A Need for Change
Ordering supplies is an in-person task shared by all healthcare systems that has long been conducted within the confines of the hospital. But the COVID-19 pandemic has exemplified why it’s important to have options when you’re on the go or not in the typical hospital setting.
During the pandemic, many healthcare workers who previously spent most of their time in a routine setting have become less tethered to their locations and desktop computers. Staffing shortages have led to nurses being shared between hospitals, resulting in them often being on the go. But workplace responsibilities – such as ordering items– have remained frozen in place. Or have they?
Expanding the Four Walls
In the digitally transforming supply chain world, clinical staff need flexibility to extend procurement past the four walls of the supply chain. Prodigo Solutions’ Marketplace Mobile Edition extends Prodigo’s Marketplace ordering functionality to employees who are on the move. Marketplace Mobile Edition is an efficient, mobile requisitioning tool that exposes approved supplies and services to your requester community via the quick scan of a barcode or a traditional search.
As a user-friendly, intuitive requisitioning platform that directs a user’s search and purchasing activity to the health system’s preferred sources at the right, contracted price, Marketplace controls the entire health system spend, provides 100% data transparency into purchasing behavior across multiple locations and increases compliance and utilization. Marketplace is a vital tool used by many of the leading health systems, so ensuring its flexibility and adaptability in the ever-changing supply chain world is essential.
Whether working in a patient’s home, or from different hospital locations, Mobile Edition allows staff to continue shopping on behalf of their homebase or be instantly onboarded and enabled to start ordering items for any other locations where they’re also working. This is a theme that will continue to trend as the demand for home health access evolves.
Easy to Use
Prodigo offers B2B solutions, but Mobile Edition brings in a B2C component. If you’ve ever engaged in mobile shopping – for groceries, for example – you already know how to use our Mobile Edition. At Prodigo, we’re not going against the grain, but rather providing a mobile experience that feels familiar.
Using Mobile Edition is just as, if not more, user-friendly than traditional methods of reordering supplies. It’s as easy as scan, confirm, and go. While clinical staff previously might have manually entered items on a computer while ordering, Mobile Edition uses the built-in scan and capture functionality on your phone. Bar codes on product or case ID sheets can be scanned to quickly display item attributes, serial numbers, GTIN, HCPCS, images, and more on Mobile Edition to better enrich the ordering experience. This also provides a touchless, individualized process for all staff.
Time Saving
Many healthcare workers would tell you they spend an inordinate amount of time dealing with supply chain-related issues. In fact, a 2017 Becker’s Hospital Review article noted that many clinicians spend up to 20% of their time on these tasks rather than caring for patients. Mobile Edition can help cut down on time spent on administrative tasks.
Clinicians are often tasked with monitoring their own stock, and ensuring they have an ideal PAR level of supplies, a burden that has only increased with supply chain shortages in the wake of the pandemic. Typically, a clinician would have to make time to complete manual searches on a computer and order items. Imagine clinical staff having the ability to scan items while in a patient’s home, or on the hospital floor while performing clinical tasks, and building multiple saved carts throughout the day to be left with a simple finalized checkout at the end of a shift. Now they can.
The benefit of Mobile Edition is that it enables staff to scan items whenever they need to and wherever they are, removing time, additional steps, and potential errors from the process.
Enforcing Compliance
Even though a clinical staff member might be on the move, using Mobile Edition ensures they are not risking compliance. Mobile Edition enforces both product and contract compliance by providing users access to approved, preferred, contracted items. Predetermined tags or weights, for example, can push a specific stocked or functional equivalent item up in the results.
For nurses traveling from hospital to hospital, a mobile option could be especially helpful, as preferred items are not necessarily the same at every hospital. A nurse on the go can build a unique cart for each unique location based on the items needed.
Embedding Bill Only
Prodigo’s Bill Only workflow integrates with Mobile Edition to shift the burden of order entry from clinical staff to the suppliers. Bill Only provides the tools needed to automate, audit, and approve bill-only items from the point of service through the procurement lifecycle. This solution provides a convenient entry point for both health system clinical users and suppliers to capture case attributes for downstream tracking and reporting. Although not a part of the health system, suppliers can be enabled to access their unique content to build a cart with bill-only items, to later be reviewed and approved by health system staff.
A Smooth Transition
Mobile Edition helps ensure that the transition to new ordering processes goes smoothly or streamlines existing methods. It’s an easy-to-use, time-saving requisitioning tool that enables clinical staff on the move to order necessary supplies for all situations, all the while ensuring that orders are contractually compliant.
Adapting to changes in the workplace can be challenging, especially when figuring out how to ensure that tasks that haven’t changed are completed as new trends transform the work experience. But technology partners like Prodigo Solutions can help make simple, everyday supply chain tasks easier through new and traditional methods. Contact us to learn more about how.
Additional Resources
Supply Chain and the Evolution of Home Health Care
Marketplace: virtual e-commerce solution