Looking to ‘Lead the Way’? Collaboration, innovation are paramount.

May 2, 2024

By Erin Cristales, Vizient

If ever there was a time to "lead the way," it's now.

Four years after the pandemic permanently altered the healthcare landscape, financial pressures remain a frustrating reality for suppliers and providers. But out of this "new normal" has emerged a different way of thinking: Tough times have inspired a collaborative mindset that is poised to drive true transformation.

"Now is our time to double down on the value we create for providers - not always focusing on the price point of a product, but how it can make a difference in the patient experience or outcome, workforce efficiency, and other areas of meaningful clinical and operational impact," said Vizient CEO Byron Jobe as he welcomed attendees to the 2024 Vizient Supplier Forum, themed "Lead the Way." "The next two days are focused on exactly that: How we together can lift up the performance of the entire healthcare industry."

At the annual event - which this year took place April 25-26 at the Omni PGA Frisco - experts from across the company emphasized to the supplier audience the importance of true partnerships rather than transactional relationships (a prevailing pillar of Vizient's approach to strategic supplier performance), along with leveraging Vizient data, tools and insights to assist providers in their high-performance journeys.

"You all are innovators by the very nature of your work and collectively, you should be very proud of your accomplishments - I hear so many examples of how your organizations are innovating and partnering with providers in new and unique ways," Jobe said. "I truly believe that when we are aligned together to better serve providers, we have the chance to make a difference for patients and our communities."

This mission has prompted a reinvention of Vizient's spend management approach, including through the recent alignment of pharmacy, lab, capital and medical-surgical categories under one leader. It also involves harnessing the power of data, insights and consulting to augment the power of aggregation by customer segment to meet healthcare's unique needs and solve complex problems.

"Our customers are under immense pressure and facing different challenges as they navigate cost, quality and growth. How we partner with them is key to aiding in their performance improvement," said Simrit Sandhu, president, spend management.

Mainstage panels at the event further discussed opportunities for collaboration across the healthcare ecosystem:

From left, John Becker, SVP, sales, service and insights delivery; Lara Latham, SVP, spend management delivery; Ryan Freel, Kaufman Hall, managing director; Byron Jobe, CEO

ECONOMIC OUTLOOK

John Becker, SVP, sales, service and insights delivery; Ryan Freel, Kaufman Hall, managing director; Lara Latham, SVP, spend management delivery

The big takeaway: Health systems face an uphill climb to full financial recovery - and suppliers have an indispensable role in supporting that ascent.

"We're operating in a new normal," Freel said. "Cost basis and labor costs have increased - that's not a short-term change. Those who are trying new things and innovating are the ones who are doing by far the best."

Ecosystem insights:

• Providers are seeing a combination of higher cost basis (mainly labor) with little to no ability to increase price (the nature of payer contracts), which means margins decline. Patient volumes are returning but in the outpatient setting, meaning lower reimbursement. So, even with volume growth there is less margin at the end of the day.
• Some hospitals are doing better financially and operationally - academic medical centers and higher-acuity facilities are full, smaller community hospitals are struggling. Demographics matter, but so do strategy, patient mix and market dynamics.

What you should know…

• Suppliers should focus on understanding the needs of hospital leaders and branch into true partnerships.
• Providers are craving partnerships and trust-based relationships, and the more they view suppliers as partners in helping them solve their problems, the better the outcome for all stakeholders.
• When suppliers understand the economics of healthcare, growth strategies and customer operating plans, they exemplify empathy and can finetune their message, build out services and more effectively partner to achieve better care for patients.
• Know what your customers are measuring and orient your message with their words. Features belong to products; benefits belong to customers.
• If you're not changing, change won't happen.

"All of us need to think carefully about how we connect with the entire system," Becker said. "The concern with point solutions in healthcare - whether it's digital or a novel new entrant - is that if it's not connected to the overall healthcare market, then it's not helping with the total cost of care. It's not about a single point solution, but rather how you fit into the overall flow of the ultimate patient outcome."

Dan Kistner, GM, category management and strategic programs and Bonnie Lai, SVP and GM, clinical and physician preference, drove home a particularly relevant golf metaphor at the event.

UNLEASHING THE POWER OF SPEND MANAGEMENT

Dan Kistner, GM, category management and strategic programs; Bonnie Lai, SVP and GM, clinical and physician preference

The big takeaway: Golf may be an individual sport, but the biennial Ryder Cup transforms it into a team event. There's passion, accomplishment, camaraderie! If golfers can come together, so can healthcare stakeholders.

"We recognize that we need to up our game and help our providers deliver better, higher-value care," Lai said. "To win, we need to partner together in driving growth, providing access to stakeholders, mobilizing around data and market insights, and improving patient care."

Ecosystem insights:

• No surprise, margin pressures have intensified with increases in patient volumes and length of stay - and, according to the Vizient Operational Database, operating expenses are up 21.3% since 2019. These realities have led high-performing health systems to maximize their resources by reimagining care delivery models.
• Drug shortages remain another huge hurdle. In response, Vizient programs like Novaplus, Novaplus Enhanced Supply and Novaplus Enhanced Reserve ensure more supply and predictability, with record-breaking impact including more than 3.4 million total units accessed, over 33,500 requests from 1,300 facilities (2024 year-to-date), and 268% growth year-over-year in NES Reserve participation.
• Cell, gene and advanced therapeutics are critical areas for future collaboration. Since these drugs exist outside the normal supply chain infrastructure, they require new relationships to solve for unique challenges faced by providers and suppliers.

What you should know…

• To help providers improve outcomes and lower total cost of care, suppliers need visibility into complex data and competitive intelligence; access to appropriate provider stakeholders; incubation and innovation with providers to improve care; and opportunity for growth. In 2025, look for Vizient's Pharmacy Market Outlook and Budget Impact Projections Report to combine to provide an integrated forecast for pharmacy, med-surg, lab, blood and capital.
• Vizient is reinventing the GPO to optimize performance through opportunities for growth; engaging all stakeholders; mobilizing around data and market intelligence; improving care; and elevating expertise and resources across all categories. In fact, three suppliers joined Kistner and Lai to share how Vizient's role as a convener led to successful collaborations that directly improved patient outcomes.

Beth Godsey, SVP, Data Science and Product and Platform Strategy

DATA-POWERED GROWTH: UNLOCKING SOLUTIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS

Beth Godsey, SVP, Data Science and Product and Platform Strategy

The big takeaway: If you want the U.S. to become the most effective, efficient and data-driven healthcare system in the world, that means aligning stakeholders and scaling non-provider customer value. Vizient is committed to doing both.

"Vizient is investing in how we report and provide insights not only for our provider community but also for the non-provider community," Godsey said. "We have vast market share and future demand planning insights for both providers and non-providers to support future planning and growth."

Ecosystem insights:

• There are major data challenges for healthcare decision makers including no visibility to authoritative demand forecasting across procedures and disease states; a need for more granularity for marketing sizing, segmentation and sales territories; access to real-world data is dated with poor coverage; and limited clinical-, financial- and outcomes-based analyses to support research and improve performance.
• In the current healthcare climate, market intelligence for medical device, demand forecasting, and labor and expense insights are especially crucial.

What you should know…

• Suppliers have access to Vizient capabilities including demand forecasting and methodology, comprehensive transaction-level purchasing data, clinical data sets and methodologies, procedural insights and provider intelligence, such as labor and expense insights for benchmarking and comparisons.
• The data and digital roadmap for life sciences value entails aligning to the needs of the supplier community, enabling provider and supplier collaborations, and ultimately creating a unified platform for strategic partnerships.
• Suppliers can become innovation partners by helping to shape Vizient's developing data portfolio.

From left, Bonnie Lai, SVP and GM, clinical and physician preference; Mark Schreiber, VP, national accounts, Edwards Lifesciences; Karl Karlsson, VP, Sg2 life sciences and industry

CONVENING SUCCESSFUL SUPPLIER/PROVIDER PARTNERSHIPS

Karl Karlsson, VP, Sg2 life sciences and industry; Bonnie Lai, SVP and GM, clinical and physician preference; Mark Schreiber, VP, national accounts, Edwards Lifesciences, critical care

The big takeaway: When Vizient, Edwards Lifesciences and a provider collaborated on a clinical pilot to reduce cardiac complications, the results were, well … heartening. They included both a reduction in length of stay and decrease in cost per case as validated using the Vizient Clinical Data Base (CDB).

"This partnership is a great example of how - by optimizing the system, looking at challenges more holistically and proving the impact on patient outcomes - we can move forward and solve healthcare challenges together," Lai said.

What you should know…

• To succeed in the market, think differently and more creatively about how to leverage the Vizient relationship with providers.
• Relationships matter - people work with those they trust, so creating trust-based partnerships is key to continued success.
• Going beyond the contract and working in ways that truly foster collaboration, or co-laboring, is a win-win.

"None of this happens without relationships," Schreiber said. "Taking the time and effort to develop the relationships - being there with them, listening to their concerns and working through those challenges together with your customers - means a lot."

John Grande, Group SVP and GM, spend management services and delivery

GUIDING YOU IN SUCCESSFUL FIELD TEAM ENGAGEMENT

John Grande, Group SVP, spend management services and delivery

The big takeaway: Anyone who works in the healthcare ecosystem understands there's a patient at the end of every transaction. Remembering that will guide the importance of your work, particularly in challenging times - and help you figure out how to unlock value, together.

"At the end of the day, if we're focused on value delivery, we're going to be successful together," Grande said. "The value equation doesn't work if you're only an advocate for one side."

Ecosystem insights:

• Healthcare challenges and market noise continue to mount. A few of 2024's healthcare signals include new entrants becoming established competitors, culture shifts, executive turnover, payer consolidation and population health declines.
• Suppliers at the event noted their top criteria for value exchange includes strategic vs. transactional relationships, engagement at the field level and transparency.

What you should know…

• Value exchange and transparency are supported by enhanced data capture that benefits supplier partners. That includes Vizient Spend Analytics, which identifies savings and standardization opportunities and access to performance trends, among other capabilities. Other tools include ENVI®, a platform for nonacute providers and independent community hospitals, as well as distributor data where 11 acute and 11 nonacute distributors provide monthly sales reporting.
• It's important to look at total value delivery (not just price) and have honest conversations about what it's going to take for providers to implement suggested solutions.

Day two concluded with Vizient experts facilitating small groups of suppliers for interactive peer-to-peer discussions on challenges that face healthcare, as well as Vizient subject matter experts leading breakouts for category-level strategic overviews and discussions.

Learn moreabout how Vizient supports suppliers to drive sustainable performance.