Insights

There’s no doubt that the current pandemic has changed the way we think about many things in nearly all aspects of our lives, both personally and in our work. For hospital and health system supply chain leaders, that means continuing to manage the large amounts of personal protective equipment (PPE) that was once desperately needed and hard to find. Thestorage challenges that ensued became more permanent as states begin to mandate how much PPE hospitals were required to have on hand.With so much change and uncertainty, your approach to inventory management will need to change, too.read more

Specialty pharmaceuticals continue to dominate drug approvals and purchasing. And while many hospitals operate a specialty pharmacy, there’s still room for growth. Here’s five questions to ask when considering if a specialty pharmacy is right for your hospital.read more

Nearly one in three Americans lived in a county affected by a weather disaster during the summer of 2021. These weather disasters come on top of the existing COVID-19 pandemic, further straining hospital personnel and resources. That’s when the Vizient disaster resiliency and recovery team comes in, establishing a direct and real-time line of communication with the field teams in the affected areas, collecting information from distributors and suppliers, including days on-hand inventory and any known or potential disruptions in supply.read more

Health care is constantly changing and evolving and with the continual movement towards technological integration, the competitive landscape for minimally invasive surgical procedures using robotics will change over the next few years. We expect to see the rollout of new robotic equipment and more manufacturers entering the market. The question is, how will this affect the future of robotic-assisted surgical procedures being performed within your health system?read more

My vice president recently asked our team to think about our “why” as it relates to our career in the health care supply chain. While I love the work I do, I realized I had never really thought about why I continue in this field. After a bit of soul searching, I was able to determine what keeps me in health care.read more

Evidence-based practiceensures that we are using the best approaches to care that improve patient outcomes and lower health care costs. With the proper support from health care leaders to create a culture that supports evidence-based practice, the next generation of nurses can continue to drive the goal of incorporating the best available evidence into their everyday practice.read more

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of welcoming our members, suppliersand staff to the Vizient Connections Summit, our first in-person event since the start of the pandemic. The conference centered around the concept of unity, which was palpable in the excitement of peers and colleagues from all corners of the health care industry reuniting for the first time in too long. Not to mention the word Unite in big block letters sprawled across every screen.But as the ballroom filled and the noise of conversation swelled, I found myself captivated by a different word just above those big block letters – Connections.read more

As hospitals and health systems continue to work to manage costs while maintaining quality, surgical tray standardization remains an untapped resource for many organizations. As surgeons request instruments based on their individual preferences, the size of surgical trays continues to grow. And as the number of instruments on a surgical tray grows, the use of those instruments declines, creating unnecessary costs to purchase, process and manage the instruments.Standardizing surgical trays can support hospital efforts to manage costs and maintain quality, but for many are an untapped resource. Here’s what you need to know.read more

The percentage of Americans aged 65 or older will surpass 80 million by 2040 and will hit 94.7 million by 2060, brining brings with it an enormous burden of chronic illness, shouldered by a group of people who are increasingly disabled, socially isolated and severely limited in their ability to cope with their illnesses and the complexity of the health care system. At the same time, we have an unprecedented increase in the number of healthy seniors—folks whose professional careers are coming to a close, but whose physical and mental capabilities are far from exhausted. With their working lives winding down, many of these healthy seniors express feelings of diminished usefulness. It’s this fortuitous confluence of relatively healthy seniors and their less fortunate generational peers that make the echoes of volunteerism that John F. Kennedy spoke of in 1961 relevant today.read more

Amid all the uncertainties facing the health care industry today, one thing is clear. We need to continue to improve the health of our communities and do so in a way that supports, honors and leverages diversity. One of the most impactful actions hospitals can take is to reimagine their sourcing—from accounting and IT services, to landscaping and laundry, to biomedical services and surgical products—creating a broader, more equitable network of diverse suppliers. The benefits are far reaching, creating local jobs that strengthen the local economy and in turn, improving health outcomes and equity.read more

With the COVID crisis entering its third year and continuing to demand the immediate attention of hospitals, executives should look closely at Amazon’s example of investing across their businesses to satisfy long-term customer needs.read more