Tufts Medicine Transforms Supply Chain Operations for $15 Million in Annual Savings

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Key Takeaways

• Tufts Medicine entered a 10-year strategic partnership with Premier to elevate its supply chain operations, leveraging Premier's advanced technologies, data-driven insights and advisory-led services to enhance efficiency, reduce costs and improve clinical alignment.
• Through an innovative co-management model, Premier's advisory experts provide direct support to the Tufts supply chain team. Tufts Medicine also implemented real-time technologies, including high-value implants (HVI) dashboards, and capture key performance indicators (KPIs) and operational metrics in Control Tower.
• The partnership has already delivered significant outcomes for Tufts Medicine, including approximately $15 million in annual supply chain savings.

Tufts Medicine, a Boston-based academic health system comprising Tufts Medical Center, Lowell General Hospital and MelroseWakefield Hospital, has long been recognized for its commitment to high-quality patient care and operational excellence. As one of the region's leading healthcare providers, the organization has consistently demonstrated its ability to adapt to evolving industry demands, including the growing complexity of supply chain operations.

Consistently recognized as a supply chain of distinction, Tufts Medicine was looking for a partner that could further elevate its supply chain operations to meet the growing demands of its diverse service network. They found one in 2023, entering a 10-year strategic partnership with Premier to expand and enhance their supply chain capabilities. This collaboration laid the groundwork for achieving an ambitious vision to integrate advanced technologies, data-driven insights and operational expertise across Tufts Medicine's network.

Already a tenured member of Premier'sgrouppurchasingorganization (GPO), Tufts Medicine had benefited from the competitive pricing, smarter savings and faster innovation of Premier's industry-leading national contracts and committed programs like Surpass. However, faced with rising operational costs and the need for greater supply chain resilience in a turbulent healthcare landscape, Tufts Medicine recognized the opportunity to further enhance its supply chain strategy.

A Complete Staffing Model for Seamless Integration

In November 2023, Tufts adopted a co-management model with Premier, overseen by a unique Governance/Partnership structure and leveraging the company's supply chain advisory services to co-manage the people, processes and technologies needed to drive efficiency and total cost management.

By January 2024, Tufts Medicine's full supply chain team, including leadership and staff, had transitioned to Premier while remaining embedded on-site at Tufts hospitals - supported by Premier's deep supply chain expertise along with cutting-edge data and technologies.

This transition did not mirror a traditional managed services model. Instead, it represented a true partnership in which Premier consultants support Tufts Medicine's supply chain operations, ensuring improved efficiencies, greater cost savings and smooth integration with clinical priorities.

"The advisory resources have been phenomenal," said John Gugliotta, System Senior Vice President - Supply Chain. "We've been able to successfully integrate their support and technical capability with our on-site team, and created an effective and invaluable partnership."

Expert Support and Advanced Technologies Meet Real-World Application

In addition to hands-on, embedded support, to drive sustainable, transformational change, Tufts Medicine leverages Premier solutions including:

• Advanced supply chain technologies: With the implementation of Premier's High-Value Implants (HVI) Dashboard, the Tufts Medicine team gained comprehensive visibility into physician preference items including implants, which typically account for 40 to 60 percent of supply chain costs in hospitals. The dashboard tracks critical metrics such as usage, cost and inventory levels, enabling Tufts to manage these high-value items more effectively.
• Additionally, with Premier'ssupply chain solutions, Tufts can aggregate and standardize systemwide spend and utilization data. For example, Premier's "control tower" strategy provides a centralized view of systemwide supply chain data, allowing Tufts to monitor utilization, costs and operational performance across its facilities. "We're using [Premier's control tower approach] to amalgamate all the different datasets," Gugliotta said. "We have direct feeds from our Epic system, which provides us with a lot of utilization-specific information right down to the individual physician level."

Optimizing Operations Across the System

The partnership between Tufts Medicine and Premier validates the long-term vision outlined in their 2023 agreement. In 2024, Tufts achieved approximately $15 million in supply chain cost reduction while sustaining high levels of clinician and staff satisfaction.

"We conduct a customer service survey on an annual basis," Gugliotta said. "We did our first one last year as Premier employees, and our scores were identical, if not better, than they were previously."

Through its ongoing partnership with Premier, Tufts Medicine has not only optimized its supply chain operations but also positioned itself for future growth. By combining cutting-edge technologies, advisory support and a collaborative approach to clinical integration, the healthcare system is well on its way to achieving its long-term goal of creating a more equitable and frictionless patient experience.

"The sky is the limit in terms of what we can accomplish together," said Ryan Flaherty, Executive Director of Supply Chain Operations & Planning. "No matter how mature your supply chain is, there are always opportunities to make it better. The successes we've had together have set the stage for us to explore even more opportunities for growth and improvement.

For more:

• Learn more about Premier's supply chain technology solutions. Our experts are ready to help you transform your supply chain and unlock speed to value.

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