Historic trials for cancer treatment. A top-50 ranking center for pediatric cardiology. Groundbreaking diabetes research. While the residents of Oklahoma may be the main beneficiaries of OU Health’s passionate, high-quality care, the health system’s reputation and impact extend well beyond the state’s borders.
But talent shortages, global supply chain disruptions, and economic uncertainty made it more challenging to focus on patient care. OU Health’s decentralized and fragmented sourcing, contracting, and supply chain processes made it difficult to access critical information and resources.
To put more clinicians on the floor, improve and expand supply sourcing, and streamline contracting procedures, OU Health needed a unified system that would address those issues.
Organization-wide support.
At the top of OU Health’s to-do list for improvements: source-to-pay and mobile inventory supply chain processes. Its stakeholders needed a clear view of workloads, expenditures, and savings related to each. Leaders used the new system—which includes Workday Supply Chain Management and Workday Strategic Sourcing—to achieve those goals.
“As soon as we announced our supply chain transformation, we had a groundswell of support from clinical and non-clinical staff who advocated for these changes,” says Mark Anway, AVP of strategic sourcing.
It’s also helping the bottom line. OU Health had surpassed its previous cost savings goal of $10 million by $1.7 million. That trend continues. “We have a $12 million savings target this year, and we already passed that,” says Joshua Bakelaar, VP of supply chain. Contract and negotiation improvements played a major role in cost savings. “What helps us smash our targets is people using the mobile app.” The app lets stakeholders accelerate inventory tasks, simplify receiving, approve requisitions, and check the status of supplies.
Centralized access to supply chain contracts, workflows, and projects also boosted company-wide engagement. “Our people trust us more now because our new transparent and centralized process lets them easily retrieve information,” Anway says. Where employees once needed a day to pull contracts for an accreditation and licensing visit, it now takes just 45 minutes to an hour. Improvements to product trial and request processes put OU Health on the fast track to reaching its standardization goal, helping to strengthen the speed and quality of patient care.
Cost savings is our most important metric. We’re not even done with our current fiscal year, and we’ve already exceeded our original savings target.AVP of Strategic Sourcing
A vision fulfilled.
OU Health leaders are leveraging technology to accomplish effective change management with a customer service mindset, focused on the end user.
“We aligned on our vision of technology and workflows and leveraged Workday to accomplish this,” Bakelaar says. “That’s made it easier to increase adoption rates, which is important to us because we want everyone to have access with a single system sign-on.”
Streamlining the supply chain intake form has made it easier for users to complete. “Simplifying the intake form has been a real benefit,” says Peter Spencer, director of category management and value analysis.
Anway says better supply chain operations service has been the key to quicker turnaround time in addressing clinicians’ needs without upending their day-to-day workflows. Anway estimates more than 400 stakeholders outside the supply chain can now submit trials and product requests this way. Automated financial approvals and e-signature implementations also mean stakeholders simply log in to find their contracts. It took much longer before because it was reliant on email.
Workday Strategic Sourcing freed up time for more strategic activities. We’re invested in the right tool and processes for our broader supply chain transformation.AVP of Strategic Sourcing
Leaders of change.
Increased confidence in the supply chain process has boosted collaboration with trusted partners. “Good people and a good process with a great tool help amplify those behaviors, which adds to our success,” Anway says.
Leaders spent a lot of time designing the new system and building trust to ensure the change would be beneficial. “Relationship-building is asking tough questions and making some difficult decisions, but it’s definitely resulted in the success we’ve seen so far,” Anway says.