Beginning in 2012, average year-over-year hospital costs have grown at a rate exceeding revenue growth. Pressure to maintain healthcare spending continues to intensify and supply chain costs have reached an all-time high. As organizations attempt to reduce spend, physician preference items (or PPI) are a clear target for supply chain cost containment strategies.
What is a PPI? Physician preference items are objects and tools a clinician uses to treat patients. These items can be bought from numerous manufacturers, but physicians typically have a favorite product from a specific company – making that item “preferred”. PPI could be as simple as a favorite type of surgical glove, or as complex as an implantable total hip replacement.
In the past, healthcare organizations have struggled to accurately track, measure, and limit physician preference items. According to a recent interview on Becker’s ASC Review, PPI can represent 50% or more of a surgery center’s spend.1 Price variances can range up to 442% across facilities and surgery centers commonly budget more than 60% of total supply chain costs for PPI.2 Luckily, healthcare data analytics have become more robust and established easier methodologies for limiting PPI spend.
Relatable Healthcare standardizes and compiles product specific medical device data to power Relatable’s Product Data Catalog (PDC). With proper data structure, Relatable’s software platform offers the ability to analyze PPI usage at the enterprise, facility, and individual surgeon level. This insight allows both surgeons and administrators to visualize price point comparisons for specific PPI thus rendering a fair market value for each product (increasing negotiating power) and preventing future cost creep. In addition, Relatable’s Guided Purchase Solution (GPS) system uses proprietary algorithms to offer alternative product recommendations, educating each physician and healthcare team on potentially lower cost options (if they are willing to switch).
If you are a healthcare administrator, surgeon, or stakeholder looking to begin controlling PPI and other medical device costs through actionable data and recommendations for your surgical centers, contact Relatable Healthcare through the button below. We would love to help!
Below are the articles referenced in this post. A big thank you to Becker’s ASC Review for unintentionally advertising many reasons to use Relatable Healthcare’s platform!
ASC supply chain tip of the day: Focus on physician preference items
3 things to know about physician preference items & ASCs