As the drive for value-based care continues, hospitals and health systems are looking for proven best practices to improve clinical outcomes, enhance safety and control costs.
Whatever the goal, the value of product and process standardization is clear as health systems continue to grow:
- Product standardization yields new efficiencies as well as cost savings. Using common products and kit componentry enables the provider to leverage volume purchasing power and potentially earn more advantageous rebate tiers – all of which can lead to lower product costs. Product standardization also decreases SKU count, minimizes waste and reduces inventory on the shelf, which improves efficiency and contributes to cost savings.
- Process standardization has many advantages as well. The more standardized a clinical process becomes, the easier it is to implement. Because they’re repetitive, standardized processes are simpler to learn, pinpoint outliers more easily and provide guardrails on which practices to avoid. That makes day-to-day implementation more predictable.
Creating one simplified approach across multiple clinicians and different settings can collectively help a hospital or health system spend less time managing products and processes and more time focused on patient care. In some cases, product standardization can support process standardization. In addition, a commitment to operational excellence and such principles as Lean Six Sigma creates an environment of continuous improvement.
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