Inventory Management
Legacy Health and Medline partner to more accurately predict surgical pack needs
Cooperation , information sharing and data-driven decisions eliminate shortages
The surgical departments at Legacy Health , a six-hospital health system in the Portland and Vancouver metro areas , were at a crossroads in December 2021 .
“ We were constantly running out of custom surgical packs ,” said Jeff Elliott , Program Manager of Demand Planning and Business Continuity , Legacy Health . “ We were short approximately 12 packs a week required to meet our operating room needs .” This resulted in surgical staff having to pull individual supplies .
Elliott reached out to Medline , Legacy Health ’ s sterile procedure tray and medical supplier prime vendor , to help them reassess the health system ’ s surgical supply chain processes and to come up with a solution .
The “ rolling , three-month forecasting window used to determine demand and reforecasting ” was identified as a possible reason for the shortages , says Elliott . “ The dataset was problematic given that surgeries were cancelled and
Illustration of the new Excelsior Medical facility
14 SUPPLY CHAIN OPTIMIZATION Issue 6 / 2023