19 March 2023Healthcare Sector and Its ChallengesMost of our focus with these mergers has been on the economy and where we can get better contract pricing. Our supply chain folks have been looking at the details of our contract and finding ways so that we can essentially save money. We've saved a substantial amount of around 10 million in the first year since our successful merger with Elmhurst and NorthShore. HOW DID THE SUPPLY CHAIN DISRUPTION AFFECT YOU?The supply chain disruption caused a ripple across the industry, and everyone had to switch gears to try and react to that. We had a CT contract, and 90 percent of our contract was made by GE Healthcare in one plant in Shanghai, China, whose manufacturing plant was closed down for weeks due to the pandemic. There were alternate suppliers like Bracco and Bayer, but they couldn't absorb all of the lost volumes and affected the global supply chain, and operations had to change because of it. We were fortunate and did not have to amend our protocol because we had a relationship with Bracco as we were already ordering from them.Most people did not have that luxury because they were buying all their supplies from one vendor to get better pricing. They were stuck by contracts and couldn't buy from anyone else. These other suppliers weren't going to come to their rescue because they had their regular customers to take care of and did not have the bandwidth, given the situation. So, the supply chain disruption significantly hurt their operations and profit margins. Hospitals should try working with different vendors while still keeping their economies up with a creative contract. They should have a backup agreement to help them in such situations, the price might be higher, but they'll be glad that they had it and could use it.HOW HAVE THE ADVANCEMENTS IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AFFECTED THE RADIOLOGY SECTOR?We see developments across IT companies in AI software regarding radiology to make them more efficient. Most of it is driven on the position side where you've got a radiologist who reads imaging all day long, and the AI software aims at finding potential pathology by running the imaging through an algorithm and putting it up on the top of the list, so the reading list is triaged considering acuteness. We have not embarked on that much but are working with a company called ADOC that we may engage with. WHAT WOULD BE YOUR PIECE OF ADVICE TO YOUR PEERS TO CREATE A SUSTAINABLE SYSTEM IN THEIR ORGANIZATION? My advice would be to think outside the box and take care of recruitment and retention. Our workforce is changing, and people want a more personalized work experience. They want to be recognized and acknowledged for their work. Talking to the staff and getting to know what drives them and what they want is the key we have to focus on. Engaging and affiliating with schools has helped us a lot with the staffing issue. The ability to conduct interviews and accept their students has helped us grow as an organization. The pandemic has painted a specific picture of the profession where people don't want to get into healthcare because of COVID-19
< Page 9 | Page 11 >