Case Study: An academic medical center identifies $2 million in supply chain savings by using Symmetric

Boston Medical Center (BMC) is a non-profit, 514-bed academic medical center. Located in the historic South End of Boston, Massachusetts, BMC provides medical care for infants, children, teens, and adults. It is the largest safety-net hospital and Level I trauma center in New England.

FOUR AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT

1. Identifying procurement opportunities

CHALLENGE

The Health System had decided to transition to a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, but the existing contract management module was in a half-implemented state. The lack of a functional system made it difficult for procurement to keep track of spending under management and maintain contract files.

SOLUTION & HIGHLIGHTS

The Health System engaged with Symmetric to cleanse and master its disparate contract files. After cleansing, the health system loaded contracts and purchase orders to Symmetric to analyze a variety of opportunities.

  • Identified $1M in pricing credits from contract/purchase order/invoice misalignments.

  • Mastered four data sources into one contract file.

  • Identified up to $2M in medical/surgical supplies standardization opportunities

2. Saving time with a single source of truth

CHALLENGE

The Health System was looking to explore point of use scanning of UDI-DI barcodes in procedural areas, but limited I.T. resources made it challenging to prioritize. Matching their item master to millions of GUDID UDI-DI records was not going to be a simple task to tackle.

SOLUTION & HIGHLIGHTS

The Health System used Symmetric Health Solutions’ match tool and medical device database to automatically map their item master, contracts, and purchase history to UDI-DIs. The Health System’s value analysis team was then able to compare products with one source of truth.

  • 87% of the 60,000-record item master to UDI-DIs and interfaced to EHR in under a week.

  • Improved item & contract lines addition process while simplifying maintenance of files.

  • Achieved automatic identification of standardization opportunities.

“Symmetric is on the cutting edge of standardizing data within healthcare.”

— Joseph D’Amore
MDM Manager, Boston Medical Center

3. Mitigating supplier risks

CHALLENGE

The Health System was looking to get definitive answers to alternate suppliers during backorders. They were not getting the information they needed quickly enough from their current suppliers and distributors.

SOLUTION & HIGHLIGHTS

The Health System used Symmetric Health Solutions’ medical device and pharmaceutical databases and exploration tools to understand their supplier risks better.

  • Assisted in resolving five backorders to date.

  • Building automated substitute list into ERP for future backorder resolution.

  • Identified over 1K recalled items purchased in the last year.

4. Increasing reimbursements from the supply chain

CHALLENGE

The Health System was looking to expand its diversity supplier program. The expansion of a diverse supplier program would help the health system qualify for a higher insurance reimbursement tier, but it was spending too much time researching supplier certifications.

SOLUTION & HIGHLIGHTS

The Health System engaged with Symmetric to confirm their current diverse supplier list and, in the process, found areas of opportunity to improve supplies reimbursements.

  • Validated diverse suppliers list and suggested vendor master updates in under a week.

  • Provided a target list of diverse suppliers to help rank future procurement efforts.

  • Identified $600K in missing supplies outpatient reimbursement from missing HCPCS.

“It is my firm belief that many healthcare organizations would find Symmetric’s software and expertise extremely valuable. The collection of information they have built can dramatically impact an organization’s efficiencies and bottom line.”

— Joseph D’Amore
MDM Manager, Boston Medical Center