On Tuesday, Aug. 21, we partnered with Valify to host a CHAMPS Talks webinar focused on its purchased services analytics and benchmarking technology.

Leading the conversation for Valify, was Caleb Jameson. He gave a great overview of what is considered a purchased service, the challenges organizations face with their purchased services and some best practices for addressing them. If you missed the webinar, here are the highlights…

PURCHASED SERVICES DEFINED

Jameson explained that a purchase service, or indirect spend, is anything contracted outside of a facility or performed by a third party. Common purchased services are:

• Ancillary
• Clinical Service
• Facility Support
• Financial Services
• Human Resources
• Insurance
• Information Technology
• Legal Services
• Marketing
• Supply Chain
• Telecom

With purchased services, it is important for a facility to know where the spend is happening in order to drive value.

PURCHASED SERVICES CHALLENGES

There have been a lot of discussions around purchased services and the challenges faced in this category lately, including the tracking of:

• Who in your organization is responsible for which service agreements.
• Thousands of potential vendors to work with.
• Which vendors your facility is actually buying from.
• The service and value vendors are providing. (Is it what you expected? Is it the price you agreed to?)

There are no consolidated vendor reports in purchased services to help you manage these challenges and it can be difficult to develop benchmarks on you own.

PURCHASED SERVICES BEST PRACTICES

The best way to address these challenges is to monitor your purchased services spend. This is where Valify can help. When you start a system of purchased services monitoring, with or without Valify as your partner, you gain visibility into your spend, become aware of how many vendors you’re utilizing and if they’re delivering what you expect, and ultimately determine how well your facility is aligned with your purchased services’ contracts. Once you start monitoring, you can draft contracts and negotiate agreements that are more beneficial to you.

In addition to monitoring, Jameson recommended:

• Increasing department-level communication to ensure standards and best practices are understood.
• Identifying executive sponsors to communicate standards across the organization.
• Establishing vendor-level services to ensure your facility is receiving the contracted level of service.
• Assigning ownership of purchased services categories to individuals.
• Delegating responsibilities within purchased services.
• Deciding on a single point of contact for corrective actions.

Are your purchased services in need of an overhaul? Contact us to learn more about Valify and if they’re the right partner for you.