Nearly 4,000 attendees representing providers and suppliers from across the U.S. streamed into the 2022 Vizient Connections Summit, and despite differences in their organizations' size, geography, category and clientele, nearly all of them were looking for insights centered on the same major challenges. Workforce and supply chain shortages — and the cost pressures that accompany them — have only intensified since the onset of the pandemic. A large-scale meeting of the minds seemed a perfect prescription for alleviating these increasingly common concerns and ensuring top-notch patient care in the process.
“We are faced with so many pervasive challenges in healthcare right now that I think everyone understands they can’t solve these issues alone,” said Kevin Galyean, Vizient vice president of strategic supplier performance. “Vizient is positioned in a really unique space within the industry to act as a convener between providers and suppliers to find solutions. We have relationships on both sides and access to data and insights that enable connections and the efficient exchange of information.”
In fact, swapping insights and information was the name of the game at Summit, which featured numerous user groups, peer-to-peer meetings, educational sessions and poster presentations that covered topics ranging from partnership-driven transformations and comprehensive employee wellness to AI and machine learning for care optimization and bridging hospital-to-home gaps. There also were reverse expos that allowed suppliers to network with everyone from Vizient staff to health system C-suite leaders, service line clinicians and supply chain decision makers to discuss ways to reduce costs, improve outcomes and transform the future of healthcare.
Megan McDonald, a national account manager with health, hygiene and nutrition supplier Reckitt, emerged from Monday's reverse expo "more energized than ever." Over the past few months, she's worked to help providers obtain baby formula amid a national shortage, and the opportunity to connect face-to-face to discuss additional cost savings and inventory requirements was a highly anticipated benefit of the conference.
"At some conferences, I sit behind a booth and just pray someone stops to talk with me," McDonald said. "Whereas here, the engagement is different — I can actually reach out and make those connections."
Connections make us `Stronger'
"It's all about bringing these difficult questions to the table and exploring innovative ideas," Jobe said. "We know no individual or single organization can affect this kind of change. But when we work together, we create the opportunity for change and strengthen each other through that journey."
Attendees appeared eager to make the type of industry-transforming connections Jobe referenced. Following the opening session, a standing-room-only crowd gathered for a joint member/supplier presentation titled "Patient Care Utilization Trends and the Impact on Spend Projection" — an issue that's gained critical importance as labor, supply and other operating costs have ballooned.
"Many health systems are going into their first fiscal year ever looking at a loss for their organization, and that really changes how you have to look at everything," said Sheri Dodson, purchasing director with North Mississippi Health Services. "We're trying to partner as much as possible to help with cost savings."
Led by Jeff Moser, Vizient principal, intelligence, and Maddie McDowell, MD, FAAP, Vizient senior principal, intelligence, the session featured a panel that included Angelique Vuilleumier, director of supply chain, and Ginger Henry, vice president of supply chain, both from Legacy Health; Dennis Regan, senior director of commercial operations at Stryker Instruments; and Tom Ashbrook, national vice president of sales at Compass One Healthcare. The session delved into Vizient subsidiary Sg2's recent Impact of Change forecast, outlining care utilization trends by service lines across inpatient and outpatient environments and explaining how utilization changes impact spending strategy.
Some of the major considerations discussed included endemic COVID-19, an anticipated slowing in the shift to outpatient care settings, expanded care-at-home capabilities, record Medicare Advantage adoption rates, and rising patient acuity and length of stay.
"On both the inpatient and outpatient side, utilization varies pretty dramatically based on different service lines," Moser said. "In terms of supply chain, if there's that much variation, how do we get our arms around that and start to formulate projects and budget more creatively?"
One answer, Vuilleumier said, is for health systems to categorize supplier relationships as tactical, integrated or strategic.
"What do your strategic partners look like and what does that relationship look like?" she said. "Not just how many times you do a quarterly business review, but how are you scorecarding each other, how are you doing 360°s back and forth with those that you've chosen to be strategic, and then how do you let them in transparently to your portfolio and what's available? It's not about sales, it's about strategic visibility."
It's also about value proposition, Ashbrook said, particularly through innovation, technology and fully understanding providers' needs. Those deeper partnerships impact not only financial outcomes, he said, but also elevate quality.
"It used to be that a company like ours would just go to a `fire' and fix the problem," Ashbrook said. "But in today's environment, it's not about that. It's about growth strategy. Each and every one of the clients we serve is on a journey. You have to understand what that journey is and bring new ideas and expertise to the table to create the best experiences for patients and caregivers."
Emphasis on partnership across panels
Regardless of topic, nearly every Summit session provided commentary on the increasing importance of sustainable partnerships. Takeaways included:
Strategic Solutions for Reimagining Your Workforce: In this power huddle, community and organizational partnerships were discussed as keys to recruiting and retaining workforce. For example, one health system in the southeast partnered with behavioral health services to provide a dedicated psychologist for staff, while another initiated a partnership to create an in-house childcare facility. And while flexibility in shift scheduling is often viewed as an essential component of retaining employees, partnering with local colleges also can help to set realistic expectations for the demands of the healthcare environment. “Many students had limited clinical time throughout the pandemic and often worked only a few hours a day, Monday through Friday,” said Evy Olson, MSN, MBA, RN, Vizient VP, nursing. “As we talk with our members, we’re seeing the importance of having students do clinicals on nights and weekends. We have to work with our universities so that students who spend four years in nursing school leave with realistic expectations that this business is 24/7, 365 days, nights, weekends and holidays. We can’t necessarily be flexible to the point of saying, ‘You don't have to work nights or weekends,’ especially as a new grad.”
CLINICAL CARE SETTINGS
The New Growth Equation: Are You Positioned for Success? As more service lines shift from inpatient to alternative care settings such as ambulatory surgery centers, hospital outpatient departments, skilled nursing facilities and even home, the opportunity to build bigger, more far-reaching relationships across the healthcare ecosystem has never been better. "How many of your organizations have innovative partnerships with providers, other suppliers, or even private equity capital firms that are thinking differently about revenue generation, revenue creation and new product creation?" asked Amy Brouhle, Vizient national VP, supplier strategy and business development. "One of the questions we get asked a lot by our suppliers is, `We know workforce is a huge problem. How can we help?' Think about the positioning of your solutions and whether the solution helps the workforce practice at the top of their license and drives efficiency in a health system. Those are the things your provider partners need."
HEALTH EQUITY
Leveraging Vizient to Support Your Health Equity Needs: Vizient is an important partner in the health equity realm, particularly with its Supplier Diversity Program, which connects providers with diverse suppliers in their local communities. "We all have best practices we can share," said Shaleta Dunn, Vizient VP, member diversity and community initiatives. "If we're consistently having conversations and learning from one another, if we can support our communities by building economic opportunities and sustainability, then we can drive health equity in the communities we serve through our diverse regional and local suppliers." Panelists also discussed important resources Vizient offers to address equity, including the Health Equity Strategy Accelerator — a rapid-cycle course designed to help organizations understand their readiness to address and implement health equity initiatives — and the Vizient Vulnerability Index™, which uses extensive data sets to illuminate how poverty and the quality-of-life issues that inevitably accompany it are inextricably linked to health and environmental inequities.
SUSTAINABILITY
RESILIENCY
Supply Chain Economic Outlook and Preparing for the Unexpected: Jesse Schafer, executive director of the Healthcare Industry Resilience Collaborative (HIRC), discussed the importance of industry collaboration and its impact on bolstering supply and cost savings. Vizient recently joined HIRC, which is a provider-led, supplier-supported organization that brings together key stakeholders across healthcare to align on common solutions to supply disruptions that impact patient care. "The HIRC scorecard is one toolset that members have created to better identify, measure and incentivize resiliency capabilities and outcomes with their trading partners," Schafer said. "Categories include geographic footprint and monitoring; a pedigree that supports proactive awareness; open communication that helps coordinate preventative measures and recovery; a business continuity maturity assessment to quantify preparedness; KPIs to recognize past performance; and live dialog to increase shared awareness of the risks that exist and our shared litigation strategy. HIRC's approach emphasizes a rich culture of partnership."
Learn about the winners of the Clinical Supply Performance and Supply Chain Awards, as well as the 23 Suppliers and Distributors who received Service Excellence Awards at this year’s Summit.