What happens when you run out of price savings, or as I like to say, “What happens when the fish stop jumping into your boat?”  At a recent seminar that I conducted a MM’s answer to this question was “Look for a new job”.  I don’t think that’s the right answer to this question — do you?

Reality check: Your vendors’ cost for transportation, energy, plastics, etc. (or 80% of the things your hospital buys) will continue to escalate. So who do you think your vendors are going to pass this cost along to? 

Yes you got it right – YOU!

I was just talking to one of my major teaching hospital clients the other day who is scrambling to find more savings in their orthopedic and spine implants, but even after benchmarking his cost with us and bidding his implants using our benchmarks as a guide, he only shaved a few percent off his implant prices. By the way, this client belongs to two GPOs and still can’t get better prices even with his own custom contracts on implants

The next day I talked to another client of ours who is the Vice President of Purchasing for a six hospital system who is racking his brain on how to get better prices for his hospitals, when he never had this challenge before.  Until recently, he always could find a new and better price savings on any commodity he was purchasing.

What does this all mean to you!  If you are betting your career on finding new and better prices for the commodities you buy in the future you are going to be in for a rude awaking – it isn’t going to happen.

On the other hand, if you look beyond price you can make a quantum leap forward in utilization savings that are never ending and are right in front of your eyes just waiting to be harvested.