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Summary from case study authored by Northwestern Medicine, Cardinal Health WaveMark™ Solutions customer. Case study originally published in peer-reviewed journal Perioperative Care and Operating Room Management.

After labor costs, hospital supplies are the second largest hospital expenditure, and management of such product inventory is complex. Many supply management processes are manual, reactive, unclear and are often overseen by both clinical and supply chain logistics teams, creating layers of challenges. Without the necessary supplies on hand, clinical teams resort to overstocking product which can lead to waste as those products may expire. Even more importantly, patient safety is potentially impacted.

When Northwestern Medicine experienced significant challenges managing its hospital supply inventory, the team implemented a comprehensive quality improvement initiative and turned to Cardinal Health WaveMark™ Solutions for help. The large hospital system adopted WaveMark™ clinical supply chain technology to track and report use, non-use and location of supplies – all aimed to reduce operating/procedural room waste, inefficiencies, staff frustration and potential risk to quality of care.

Upon implementing and optimizing the WaveMark™ solution across 37 surgical and procedural departments within 11 hospitals, Northwestern saw major improvement across its supply chain. The system improved product expiration by 78% and supply waste by 50% with an 11% reduction in owned inventory. 

“With a data-driven strategy, powered by WaveMark technology, our organization’s supply chain moved from reactive to proactive,” said Alisha Beringer, Director of Supply Chain Distribution & Logistics, Northwestern Medicine. “The combination of people, processes and technology transformed our supply chain, bridging the gap between our clinical and logistics organizations.”

Read the full case study, including methodologies and results, published in Perioperative Care and Operating Room Management.