Capital Utopia

Take me to Capital Utopia…a place where the data streets are clean, strangers and their IT systems from finance, clinical engineering, clinical leadership, and supply chain become friends, and accurate decisions about the future take far less time and effort.

Capital assets are usually defined as high-dollar spend areas with a minimum threshold of $500-5,000 and can range up to multi-million dollar imaging equipment, renovations, and new facilities. In almost every healthcare organization on the planet, capital is the area of the highest incremental/new spend each year and, in total, represents about $150B in annual spend. The spend also relates to critical investments that should have a major impact and likely ROI – either by replacing critical assets that are currently generating revenue or purchasing equipment to fuel a program with significant potential revenue that meets a community need.

Current State

A frequently recurring process that is core to performance already has an ultra-consistent mechanism, great data, and optimized decision-making, right? Not yet – it is actually a very complex problem with many simple, yet hard-to-answer questions.

Workarounds

Healthcare organizations are a resilient, resourceful bunch. In the world of capital process and decision-making, we’ve seen a LOT of workarounds – here are just a few:

• spreadsheets with version control issues combined with multiple manual handoffs
• ‘swivel chair’ between disparate systems
• disjointed project management tools
• sharing data files over video call platforms because file sizes were too large for organizational email systems

Risk is also very real…

• More than one million health records and 500,000 data records (belonging to healthcare business associates and health plans) were exposed due to breaches in 2022, and the majority of those breaches were the work of hackers
• multiple interpretations of manufacturer names (e.g., GE, GE Healthcare, GE, Inc., General Electric, etc.), model numbers, etc., which leads to incorrect assumptions about utilization and over or underspending
• assets aren’t tagged, and items are lost/stolen/can’t be accessed in an emergency

• next generation tags are coming – ask us about what the future looks like and we’ll share what we know 😉

There is always ‘a’ way to get the job done, but it may be laced with blind spots and risk.

2023 and Beyond

As we talk to providers around the globe (literally), optimizing capital spend is a priority for high performing organizations. Supplies and Pharma have already been squeezed. Also, half of U.S. hospitals finished 2022 with a negative margin as growth in expenses outpaced revenue increases. Now is the time for healthcare providers of all sizes and types to allocate their capital dollars with actuarial precision. For the entire industry to accomplish this, data needs to be managed and shared differently. The brightest minds from the most influential participants in the ecosystem (Group Purchasing Organizations, academia, technology companies, and manufacturers) need to think differently about partnerships.

• Targeted collaboration is needed to tie disparate parts together in an intentional way
• Dig layers deeper – beyond better pricing and rentals, moving towards lowering the total cost of care as we mine data to understand the impact on clinical outcomes, clinical and non-clinical labor, supply chain resiliency, and tracking any asset, anytime, anywhere (even when it leaves your four walls).
• Capital Cycle Management (CCM®) is the information Autobahn that leads to Capital Utopia. The result will be substantially safer care, lower costs, and more efficient growth. Come join us…it will be a fun ride.

‍