Automating purchasing, receiving, invoicing and using A/P integrations and reporting has given ASD Management the ability to streamline ordering and track costs more closely.
The Situation
ASD Management is a surgery center management, development and consulting firm that has been in operation for 25 years. It has 13 locations throughout the country including Virginia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, Missouri and Indiana, and it has managed more than one hundred surgical centers over the years. ASD prides itself on its expertise in day-to-day functions in 4 critical areas: clinical operations, business office, risk management and managed care.
It was within these critical areas that the organization looked for ways to streamline its operations so employees could spend more time on patient care. One of those ways was to update its supply chain procedures. “We knew we were archaic in our ordering and managing our inventory,” said Kyle Williams, Vice President of Development for ASD Management. “We knew there were easier ways of doing this.”
Like many surgery centers today, operational costs are tightly managed and at ASD facilities, materials managers often scrubbed in for surgeries as well. Providing them with the tools they needed to order and manage supplies would allow them to spend more time in surgery.
The Solution
ASD chose Hybrent for its full solution and ability to achieve the goals the organization wanted to achieve. “Hybrent software was well-priced as a software and gave us the one-stop shopping we needed, which saved enormous amounts of time,” Kyle said. “Plus it was easy for our staff to use.”
But it wasn’t just the ordering ASD needed – the software had to be integrated with the accounting system. Hybrent had the ability to make sure invoices were 3-way matched against the purchase orders and receipt confirmations to ensure integrity and any disputed invoices were flagged for reconciliation. The A/P integration was set up to sync the approved invoices with the accounting software, Quickbooks, removing the need for manual entry. Additionally, ASD requested an extra feature Hybrent can add which allowed them to upload non-EDI orders.
Vice President of Operations Stacey Pack led the team at Strictly Pediatrics in Hybrent’s initial setup with the organization. “I was the first one willing to jump in and set it up!” she said. They provided as much complete information as possible upfront and as a result, their implementation was smooth.
“Implementation went extremely well because we took charge from the beginning. We were already very organized internally and we made sure that Hybrent was set up according to the current checks and balances already in place,” said Stacey.
Training was done online and most people picked up how to use Hybrent pretty quickly. “It’s a fairly intuitive program and easy to use. We particularly like the punch-out, which is a function on the order screen that lets you go directly to a vendor’s site to search for items not already in your system and add to your order.”
The Results
ASD staff can now spend more time in surgery and less time matching orders, receiving and invoicing – it’s all done through Hybrent. “Hybrent saves us time because there isn’t a stack of papers to deal with and we don’t have to track down people for approvals – everything is online,” she said. “And because it’s online, I can log in from anywhere at any time to check things and to provide remote help to others if needed. That is one of the best things about Hybrent, the transparency around the system.”
“Reporting is another great feature because it lets us track costs on certain initiatives or specific departments, like orthopedics,” said Kyle. Because the pricing in the system is up-to-date, it allows Kyle and his staff to keep on top of things. “We can make sure pricing is consistent from center to center. That has been a huge benefit to ASD.” ASD currently utilizes a custom-built Group Reporting tool in Hybrent available to management groups that allows them to track spend, item formulary and costs at its facilities in one easy platform.
“The reporting dashboard is a great way for the ASD to track supply costs and see what is going on with our spend,” said Stacey. “It will help us to keep costs down long-term.”