Enclosed for your review is the third quarter 2019 edition of The Delta Purchasing Alliance’s (“DPA”) newsletter. Here’s hoping you’re all having a great summer and finding ways to beat the heat. It certainly has been a warm summer here in New Mexico.
In this issue of the newsletter, we have highlighted several items we hope will be of interest to you and your health centers:
- As you all are aware DPA’s group purchasing backbone, Provista-Vizient, provides discounts on thousands of products and services outside of medical supplies and equipment. You may not be aware that Inventory Optimization Solutions (IOS), a supply chain management software solution presented to us at our October 2018 DPA purchasing managers’ meeting in Las Vegas, is now part of Vizient. We’ve provided some information that will link you to IOS resources if you have interest in further exploring that solution.
- Check out an awesome “group buy” opportunity being made available exclusively to DPA members by Welch Allyn. The savings offered in this limited-time opportunity are over and above the already-discounted pricing you receive as members of NACHC ViP. We will work on similar types of group buys going forward in an effort to continually maximize savings for our DPA members.
- We’ve provided a link to a brief online “capital spending” survey that I hope you’ll all take a few moments to complete. The information you provide on anticipated/planned capital spending for your health center will better enable the DPA and our group purchasing partners to (a) assist you with price analysis for large one-time spends, and (b) target future negotiations with individual product/equipment manufacturers.
Finally, as you would expect, the DPA is in constant communication with NACHC’s ViP team and the staff at Provista-Vizient to find new opportunities for savings and to create efficiencies in contracting processes. We’ve recently become aware of a new efficiency opportunity that we will need your help in fulfilling.
Many individual product or equipment manufacturers require that GPO members sign a physical form or “Letter of Participation (LOP)” in order to access the GPO contract benefits. Becton Dickinson, a manufacturer of syringes, is a popular example. If a health center opens new locations or is a member of multiple GPOs, members may be required to sign new LOPs.
To ensure you’re accessing the DPA’s contract benefits across locations, DPA members may grant Provista-Vizient signature authority for LOPs. This allows the forms to be submitted directly by Vizient, reducing turnaround and your staff time, but in no way obligates your health center to purchase products associated with any LOP. You can grant signature authority by signing the linked Provista-Vizient form. Just know – despite the form being titled Enrollment Form – that your health center is already enrolled in the ViP program and this is simply a means of conferring signature authority for LOPs to Vizient on your behalf. I will also send this form to all of you via email in the coming weeks.
The DPA is community health center-owned and operated. We share a mission with all of you—to enable our front line health care providers to provide top quality services to underserved populations by maximizing cost savings on the supplies, equipment and services those providers need to do their jobs. And, on behalf of the DPA and our health center board of directors, I want to thank all of you for being part of our alliance.
Don Daniel
Executive Director
Community Health Best Practices, LLC