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TrackCore SameDay Case Study
CONE
HEALTH
Revamps its Bill-Only
Purchase Order Process by Leveraging the TrackCore SameDay Software
The TrackCore
Partnership
In 2014, Cone Health partnered with TrackCore, Inc. with a successful implementation at The Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital which led to TrackCore’s expansion across the entire network. The project resulted in a consistent, compliant, enterprise workflow to manage biologic tissues and implantable medical devices. Shortly thereafter, Cone Health invested in TrackCore’s integrated RFID storage solutions for enhanced security and visibility of their high-cost inventory.
With tissue compliance managed, Cone Health redirected its focus towards improving another critical workflow in the hospital supply chain; the process surrounding physician preference, same-day delivered implants, commonly known as “Bill-Only”.
Between 2019 - 2022, Cone Health
issued more than
34,000
purchase orders with over
unique suppliers.
90
These purchase orders included
more than
196,000
individual line items
all manually keyed into the
hospital's ERP system that totaled
nearly
$162,000,000
The team managing these orders certainly identified areas of improvement, noting that some of their key workflow gaps and frustrations were:
-
Supplier paperwork missing key information such as patient and case identifiers, or supplier contact information.
-
Errors such as incorrect catalog numbers or quantities being provided on supplier paperwork.
-
Significant time spent:
-
researching item numbers against supplier paperwork
-
verifying clinical charts against supplier paperwork
-
validating pricing provided on supplier paperwork
-
-
scanning and emailing paperwork to the purchasing department
-
manual data entry of purchase orders and requisition line items.
-
calls and emails from suppliers inquiring about purchase orders or discussing purchase order to invoice discrepancies.
The high cost of implants and supplies that comprise bill-only orders can quickly result in payment discrepancies for the hospital, something that Cone Health frequently experienced. Further the FTE’s time spent auditing this process has considerable financial impact on the hospital. Cone Health estimated that nearly $92,000 per year was spent on FTE hours manually processing bill-only purchase orders.
Hospital Task
Monthly
Hours Spent
Annual
Cost
Entering PO Lines
into Lawson
126
1,512
Reviewing Supplier
Invoices, Pricing, Cross-
Referencing Epic Chart
85
1,020
Following up with
Suppliers and Nurses
36
432
Annual
Hours Spent
$39,810
$26,856
$11,374
Preparing paperwork
and scanning/emailing
Purchasing Department
30
360
$9,478
7
Communicating PO
Status to Suppliers
84
$2,211
Adding New Items
to Lawson
7
84
$2,211
The simple reality
is that auditing
hand-written
purchase order
request forms,
reviewing patient
sticker sheets and
other manual
documents is
archaic, and far
too often results
in overpayments
and lost EHR charges
by the hospital.
*Average wages provided by ziprecruiter.com for Surgical Buyers in the state of NC.
TrackCore SameDay empowers hospitals to better manage bill-only orders by seamlessly connecting the ERP and EHR records, reducing contract compliance issues, improving communication between the clinician, supplier, and supply chain personnel, and automating the purchase order entry process.
The SameDay workflow provides a seamless transition of information from the clinician’s chart to the supplier, and then back from the supplier to the hospital. Electronically recording approvals, noting charges, and highlighting discrepancies along the way.
From 2018 - 2020, Cone Health agreed to serve as a pilot for the SameDay
application, rolling the solution out to Moses Cone Hospital, and then later expanding to each of its affiliates and surgery centers. The scope included several integrations with the hospital’s EHR and ERP systems, each uniquely designed to bridge the communication gaps between the clinical chart, supplier paperwork, and supply chain data entry processes.
A high-volume supplier was chosen for the pilot, including three unique business units representing their spine, ortho, and craniomaxilofacial specialties. The pilot expanded to roughly 25 suppliers at Moses Cone Hospital before gradually expanding to more than 85 suppliers across the network.
In 2020, Moses
Cone Hospital issued a mere 300 PO’s to 4 unique suppliers and had an average delivery lead time of 6.9 days.
In 2022, more
than 1,700 PO’s
were issued to
10 unique
suppliers, and
those lead times
were reduced
to 3.6 days.
In just the first half of 2023, ConeHealth issued more than 1,700 PO’s to 20+ unique suppliers and their average lead time has dropped to 3 days.
The Cone Health team has noted
several efficiencies gained through the
implementation of TrackCore SameDay, stating that it helped enable remote access to the data for both the hospital and suppliers involved, it reduced time spent creating and auditing requisitions, and it provided a consistent process for all employees and facilities to follow.
The team noted that the supplier's role in the bill-only process has evolved to provide more accountability, more consistency, better visibility, faster turnaround times, and the ability to build a team atmosphere. Bill-only procedure volumes are projected to grow significantly over the next 5-10 years, placing a stronger emphasis on building and improving supplier relationships.