Revolutionizing Healthcare Inventory Management at Sharp Memorial Hospital
Sharp Memorial Hospital (SMH), part of Sharp HealthCare, San Diego’s most comprehensive healthcare delivery system, significantly reduced supply waste in its cardiac catheterization lab by 83%, saving over $210,000 in two years. This achievement was possible due to QSight, Owens & Minor’s inventory management solution.
QSight helped the SMH team address root problems like excessive PAR levels, product expiry, and unused items. By gaining control over its inventory ahead of time, the SMH cath lab transformed from the largest source of cardiac supply waste to the greatest generator of savings within Sharp HealthCare.
Understanding QSight and What It Can Accomplish
QSight, a perpetual inventory management solution from Owens & Minor, enabled Sharp Memorial Hospital to optimize their inventory processes. It identified and corrected issues such as excessive PAR levels, product expiration, and unused items.
Colin Ramsey, Business Consultant for the Cardiovascular Service Line at Sharp HealthCare, stated, “QSight has been a game changer for Sharp in lowering our costs and improving our efficiency in the cath lab.”
7 Achievements Sharp Memorial Hospital Experienced
After implementing this transformative solution, the SMH team achieved seven notable benefits:
- Streamlined inventory management: QSight made it easier for the SMH cath lab team to manage inventory by eliminating manual tasks through product barcode scanning and integration with the health system’s materials management information system (MMIS). QSight alerted users to products below PAR, which the team reordered within the solution rather than having to log into the MMIS to place the order.
- Complete item data capture: With a scan into QSight, the SMH team captured all the needed information on items used in patient care, including descriptions, serial and lot numbers and expiry dates. This critical information enhanced patient safety through faster and more accurate expiry and recall management.
- Inventory visibility: Through the QSight dashboard, users quickly and easily saw critical supply information and made informed decisions based on this real-time and comprehensive data source: using items ahead of expiry, adjusting PAR levels to reduce waste, shifting excess inventory to other departments/facilities for use, and more.
- Enhanced patient safety: Using QSight, the SMH team identified products before they expired, used them or otherwise safely removed them from on-hand inventory. If an expired item made it to the patient’s bedside, QSight alerted clinicians to the issue. This vastly reduced the risk of “never events,” or using expired products on patients.
- Streamlined documentation: Through integration with SMH’s electronic medical record (EMR) system, scanned product data from QSight populated the patient record with no manual keying of data required.
- Informed decisions: QSight’s analytics and reporting capabilities provided the SMH team with actionable insights they leveraged to make informed and meaningful decisions (e.g., expiry trends, physician supply usage, wasted products, etc.). Customized reporting enabled the team to build reports to meaningfully meet their needs.Because the reports were based on timely, accurate and complete data, the cath lab team trusted their credibility, and in turn, presented the information to stakeholders (e.g., physician, finance, value analysis teams) with confidence to drive change.
- Strategic contract negotiation: SMH used QSight analytics to inform contract negotiations for supplies, support value analysis efforts and manage physician requests for new products. For example, QSight’s analytics identified suppliers of products owned by the health system – helping the team to manage inventory and convert to transition these items to consignment. With this transition, Sharp HealthCare did not have to carry the inventory on their books or on their floors.