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Stephen Burks, Sr. Director, Supply Chain Analytics and Dwain McFarland, Associate Vice President, Supply Chain Analytics, Vizient, Inc.
Vizient Savings Actualyzer has the industry breadth, insight, and technology to bridge the gap between opportunity identification and savings implementation
The main problem here is the inability of organizations to obtain information from disparate systems, which ultimately leads to their reliance on maintaining spreadsheets. “The industry has put the onus on the organizations to create, maintain, and manage these spreadsheet or offline database monsters, which hides many negative implications,” says Burks.
Vizient Savings Actualyzer™ works to bridge the gap between opportunity identification and savings implementation and remove the inefficiencies.
“In 2008, we re-defined supply price benchmarking for the healthcare industry. With the launch of Savings Actualyzer, we are doing it again,” says Burks. The supply chain analytics platform is the industry’s first price benchmarking solution that unites supply chain data in a unique way, allowing users to view it in one place and easily make the connections to prioritize, track, and measure savings—slaying the “spreadsheet monster.” A game-changing solution, Savings Actualyzer drives unique value by integrating different opportunity types into a single view and providing a flexible framework to enable realization of savings.
Connected to a dynamic, single data source, Savings Actualyzer provides organizations a repeatable, reliable framework, reducing the cost of supplies. Organizations are provided with complete spend visibility for smarter decisions, flexibility to work the way they want, and power to demonstrate an increased ROI. “Vizient Savings Actualyzer expands the universe of our clients by setting their sights higher in order to prioritize what they’re trying to accomplish, track their progress, and measure their success,” explains Burks.
The Supply Chain Game-Changers
The robust platform enables supply chain teams to easily identify and collaborate on cost-reduction initiatives, helping organizations to become more productive. By examining the data in context of, contract, capital, and pharmacy, Savings Actualyzer connect a fragmented supply chain with higher cost-saving potential. The visibility offered by Savings Actualyzer to an organization’s initiatives paves the way for their team to make reliable and insights-based decisions. Further, Savings Actualyzer is built on the industry’s cleanest and largest pool of supply data. The platform’s subscribers have access to over 30 million pre-populated cross-references that are easily configured based on their unique needs.
In addition, with the purchased services module, the solution enables its hospital members to view categorized spend, identify opportunities for standardization and see comparative performance data within one platform. Dwain McFarland, Associate Vice President of Supply Chain analytics at Vizient adds, “With this new module working alongside our contracting and advisory solutions, members will be able to link opportunities to existing Vizient contracts or engage the Vizient advisory solutions team, to maximize both savings and value.”
In short, the solution operates as what Burks likes to call, an “integrated opportunity engine” that analyzes pricing opportunities across multiple fronts. Next, it streamlines the organizational processes from opportunity identification to savings implementation. This is achieved by empowering users to move prioritized opportunities into two phases: tracking and measuring. “With Savings Actualyzer, organizations can explore what-if scenarios, and this enables them to create draft initiatives and conduct discussions on how to proceed,” adds Burks. “They can also use the Peer Compare function to see how both their market share and price performance fare in comparison to peer hospitals defined by characteristics like spend, number of beds, or average patient days.” In addition, users can access a dynamic, single-source connection to the industry’s largest repository of supply market data. This capability delivers invaluable market comparatives and enables easy access to Vizient contracts for seamless analysis. “Our research indicated that what hindered team efficiency more than anything after disparate data was a lack of visibility when it comes to tracking the progress of current initiatives and measuring true savings of those initiatives. With Vizient Savings Actualyzer, users, define measures of success, and have more time to pursue additional savings opportunities,” explains Burks.
Through the launch of Vizient Savings Actualyzer, the company is challenging organizations to take a broader view when it comes to supply chain savings. However, Burks notes that Vizient didn’t undertake a siloed approach to designing the solution; it was a culmination of member feedback and participation that has gone into the development of the platform. “At Vizient, we push very hard to ensure teamwork and transparency that help us improve the quality of operations and what we ultimately deliver to our users,” says Burks. “Our drive to respond to the unique needs of every organization makes us stay ahead of the competition.”
Innovation and Improved Patient Care
Vizient has a long history of helping their member organizations drive down costs and optimize product utilization and efficiency in the supply chain. Vizient Savings Actualyzer supports these goals by bringing together the necessary data and workflows to help them make better decisions in one application. “Better decisions mean greater cost savings, higher product quality, clinical effectiveness, and increased patient and user safety—all of which add up to the most important result: improved patient care,” says McFarland.
Through the launch of Vizient Savings Actualyzer, the company is challenging organizations to take a broader view when it comes to supply chain savings. However, Burks notes that Vizient didn’t undertake a siloed approach to designing the solution; it was a culmination of member feedback and participation that has gone into the development of the platform. “At Vizient, we push very hard to ensure teamwork and transparency that help us improve the quality of operations and what we ultimately deliver to our users,” says Burks. “Our drive to respond to the unique needs of every organization makes us stay ahead of the competition.”
Company
Vizient, Inc.
Management
Stephen Burks, Sr. Director, Supply Chain Analytics and Dwain McFarland, Associate Vice President, Supply Chain Analytics, Vizient, Inc.
Description
Vizient Savings Actualyzer is an integrated opportunity engine,
which is connected to a dynamic, single data source to give a
repeatable, reliable, and flexible framework
Vizient, Inc. News
Vizient Announces Trends for Providers to Strategize in 2024
“2024 must be a year of inside-out focus for healthcare organizations. Investing time, talent and capital in areas that better meet patient need today and address what tomorrow’s patients will demand is essential.”
“Where and how healthcare providers invest their resources is a crucial question,” said Bill Woodson, senior principal, Intelligence at Sg2, a Vizient company. “Those decisions will ultimately impact financial performance, market position, and in the end, patient care delivery.”
The trends are projected based on market research and data analysis, including proprietary Sg2 all-payer claims data. Based on the data and in-house expertise, Vizient is advising providers to:
• Revisit their payer strategy: Medicare Advantage now represents two-thirds of the total Medicare population in some markets and the number of Medicaid enrollees continues to grow. With a high proportion of Medicare and Medicaid enrollees in managed care, providers should have a strategy that proactively addresses total cost of care as a market play.
• Re-evaluate their ambulatory business model: As the shift from inpatient to outpatient care continues to accelerate, an ambulatory strategy must be designed to meet consumer expectations. Providers should also work to understand their consumer purchasing patterns and get ahead of forthcoming price transparency mandates.
• Change the game in primary care: Primary care in traditional office settings will shrink to less than 50% of market share by 2030, according to Sg2, as payer-owned and retail healthcare models surge. Analytics can help pinpoint key growth segments. Providers should keep an eye on new-market entrants and use analytics to determine gaps those entrants address before deciding whether to partner or compete.
• Differentiate through targeted technology adoption: Technology adoption is crucial to effectively managing accelerating consumer needs. Evolving AI tools, home DNA testing, new cellular-based therapies, telehealth visits and use of digital devices that capture real-time health trends all show exponential growth.
“2024 must be a year of inside-out focus for healthcare organizations. Investing time, talent and capital in areas that better meet patient need today and address what tomorrow’s patients will demand is essential,” said Woodson. “A focus on these vital areas will help providers on their journey to cost, quality and market performance alignment.”