11. purchase and care

Purchasing & Care: One Team! Tips for better collaboration.

Lennart Eltzholtz and I had the privilege of giving a presentation at the 5th Nursing Management Congress. Many thanks to Helene Maucher and Robert Jeske for the great organization and moderation.

Thank you to the 70 participants for our survey.

The results of the survey? Terrifying!

❔ Our question: The cooperation between nursing and purchasing department works in my hospital…
1% excellent
35% smoothly
48% in need of improvement
15% I can not judge

❕ The larger the clinic, the worse the cooperation.

What does nursing want most? Quite simply: more exchange between care & purchasing. Transparency about decisions and processes.

Our goal with the lecture: To do a little something for mutual understanding.

Our opinion: It can only work if purchasing attaches importance to close and transparent cooperation.

The key messages of our presentation:

💡 The fewer products, the simpler the logistics, the more binding the commitments to suppliers.
💡 Purchasing must be included in all discussions with industry. It’s nice when the sales rep visits you at the station, but of course he wants to sell his product.
💡 Purchasing must know exactly what is needed and requires a neutral description of the problem to be solved!
💡Nursing must be aware that the industry invests a lot in marketing and this naturally influences the willingness to buy, whether one therefore always makes the best choice for the hospital is another question.

💡Care can help avoid waste. If a package is not torn open carelessly, it saves money.

☝ Our favorite topic? Not everyone can have a say in product selection. Clearly define in the hospital who gets to decide on which product groups and how. Of course, the physician has to have a say when it comes to a defibrillator, but does he have to do the same for a glove that 90% of the hospitals in a purchasing group already use?

💡Are you annoyed at the station because products don’t work properly? Report it to purchasing! Purchasing can only act if it knows the problems.
💡Look into the consumption evaluations every now and then! Why is consumption increasing? Put your needs to the test.

☝And in the end, remember, in large clinics, purchasing is quickly responsible for more than 50,000 products. Purchasing cannot be more knowledgeable about so many products than the users. So let purchasing share in your knowledge. Make rational decisions together.

Many caregivers sent us questions! We answer these in a podcast. If you have any questions, please send them to info@healthcarebrain.eu by 29.09.2023.