How to Create Custom Reports to Reduce Medical Waste

The ability to measure, monitor and compare medical supply expenditures provides community health centers with actionable information that helps reduce waste and drive down costs. BeCompliant is a web-based software brought to you by Concordance Healthcare Solutions that is specifically designed to allow administrators and healthcare workers to monitor expenditures and identify waste. It gives community health center management the ability to compare expenditures across departments, to set benchmarks and improve control. Here's how to use  BeCompliant to reduce waste.

Monitor Overall Expenditure
BeCompliantgroups expenditures into readily identifiable categories and monitors daily costs on a month-to-date basis. Using monthly spending limits along with configurable alerts, the software automatically emails personnel when spending limits are reached. Similarly, expenditure by category and for each item within the category is monitored. Alerts are activated when an expenditure reaches a predetermined dollar amount or quantity. This allows community health center management to closely monitor expenditures by facility, department or category. For comparative purposes, category spend can be graphically compared between facilities and departments.

Control of Formulary Purchases
A formulary, representing the approved quantity of medical supplies for each department, allows staff to monitor their expenditure against that formulary. Preset limits provide early warning of trends that indicate the formulary quantities will be exceeded. BeCompliant™ also records expenditure of items outside the formulary, and these are highlighted using the deviation from formulary report (DFR).

Formulary is reported by facility so it's possible to compare formulary expenditure by facility and by category.

Average Patient Per Day Cost
Another useful measure is the average cost per patient day (PPD). This measure facilitates industry-wide bench marking as well as the ability to compare average costs per patient for different facilities or departments within the organization. It’s a powerful tool for reducing waste in community health centers.

Comparisons can be made monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and yearly and presented in a tabular or graphical form. Because reporting is at category level, deviations are easily identified.

Order History Details
The order history details report provides the ability to dig deeper to understand reasons for deviations from formulary and to understand reasons why PPD costs may be different from what's expected. Order history details can be obtained for any period between selectable dates, and the search can be narrowed down to product category. Another useful tool is the ability to search for words in the item description tab.

Item Trending
A crucial measure for controlling and managing waste is the ability to monitor trends. This feature gives the ability to report expenditure for each facility by item and month between user-selectable dates. It’s extremely useful when trying to understand reasons why expenditure may have gone off track and away from the agreed formulary.

Benefits of a Lean Approach
One of the key components of lean is the elimination of waste which leads to increased efficiency and lower costs. BeComplianthelps you easily track your center's purchases and eliminate waste. Designed to meet the needs of community health centers, it accurately tracks expenditure and enhances purchasing control.

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