October 15, 2024- Before the turn of the millennium many either feared or desired the term “alternate site” in the healthcare market.
Those who feared it generally worked in acute care settings, nervous that these non-acute care facilities would siphon all the revenue-generating patients away, which would leave the hospitals with only the sickest patients consuming resources that would place financial operations and jobs in jeopardy. Those who desired the term generally saw those facilities as a way to gain a competitive advantage and to control clinical pathways within the emerging integrated delivery networks (IDNs) that defined a reforming industry. Not surprisingly, the feared became economic prey for the desired.
For supply chain executives and professionals, the term represented an expansion of responsibilities, mindsets, duties and accountability – and a raft of inherent and ongoing challenges in terms of strategic sourcing with value analysis, contracting and distribution of products and services, regardless of their affiliation with or ownership by hospitals, hospital systems or IDNs.
For context, non-acute or remote care comprises ASCs, clinics, physician offices, diagnostic imaging centers, freestanding laboratories, urgent care facilities, retail clinics, home health programs and hospital-at-home programs.