The Importance Of Cost Management In Health Care

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These admission diagnoses lead to a large volume of unique supplies needed for the duration of the length of stay (LOS). The costs associated with ensuring supply availability and timely delivery can add even more expense. When a unit is able to create efficiencies to this process, substantial savings may be acquired.
The materials used in the healthcare supply chain, specifically specialized and high-cost surgical products, have been on a rapid trajectory of cost increases and are becoming as expensive as the cost of staffing and benefits. What can be done to offset these costs is to manage the use and inventory of these expensive materials to enhance revenue, mitigate risk, and ensure that the focus of clinical staff is primarily on patient care (Schneller, 2011). According to Schneller (2011), supply-chain trends for the healthcare sector will place additional emphasis on lowering costs …show more content…

Hospitals appear to lag behind other industries in cost-containment measures, materials management, and inventory control. Members of clinical staff are as equally challenging to convince of the advantages of supply-chain efficiency because they are most concerned with the clinical and convenience aspect of the products in use (Cerner Perioperative Solutions, 2005).
This culture of lacking or absent support from senior leadership and clinical staff provides no foundation for necessary change to take hold. Those tasked with attempting to affect change in this environment will eventually become disenchanted with the lack of support and give up trying. Inability to break the cycle of “this is the way we have always done it” will become a show-stopping obstacle without project buy-in from leadership, clinical staff, and all other affected stakeholders. Such barriers to change can be diffused by regular and thorough communication of the strategic goals (Flowers,

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