Challenge
As a new surgery center, Valley Ambulatory Surgery Center, had a complex challenge with meeting tight timelines and budgetary constraints. To become operational, they needed to purchase a wide range of equipment and supplies necessary to operate a facility of its size and scope. The equipment needed to be clinically acceptable to the physician/owners, high-quality and priced competitively.
They needed to build both short- and long-term processes and relationships that provided transparency and visibility into product information across various vendors. Doing so would help them access valuable product information, including pricing, discount structures, key performance indicators (KPIs), quality, safety, and recall information. All of this would require a heavy lift of Valley’s resources and time. Valley wanted to be confident that the vendors with whom they work could deliver on promises and provide equivalent products should there be a disruption, supply shortage or slow down.
Solution
Staritas’s Purchasing Assurance program was the solution Valley needed. Staritas was recommended to Valley by a consultant who was familiar with Staritas’s services and saw an enormous potential benefit for Valley. The program would provide comprehensive, unbiased price benchmarking, and cross-reference analytics with evidenced-based safety information to optimize outcomes while managing costs.
With Staritas’s Purchasing Assurance program, Valley would be able to:
- Reduce operating expenses related to supply and capital purchases
- Save staff time
- Compare products and pricing
- Identify comparable, safe product alternatives using their own specifications
- Improve capital planning and replacement
- Identify alerts or recalls on proposed products
Results
After only six months into Valley’s partnership with Staritas, Valley identified more than $270,000 in cost savings. The bulk of this number reflects capital expenditures and is expected to increase as Valley applies the same knowledge and processes to supply purchases. The identified savings represents more than a 10x return on investment from using Staritas’s services.
Immediately, Valley was better able to negotiate with vendors from a place of strength because they had reliable data, including real numbers regarding manufacturers’ discounts, and insight into what equipment was right for their facility. Valley notes that when they told vendors that they were working with Staritas, vendors presented their best price earlier in the process, saving Valley both time and money. Armed with reliable data, Valley was able to engage their physicians in the conversations.
Valley benefited from Staritas’s guidance on capital equipment by using Staritas’s custom analysis, which allowed them to see a wide breadth and deep depth of market intelligence such as KPIs, price benchmarking, discount structures, and alternative products.
Valley realized financial, quality, and safety benefits due to the information Staritas provided. Even as a new Staritas client, Valley has already seen the powerful benefit of having better information on the items they are evaluating for purchase. The savings opportunities are expected to increase exponentially as Valley relies on Staritas for data and insights for additional purchasing decisions going forward.
Valley is one of the many ambulatory surgery centers Staritas has helped. Valley selected the right products to meet their patient care needs by using Staritas’s unbiased data, insights, and experts to quickly save money and improve outcomes. We are ready to do the same for you.
