Success Stories

Amerinet, a leading national group purchasing organization (GPO), strategically partners with healthcare providers to reduce costs and improve quality. Through spending management and operational performance improvement program, tools and services, Amerinet assists its members in their efforts to improve efficiencies and create new revenue streams. The GPO offers a comprehensive portfolio of product and service contracts to address members’ specific supply chain, data management and clinical needs. Based in St. Louis with offices in Salt Lake City, Providence, R.I. and Warrendale, Pa., Amerinet serves acute and alternate care site healthcare providers nationwide.

Owens & Minor (O&M) and Amerinet have been partners in serving healthcare providers since the mid-1980s. As an Amerinet preferred distributor, O&M supports the GPO in its goal to offer its members more opportunities to purchase supplies and equipment at lower prices.

Amerinet is always looking for ways to add value for its members. One way it seeks to do this is by regularly hosting educational programs that allow providers to instruct staff in mission-critical initiatives and to enrich valued employees’ experience with their hospital. For Amerinet, creating programs that will be truly valuable to their members—that will actually justify the time employees spend away from the job—is labor-intensive and requires specific expertise.

 

O&M’s supply chain expertise allowed it to design, develop and deliver an engaging business simulation for Amerinet that enables participants to gain a big picture view of the health system financial cycle. With hospitals facing unprecedented pressure to improve financial performance, empowering employees to understand how an individual’s actions impact margins is key to survival. The instructor-led, one-day simulation, “Understanding the Business of Healthcare,” walks participants through a year in the life of a sample institution. The simulation is followed by a de-brief to clarify concepts like growing revenues, managing expenses and re-deploying assets. Then the simulation-debrief cycle is repeated twice to reinforce learnings.

 

• O&M’s business simulation allows Amerinet to offer its members a valuable program for addressing financial performance challenges and gaining employee’s assistance in managing the business profitably
• The simulation creates an engaging and meaningful experience for Amerinets’ members’ employees 
  Geared to all employees—from physicians to nurses to administrative staff—the simulation enables all to see their connection to key financial drivers at their institution
• The simulation helps employees identify how they can protect margins and improve financial performance, including an action plan to be implemented back on the job
• The big-picture perspective gained through the simulation helps participants understand the economics of the health system business, encouraging them to think like owners
• Participants bring value back to their jobs, justifying the time spent offsite

This business simulation has also been used at VHA, where the GPO experienced the same positive results for enriching member value. The unique and powerful program allowed a wide range of staff to each understand their specific impact on their hospital’s bottom line.