When it comes to healthcare costs, it helps to be part of a large organization like Essentia Health so you can leverage the best prices on the best products. There are also clinical and technical benefits to standardizing medical equipment across our regions.
Using a process called value analysis, committees across Essentia are coming together to assess supply and equipment needs and get quality products at cost savings. A recent Brainerd vendor fair gave several departments and Value Analysis teams, supported by Supply Chain operations, the opportunity to meet face-to-face and learn about the unique needs of each Essentia facility for patient monitoring equipment. Who better to participate in the process than physicians, staff and technical experts who use and manage the products?
“It’s exciting to bring our stakeholders together face-to-face and to see them working together and building bonds. One of main goals is to learn to collaborate more in value analysis,” explains Dave Holst, Essentia’s Director of Value Analysis.
“Our goals are to identify the equipment that will best serve our patients and staff, standardize to that equipment, and integrate its function for the system. In Brainerd, we met for presentations from top manufacturers,” Holst says. “Our next steps will be to work with the project team to review feedback from this event, conduct further analysis, and develop our strategy going forward in alignment as a system.”
Essentia-wide Value Analysis teams spotlight Essentia’s values – teamwork and being good stewards of our resources.
“Our mission was to think about the equipment needs system-wide what would work best across our regions,” says Kari Tchida, Nurse Manager of the NICU at Essentia Health-St. Mary’s Children's Hospital. “The best part of the process was the chance for our teams to sit down at a table and learn from each other.”
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The teams that met in Brainerd included (back row, from left) Dennis Smith, Nancy Law, Deb Lisdahl, Mary Pezze, Traci Orvis, Colleen Frost, Amy Vogt, Tess Rice, Jennifer Abfalter, Ben Evenson, Paul Hensen, (middle row) Dan Barnes, Jeanette Ruff, Dawn Ray, Dave Holst, Beeanna Hook, Kim Hemmerich, Brian Schielke, (front row) Deb Peters, Kathy Miller and Kari Tchida.
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| (Back row, from left) Larry Dyson, Nilsen Bergquist, Dr. Mark Grim, Anna Bird, Sandy Alinder, Jan Anderson, Leah Martinettie, Chad Hanson, (middle row) Mark Johnson, Andrea Haar, Dawn Boman, Gaylene Wise, Denise Whitehead, Becca Gaviglio, Dr. Greg Davis, Dustin Holzworth, Paula Person, Bob Bulik, (front row) Traci Orvis, Dawn Cich and Sara Deutsch. |