Evolving Supply Chain across the continuum of care

For the last few decades, the primary focus of healthcare supply chain leaders has been servicing multiple hospital campuses within the health systems. But the introduction of accountable care models and population health programs has expanded the supply chain focus to include servicing care sites across the continuum of care, such as rehabilitation centers, nursing homes, physician offices, home care, etc. The Affordable Care Act of 2010 has propelled the nation’s healthcare providers to envision and implement new models of patient care delivery to improve quality and reduce costs. This shift in the approach to patient care is resulting in supply chain programs expanding to cover both acute and non-acute care patient care sites, and the trend is expected to grow.

In an effort to support this shift in focus, the Strategic Marketplace Initiative (SMI), a non-profit, member-driven community of healthcare supply chain thought-leaders, has released six new resources to educate the healthcare industry about the continuing evolution of supply chain across the continuum of care. The practice of managing the supply chain activities for clinics, offices, and non-hospital sites has become one of the biggest challenges facing the supply chain programs of SMI members and the industry.

A team of SMI industry thought-leader members assembled these new resources to help supply chain professionals meet the demands of this changing marketplace. These new resources – called “Servicing the Continuum of Care,” – are available for download free of charge on the SMI website, and are designed to help supply chain professionals understand the needs of the non-acute care market’s supply logistics, cost management, and clinical integration.

There are six different products available for download: a supply chain program handbook, two on-demand webinars and three healthcare provider program profiles.