In this episode, Valerie Bandy, Vice President Pharmacy Solutions at Tecsys, discusses how hospital pharmacies can plan for seasonal disruption, smarter forecasting, and real-time visibility.
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Learn how to listen to The Hospital Finance Podcast® on your mobile device.Highlights of this episode include:
- What the biggest seasonal supply challenges are that hospital pharmacies face today
- Financial strain for hospitals
- Being predictive versus reactive
- Common blind spots hospital leaders should watch for to be more proactive
- How important cross-department collaboration is
- Evolving technologies like AI and predictive analytics
Kelly Wisness: Hi, this is Kelly Wisness. Welcome back to the award-winning Hospital Finance Podcast. We’re pleased to welcome Valerie Bandy. Valerie brings over 25 years of distinguished experience in healthcare leadership to her current role as Vice President Pharmacy Solutions at Tecsys. In her present capacity, Valerie collaborates closely with sales, research and development, AI, and marketing teams to refine pharmacy supply chain software solutions, leveraging her extensive expertise in healthcare operations, sales strategy, supply chain consulting, and regulatory compliance. Prior to her tenure at Tecsys, Valerie held pivotal leadership roles at prominent healthcare institutions, including Director of Pharmacy at Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center, System Director of Pharmacy Operations at Trinity Health, and consulting firms including Deloitte Consulting and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Throughout her career, she has spearheaded initiatives that have significantly impacted pharmaceutical procurement, cost optimization, and operational excellence, managing multi-billion-dollar budgets with adept precision. Valerie’s academic credentials include a Doctor of Pharmacy, an MBA, and a Bachelor of Science in Biology. In this episode, we’re discussing how hospital pharmacies can plan for seasonal disruption, smarter forecasting, and real-time visibility. Welcome, and thank you for joining us, Valerie.
Valerie Bandy: Thanks, Kelly. I’m really glad to be here and look forward to the discussion around pharmacy supply chain.
Kelly: Me too. Let’s go ahead and jump in. So, to start, what are some of the biggest seasonal supply challenges hospital pharmacies face today? And how have these evolved over time?
Valerie: So, seasonality has always been a big issue in the pharmacy world and just trying to plan and predict and then overcome any of the barriers that may come into play. Really, right now, we’re seeing a big shift in starting to move into some of that predictability space versus reacting to some of the seasonality challenges. That unpredictability of how many patients will contract whatever disease state it is that you’re trying to handle. Planning for, say, flu vaccine and not just your own patients, but in your employees and in the public if you’re running any kind of clinics. Thinking about global supply chain disruptions, drug shortages, and just the demand that I just described, it’s really hard to pinpoint the exact amount that is going to be needed. And so, they’re dealing with more volatility, more recalls, lots of problems from upstream manufacturers, and all of that has to be factored into the planning for those seasonal items.
Kelly: Yeah, there definitely is a lot of volatility right now. So how do these challenges translate into financial strain for hospitals overall?
Valerie: Really, like I mentioned, hospitals are having to try to move themselves into more of a predictive state versus a reactive state. So, when they’re thinking about shortages or items that just aren’t available in their wholesaler or their distribution center, they’re having to buy alternative items that could come with a lot of premium prices or paying for emergency shipments when they need something quickly. And then they’re also dealing with staff members that are maybe over ordering and hoarding because they don’t want to be without that item. So, some of those medications on the back end can tend to expire, which is just turning into money that’s wasted. So, it’s a real big balancing act between how much should we bring on hand to be able to supply for what we think is going to happen. And then, again, the more they can kind of shift to those predictive decisions versus those reactive decisions, that will help mitigate some of those barriers.
Kelly: Completely agree. Being predictive versus reactive, that’s really important here. So how can hospitals use data and smarter forecasting to anticipate seasonal medication or supply demand surges before they become a problem? And how is Tecsys uniquely positioned to support hospitals and health systems in navigating smaller forecasting in a sustainable way?
Valerie: Yeah. So, in the pharmacy world, supply chain world, even healthcare, really data is so key to driving a lot of those decision-making situations that we were just talking about. So those staff members and leaders are really able to tap into those historical usage patterns, the real-time demand signals, external trend data. So, whether that’s weather or known shortages or known disruptions, they can really get ahead of those seasonal spikes that we were talking about and not just react to them. And Tecsys really does a good job at pulling those pharmacy and supply chain data elements into, we say, a single source of truth. So, we’re connected to so many different software and hardware, automation, storage areas so that we can bring all of that forecasting together with precision. We can automate replenishment and avoid those high-cost surprises we were talking about where you’re having to buy those alternate items that may be a higher cost than what you had typically purchased in the past. And we’re really able to connect those clinical needs where you’re getting that medication and supplies to the patient efficiently, but also safely, and then apply those supply chain logistics in a way that makes those processes more sustainable and scalable as your patient volumes grow, as your drug costs increases, or just as the volume that you need for medications also expands.
Kelly: Yeah, I mean, I know that you mentioned, I think, forecasting with precision, and I really like that. Where does real-time inventory visibility make the greatest difference in cutting waste and avoiding costly shortages? What common blind spots should hospital leaders watch for to be more proactive?
Valerie: Yeah. So really real-time visibility is great for all of your medications, but where you’ll feel the most financial impact are those high cost, high-risk categories like oncology drugs, any of your specialty medications, your critical care items for those patients that are kind of high touch, high-cost patients. And then you’re going to miss those blind spots like medications that are sitting in an unused satellite pharmacy or in a storage room or in a hidden storage room that nobody knows about, or if there’s a recall that’s still sitting on the shelf that nobody has processed. So those really contribute to a lot of the waste and patient risk that can happen when you don’t have your arms wrapped around that. So, with true global visibility, you can really redeploy that inventory before it expires, make sure recalls are off the shelf, spot those shortages early and those decisions that are more predictive, again, instead of reactive and having to scramble at the last minute.
Kelly: Sure. That makes a lot of sense. So how important is cross-department collaboration within a hospital in addressing seasonal pharmacy challenges? And what impact does alignment or the lack of it have on both patient care and the bottom line?
Valerie: Yeah. Departments like pharmacy, supply chain, nursing, finance, they all really have to work together. They all touch the medication use process. And so, if they’re not aligned, you end up with duplicate orders, wasted spend, or even patient care delays. You might have more than one department ordering the same drug and not knowing that. And then on the flip side of that, there are these groups that are working together that come to those decisions on the shared data, on the shared goals. You have fewer stockouts. You have lower costs. You don’t have multiple drugs sitting in multiple locations. So, some in a bin on the shelf, some in a storage location, some in a medication room out on a nursing floor. And that way, the alignment isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s really a competitive advantage where they can have some more consistency with how they’re taking care of their patients in a more safe manner.
Kelly: Yeah, cross-department collaboration really is key there. Let’s end on a forward-thinking perspective. So, looking ahead, evolving technologies like AI and predictive analytics are reshaping cost control and inventory management. Where else do you see these tools making an impact in the coming years?
Valerie: Yes, AI is a topic at every single meeting that I’ve been attending lately, as well as predictive analytics.
Kelly: Same. Same, yes. [laughter]
Valerie: So, it’s definitely something that Tecsys is participating in, the journey of taking that data and kind of making it a limitless world for the healthcare world, especially in pharmacy. So, we have a new platform that we’ve developed that will help our customers take that data and really spin it into any perspective that they would like to see, whether that’s drug diversion monitoring, just smarter purchasing strategies, and identifying patients who may need therapy adjustments when you’re looking at more of a clinical side of things. But long term, really looking at AI for us within Tecsys to enable really, truly proactive supply chain. I know that’s a theme I keep mentioning, but trying to get ahead of weather disruptions or raw product disruptions from overseas or just shortages that are known to kind of go in and out of the market and get ahead of those so that, again, they’re not just responding to that demand, but they’re actually predicting it and ensuring that the hospitals are always prepared. And I really think that’s just where the whole industry is headed.
Kelly: Yeah, no, thank you so much for sharing those insights with us and everything that you shared with us today about how hospital pharmacies can plan for seasonal disruption, smarter forecasting, and real-time visibility. If a listener wants to learn more or contact you to discuss this topic further, how best can they do that?
Valerie: Yeah. There’s lots of great information on our website, which is tecsys.com T-E-C-S-Y-S. You can reach out to me on LinkedIn. I’d love to continue the conversation. We have lots of great resources and tools, and then lots of customers that enjoy really having these conversations and brainstorming together to just come up with a great solution for their supply chain management toolbox.
Kelly: Wonderful. Thank you for providing that. And thank you for joining us, Valerie, and for sharing, again, all these great insights with us.
Valerie: Thanks, Kelly. I appreciate it.
Kelly: And thank you all for joining us for this episode of The Hospital Finance Podcast. Until next time…
[music] This concludes today’s episode of The Hospital Finance Podcast. For show notes and additional resources to help you protect and enhance revenue at your hospital, visit besler.com/podcasts. The Hospital Finance Podcast is a production of BESLER | SMART ABOUT REVENUE, TENACIOUS ABOUT RESULTS.
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