The following interview was originally posted on Becker's Hospital Review site.

Jon Giacomin, CEO of our medical segment, spoke on a keynote panel at Becker’s Hospital Review 7th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable titled “The most pressing issues facing health systems” on Tuesday, Nov. 13.

Giacomin: The emergence of the clinically aware, clinically focused supply chain officer. This is a person who was formerly tasked with delivering cost savings and efficiency. And now this role is expanding to become more strategic, as a result of value-based care and population health objectives. Many of the professionals we work with now have a greater focus on enabling clinical outcomes in addition to efficiencies. These are aligned goals that are not mutually exclusive.

Giacomin: We recognize that all hospitals are feeling the pinch on reimbursement. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) increased access, but reimbursement pressure has offset many of the gains. Furthermore, the transition to value-based care will add to that pressure. The key is a consultative approach amongst hospital executives and physicians to improve the quality of care while reducing cost through standardization of care delivery and by taking advantage of scale where possible.

We’ve seen that bridging operations and clinical worlds can work, even when each side has unique metrics, as long as operations can take a longer-term view of costs and can work with a multi-year roadmap that frees them to make decisions that prioritize care delivery.

Giacomin: We would challenge the notion that great patient care can’t come first in a value-based world. It’s true that value-based care is designed with quality in mind, but that objective isn’t always realized in implementation and practice. Systems dedicated to delivering quality, value-based care or improving population health must rely on scale, breadth and making seamless connections across their systems.

We realize there isn’t a simple fix here, and we also know that value-based care offers many benefits to patient health. We believe that, for most systems, the chance to reduce costs while enabling better care delivery often begins with elevating supply chain capabilities. This is where scale, breadth and connections across the continuum all add up to tremendous value, but not at the expense of care delivery. In fact, better supply chain supports better care.