Reengineering health care materials management

Health care executives across the country, faced with intense competition, are being forced to consider drastic cost cutting measures as a matter of survival. The entire health care industry is under siege from boards of directors, management and others who encourage health care systems to take actions ranging from strategic acquisitions and mergers to simple "downsizing" or "rightsizing," to improve their perceived competitive positions in terms of costs, revenues and market share. In some cases, management is poorly prepared to work within this new competitive paradigm and turns to consultants who promise that following their methodologies can result in competitive advantage. One favored methodology is reengineering. Frequently, cost cutting attention is focused on the materials management budget because it is relatively large and is viewed as being comprised mostly of controllable expenses. Also, materials management is seldom considered a core competency for the health care system and the organization performing these activities does not occupy a strongly defensible position. This paper focuses on the application of a reengineering methodology to healthcare materials management.