Mercyhealth clinicians, Medline are defying the standard on standardization

Mercyhealth clinicians, Medline are defying the standard on standardization

Two-day product summit at Medline headquarters an immediate template for giving bedside experts a bigger say in streamlining supplies, saving costs

Seeing is believing. So with 13 acute-care clinicians and specialists from the Mercyhealth regional health system watching her presentation on patient cleansing last month during a two-day standardization "summit" at Medline's headquarters in Northfield, Ill., Medline product manager Rachel Peters unwrapped a ReadyBath Rinse-Free Shampoo and Conditioning Cap, one of 190,000-plus Medline-branded solutions in the company's distribution catalog, and walked across the room to a wastebasket.

She massaged the cap to activate it, then twisted and squeezed.

And squeezed. And squeezed.

"As you can see, there's a lot of solution here," Peters said, wringing wave after wave of liquid into the wastebasket. "It just keeps going."

The visiting clinicians looked on curiously. A few jotted notes. All were Mercyhealth colleagues, many working with each other in person for the first time despite living only 40 minutes apart between northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Earlier in the summit, during other presentations by Medline staff representing nine product categories, the guests passed post-op dressings around a conference table - Medline dressings clearly marked with an "M," competing products unmarked - and pressed them to their skin to test the stickiness of the adhesive. They tugged at foam wound dressings to gauge their stretch. They held wipes to their faces, checking the texture and scent (or lack thereof). They asked detailed questions about "intelligent" warming units, solutions for repositioning patients, products for protecting skin or for cleaning up after incontinence episodes.

Later, during a two-part "fair" in the Medline atrium, they got their hands on the products again, asked additional questions of Medline's experts and - empowered by committees back home to make binding decisions - used an app on their smartphones to vote, case by case, on whether to switch to a Medline-branded product or stick with what they had.

For most observers, the event was exactly what it looked like: hospital clinicians with literal seats at the table, working with Medline to simplify the products used in their healthcare system while also trimming costs.

For Amy Whitaker, Mercyhealth's corporate vice president of supply chain, it was something more: déjà vu. Since stepping into the hospital supply chain world in 2008, Whitaker, a nurse by training, has strived to give her fellow clinicians more influence. Five years ago with a different healthcare system, newly created through a merger, she was the driving force behind a summit much like this one - a streamlining exercise with Medline that reduced costs by $2.1 million.

"Medline helped to drive much of that standardization, taking our historical differences and bringing them to the table, with everyone choosing the products the new health system would use together," Whitaker said.

'The normal process would take five months'

This time around, the circumstances were different - but not terribly. Although Mercyhealth formed nearly a decade ago in early 2015 - a combination of healthcare organizations in Janesville, Wis., and Rockford, Ill. - the two sides carried on with mismatched systems for years. That changed in 2022, when Whitaker was recruited to help sort through the disconnect and create a clinical integration program. After an enormous yearlong conversion process to get all of Mercyhealth onto one ordering system, and with a budgeting shortfall in 2024, she knew that standardizing product selection was her next challenge. And she remembered how Medline - which Mercyhealth recently renewed as its prime vendor distribution partner through 2029 - had helped speed up that process before.

"We could standardize alone through our local clinical integration committees," Whitaker explained. "But facing budget constraints, as many health systems are today, we're also trying to drive value. And so that was one of the big discussions when I spoke with Medline again: If I can get a room full of clinicians and we can talk through multiple product categories, we could make decisions on many of them right away. The normal process for that would take five months. Getting everybody at the table, we've been able to move so much quicker."

That they have. Over the course of the summit, Mercyhealth clinicians - led by Tammy Faulkner and Dana Tucker, Whitaker's clinical integration program managers - reviewed a total of 102 Medline Brand items across the nine spotlighted categories and accepted 96.2% of them. In other words, most of those smartphone votes were "yes," with exact savings yet to be determined.

"Business-minded people who work in healthcare on the support-service side see healthcare in a very different way than a clinician does. It's important for the clinicians - physicians, surgeons, nurses, nurse assistants, techs - to have a say and a voice."

Whitaker said her delegation appreciated Medline's educational approach to each product shown.

"Every presentation brought a different level of a-ha moments," she said. "Saving money most definitely is one of the driving factors. But most important is standardizing - and not just standardizing the products. There's so much conversation around the education. When you're using three different types of products for the same purpose within a system, that's three different educations that have to happen, and that's confusing for clinicians. And then, on top of it, what if you're a traveling clinician and you only get a very abbreviated orientation and you have all these different product variables? That's inevitably how an error happens. Standardizing can hopefully reduce any type of error and patient harm."

For Rob Sheedy, director of acute care sales for Medline, the benefits of sitting down together are mutual.

"Looking at products and processes that can deliver value and standardization all at once is really quite a unique opportunity," Sheedy said. "Our contract renewal has been a vehicle for Medline and Mercyhealth to partner more closely. The Mercyhealth team is getting to know our clinical team. They're getting to know our clinical capabilities. And at the same time, we're getting into products and programs and how we can be a better partner. Both organizations are educating and learning from each other."

Clinicians for credibility

What comes next? Whitaker expects "Phase 2" of standardization in six to eight months, after Mercyhealth completes conversions of the new products it accepted. This next phase will involve what she called "tougher" product categories more closely tied to physician preferences - but still with the goal of driving value and savings.

And still with clinicians wielding their expertise.

"Compared to when I first came over into supply chain from the bedside, there are definitely more clinicians actively employed in supply chain healthcare," Whitaker said. "However, does that mean there's not still a void? Absolutely not. There's a gap. Business-minded people who work in healthcare on the support-service side see healthcare in a very different way than a clinician does. It's important for the clinicians - physicians, surgeons, nurses, nurse assistants, techs - to have a say and a voice."

Whitaker's top deputies echo this.

"Having the clinicians on the front end engaged in these conversations, in the decision-making on products and the characteristics of the products, on what works best - not only for the patient but also for the clinician and how they're going to use the product - is key in bridging the gap between supply chain and the clinician," Faulkner said.

Added Tucker: "Clinicians are the subject-matter experts. They are the ones using the products, treating patients day in and day out. So their voice should be heard, and we want their feedback as we continue to build relationships with our partners, so that we can ensure what we're bringing to our patients continues to be valuable."

Whitaker said she believes "you don't have to be a part of a healthcare-system merger for this type of event to be successful."

"As we've seen here ourselves," she said, "if a system is looking to build credibility with its clinicians and be able to make some decisions quickly and leverage those decisions for future conversations by establishing a baseline, then this could be a perfect format."

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