Managing Disposable Consignment Inventory

A common theme across many hospitals is unused inventory. Hospitals heavily stock their shelves with perfusion supplies and equipment, much of which is rarely ever used. This can be an immense financial drain for hospitals and pose safety and liability concerns. On average, hospitals spend 10-15% on inventory management. By adjusting disposable consignment inventory, your hospital can significantly reduce costs. 

Just-In-Time Inventory

Just-in-time inventory is a more cost-effective option. This method prevents stockpiling supplies and equipment by simply providing your hospital with the inventory that you need. By only reordering the items that you need when you need them, JIT can significantly reduce storage costs and keep inventory fresh. By reducing inventory costs, hospitals can allocate those extra funds to other areas. Just-in-time inventory can also lead to more efficiency and profitability for your hospital. 

Benefits of Consignment

Consignment allows manufacturers to place inventory on a hospital’s shelves and retain ownership until they have used up all of the supplies and equipment. It’s beneficial because it shifts the financial burden from hospitals to vendors. When hospitals purchase medical supplies and equipment outright, it can take up valuable working capital. Consignment inventory frees up some of that working capital and cuts back on supply expenses. 

SpecialtyCare Consignment, Purchase or Lease Program

In response, SpecialtyCare has developed a cost-effective, risk-reducing program that provides expert oversight of perfusion capital equipment and disposables. If you participate, your hospital can eliminate waste and take advantage of our savings, skills, management, and compliance measures. We shoulder the burden of perfusion supplies and equipment so that you can continue to focus on providing the best possible care for your patients.

Key Benefits of Our Consignment Program:

  1. You don’t have to manage your inventory or absorb costs of unused or duplicate supplies. We purchase your hospital’s perfusion-related inventory, stocking and owning the supplies until all items are utilized. Orders through multiple vendors are eliminated, cutting the costs of vendor fees and duplicate orders. We also handle invoicing, ensuring that products being used are invoiced per procedure, by patient, with product and quantity details.
  2. You don’t have to worry about expired supplies or the replacement of recalled equipment — it’s all handled for you, reducing your liability and costs. We assess the inventory so that all expired disposables are removed, the risk of abandoned or lost inventory is reduced, and recalls for equipment or supplies are managed in compliance with the manufacturer and FDA requirements (including all returns and replacement costs).
  3. You receive savings based on our vendor partnerships and bulk purchasing. We receive special pricing from vendors (due to our purchases for over 1,100 hospitals) and are able to pass on the savings to your hospital — including zero shipping costs and no charges for expediting.

A hospital spending $50k annually could save up to $75k by participating in the SpecialtyCare Consignment Program. We’ll manage your perfusion inventory in our proprietary database, and our dedicated Clinical Manager will work with your surgeons and administrators to ensure ongoing needs are met. 

About SpecialtyCare

SpecialtyCare is dedicated to providing an exceptional patient experience, becoming the OR employer of choice, and leading the way in OR innovation. They do this through staffing operating rooms and providing the equipment needed for medical procedures.

SpecialtyCare

Over 13,500 physicians in more than 1,100 hospitals trust SpecialtyCare to help them achieve exceptional care outcomes, regulatory compliance, and financial results. With more than 1,800 associates supporting almost 400,000 procedures annually, we maintain SCOPE, the SpecialtyCare Operative Procedural Registry®, which is used to define standards, determine benchmarks, establish best practices, foster innovation, and identify opportunities to reduce clinical variation that result in improved patient outcomes, increased efficiencies, and minimized costs. We are accredited and certified by The Joint Commission. By developing expertise beyond industry requirements, our customers can be certain they have the best partner for clinical excellence in perfusion, ECMO, autotransfusion, patient blood management, intraoperative neuromonitoring, deep brain stimulation, surgical assist, minimally invasive surgical support, and sterile processing consulting.