Turning data into insights: How suppliers and providers can work together to drive financial success

Data is the driving force behind every strategy — but gathering that data, effectively analyzing it and putting it into meaningful action can be challenging. For suppliers, successfully compiling, assessing and communicating data and insights to providers will ultimately foster stronger partnerships, improve patient outcomes and spur financial growth.

Jayme Zage, Vizient principal, intelligence, and Ryan Kennedy, Vizient senior consulting director, talk through health systems’ priorities and how suppliers can get better aligned through the strategic use of data and insights.

How can suppliers use analytics to better align their strategies with health systems’ priorities?

Zage: Health systems’ priorities are still financial, and given the ongoing uncertainty with reimbursement and the cost structure, systems will look to continue driving efficiencies to maintain the gains they've made in their margins. It’s important for suppliers to focus not just on a single point of care, but the entire continuum of care and the total cost of care.

Kennedy: I agree. Healthcare is a very growth-minded business, and health systems’ priorities reflect environmental change. Coming out of the pandemic, health systems were forced to control costs because growth was constrained, but now that margins are somewhat restored to pre-pandemic levels, they’re looking at how they can maintain that level of financial sustainability through efficiency and cost control while at the same time enabling growth. This is where suppliers can show up as industry partners. Suppliers are not just looking at an individual component cost, but rather at their impact to healthcare quality, utilization and capacity. That's where the value equation is starting to shift and where we’re seeing more opportunities for deeper relationships and differentiated partnerships between suppliers and providers.

Zage: The ability for suppliers to demonstrate process improvements that reduce length of stay and readmission rates and improve patient outcomes are also part of that value equation.

What are some common mistakes suppliers make when presenting data to providers — and how can analytics help avoid those?

Kennedy: What we commonly hear is that a conversation between a provider and a supplier ends quickly when someone looks at the data presented and says, “This doesn't align with what we see in our dashboards every day. This is not how we represent those numbers. This is not how we benchmark.” There needs to be common language. Choosing the right metrics and being transparent in methodology and approach are important in helping to level set and foster trust between both parties on what is being measured and how.

Zage: Suppliers shouldn’t assume they understand a provider’s situation simply because they have some data about that provider. Rather, the data should generate questions to drive conversation, deeper learning and understanding. Then, it’s about pressure testing: Is the data right? Does it match what providers are seeing? If not, it's an opportunity to explore why. Maybe the provider is not looking at the data the right way or needs to look at something differently — but it may also be that the supplier has dated information or is measuring their metrics differently. So that's one piece. The other is not understanding the persona of the individual the supplier is engaging with. Supply chain leaders will have very different metrics and data that align with their goals than the chief medical officer or chief operations officer.

Kennedy: That’s a really important point — showing the same data in the same way to different stakeholders has vastly different meanings and implications. Also, if you take too myopic of a view with outcomes and data, you can get lost in the noise that is the everyday experience of keeping the doors open at those provider organizations.

What's the first step suppliers should take when integrating data into their commercial strategy?

Zage: Data should guide insight development to guide strategy. The strategy isn’t so much about what the data says — it’s thinking holistically about the data, considering how different data sets can work together and combining those data sets to garner meaningful insights that lead to understanding something unique about the market. Once those insights are identified and understood, it’s then about how to use the data to tell a story that resonates with clients. That story should use insights in a way that fosters discussion around a challenge the provider may not even know they’re facing and allows the supplier and provider to work together to create solutions that solve for it.

Kennedy: I’d address this question through a scientific method approach. Start with: What are we trying to solve? Then shift into data inventory: What do I have that is proprietary to me? What gaps do I need to fill? Once I assess those gaps, then I search for strategic data partners that have those resources and can provide them in a meaningful way. That process really comes down to how evolved you are as a supplier or industry partner. Are you at the point where you have deeply developed data lakes and you just want to ingest data that you don't have access to? Do you have your own internal team that can turn those insights into strategy? Or are you somewhere in the middle of the journey where you need some additional support and scaffolding to ingest, incorporate and scale?

Can you share a real-world example where analytics helped a supplier refine their strategy and improve market access or positioning?

Zage: One of the things health systems are trying to manage is capacity, and space allocation is one area where suppliers may be able to help. For example, if you can take the OR processing facility and turn it into OR rooms with appropriate post-op care space, you can sometimes add as many as three ORs or eight patient beds. In one organization, 2,500 square feet of processing space was freed up for four imaging rooms, generating $1.6 million per year in addition to nearly $1 million per year saved in operating expenses. Repurposing non-clinical space is one of the levers that healthcare organizations can pull on, where strategically outsourcing with a supplier can really help to solve some capacity issues and drive revenue.

How do you see AI and advanced analytics shaping the future of supplier-provider collaboration?

Kennedy: Data is becoming more commoditized and having certain combinations of data sets or proprietary data sets is becoming more valuable. Because of AI, data is becoming more accessible. Eventually, this access will lead to more real-time insights generated closer to the bedside. More complex analyses will be unlocked, and there will be increased opportunities to explore patient care that we didn't previously think were possible. The organizations that have deeper partnerships and can infuse and embed these highly proprietary data assets are going to thrive in this future environment because that's where there's going to be some level of differentiation.

Zage: There are a lot of supply chain initiatives that are focused on understanding and automating utilization to help ease supply shortages and provide just-in-time sourcing. For example, suppliers could use prompts that ask the provider, “Are you ready to reorder? You're down to X inventory on an item, and it looks like you have these procedures coming up.” With the combination of data and AI, they’re able to help provide the appropriate amount of supply needed and reduce the potential for shortages. Also, AI is being used to help accelerate clinical trial analyses. This is helping to reduce the cost of clinical trials, get the product to market faster and reduce administrative burden and clinician turnover.

Kennedy: On the flip side, clinicians and providers also are becoming increasingly overwhelmed with information as the speed at which these studies are conducted is increased. It used to take about 10 years for clinical evidence to be generated and then operationalized. That timeline has the potential to decrease significantly if healthcare providers get support with clinical adoption. How suppliers and industry partners communicate and provide support will be crucial.