Village Podiatry’s multiple locations were ordering independently leading to pricing problems and a lack of transparency. Gaining control of the process reduced waste substantially.
The Situation
Imagine a healthcare organization with multiple locations all ordering their own supplies whenever they wanted from whichever vendor they wanted without making use of volume purchasing or best-pricing contracts. That is what was happening at Village Podiatry Centers.
Village Podiatry Centers is a division of Extremity Healthcare, a holding company that operates more than 40 locations throughout Georgia and Tennessee, including surgery centers, a pathology lab, a compounding pharmacy, and two laser treatment centers.
With the multiple locations and no standardized supply chain process in place, “The process was chaotic,” said Eddie Ross, Purchasing Manager at Extremity. “Acting independently impeded our ability to secure the best pricing possible and to ensure transparency in the process. We needed an efficient process, intelligence-based decisions and consistency across all locations.”
When Eddie took a deep dive into supply expenses, he found that medical supplies, surgical supplies, diabetic shoes and office supplies were eating up most of the expenses. The locations could not confirm all products were received, either, as their current system did not have that capability. Coming from an accounting background in a hospital system, Eddie’s goal for the organization was twofold: lower the prices spent on supplies and improve the overall efficiency of Village Podiatry’s supply chain.
“The organization was growing its footprint both organically at existing clinics and through acquisitions, and we needed to modernize our supply chain process. We knew Hybrent was the technology that would get us there,” he said.
The Solution
Hybrent provides one-stop ordering with its solution. The ordering module made products searchable by name, partial name or sku, and allowed the user to see best pricing across all approved vendors in the system. And because Village Podiatry was now ordering as a whole unit instead of individual offices, the decrease in spend was substantial, even with items being drop-shipped to these independent locations.
Regional managers were able to approve orders on the front end, from laptops or smart devices, making the solution extremely efficient for the staff. “Hybrent saves the team a lot of time and also provides accountability when items are received,” said Eddie.
Because Village Podiatry locations are scattered throughout the region, it was important that accounts payable knew when products were actually delivered. Hybrent allowed the staff to scan in and see in real time when products were received and in what quantities, which helped accounts payable approve correct payments to vendors. It also kept inventory in the system accurate.
The Results
Implementing Hybrent allowed Village Podiatry to take advantage of best pricing, manage its inventory and provide correct payments to its vendors in a streamlined and efficient manner. It was no longer an antiquated, manual process, saving the entire organization time and money. Eddie could not be happier. “Although any system change can be difficult, Hybrent is accessible and easy to use. We’ve trained the staff at all locations to use the system and adoption was quick when people saw how easy it was to use. And we will continue to add Hybrent to locations as we expand our business.”