Outlook
2001 Staffing, SUD reuse, e-commerce to command center stage 
by
James M. Berklan
Healthcare industry leaders had one common utterance when looking ahead
to 2001: "Help!"
As in "Help wanted." As in "We need some qualified employees here-now."
Almost uniformly across Healthcare Purchasing News' readership,
leaders spoke of a need for more numerous, qualified employees.
Other top issues to watch in 2001, they said, are the further maturation
of e-commerce and the implementation of the government's new rules for
the reprocessing of single-use devices. Patient-safety issues and tighter
budgets also will be high-profile concerns.
The operating room nurse shortage has been well publicized. But in 2001,
other fields also will start feeling the pinch more acutely, said Gene
Banner, vice president of contract and information services for Health
Services Corporation of America, Cape Girardeau, MO. "A big area being
overlooked is staffing shortages," Banner said. "If you lose an experienced
buyer, it's hard to find one. Staffing is an issue everyone has to face.
If the economy continues as it has, it will be tough."
Banner also predicted "continued revenue shortages" for hospitals, which
will affect most things material managers do.
"We'll
see continued emphasis on standardization, commitment programs, utilization
studies Ð anything to cut costs," he said.
Stunted
e-commerce growth?
E-commerce initiatives could be slowed because information technology
funds will be "siphoned" off to meet compliance provisions of the evolving
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Banner
said.
"HIPAA
places a lot of information-technology needs on hospitals," he said.
"It will have a bigger impact than people now see. Material management
is kind of at the bottom of the pecking order when allocation of funds
for IT takes place. Obviously there will be [e-commerce progress], but
people are not going to totally retrofit their systems to do e-commerce."
But material managers still will need to be well-versed in e-commerce
and its capabilities, said Steve Goetz, executive director of the Health
Care Resource Management Society, Cincinnati.
"If
we haven't gone to administrators and informed them, they'll be coming
to us, saying they heard we could save money" through e-commerce channels,
Goetz said. "We'll be getting called more and more often."
Goetz said he also hopes 2001 brings safe sharps products at lower costs.
Safety syringes, IV catheters, butterflies and other products can cost
two to four times their standard counterparts, he lamented.
"Either
they're too expensive, they don't do the job or they're cumbersome to
use," Goetz said. "A lot of them are hitting around the edges of being
really good or are in the development phase."
Reuse, shortages and smoke
The focus on single-use reprocessing will mean even more pressure on
central service departments to provide certified members and certain
levels of competency, said Katherine Svedman, executive director of
the Association for Healthcare Central Service Professionals, Chicago.
That will mean more pressure to upgrade and retain staff members, something
that previously has been a tough task already, she added. She called
the sometimes cynical scrutiny of sterilization departments "one of
the blows from what's happened with the reuse issue."
Qualified labor shortages are more than just an 18-month issue, Svedman
added. It's a notion wholeheartedly affirmed by Brenda Ulmer, president
of the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, Denver.
"The
operating room nursing shortage is a big issue and only going to get
worse," Ulmer said.
A resolution will be introduced at the association's congress in March
to start a mentoring program to ease nurses into specialty areas, she
said.
Also at that meeting, the association will state official support for
the Food and Drug Administration's new guidelines concerning reprocessing
of single-use items, as well as reviewing the association's official
statement on nurse-to-patient ratios.
Another high-interest item in 2001 will be a new government agency study
on surgical smoke in the operating suite, Ulmer said.
Data driven ICPs
Christopher Laxton, executive director of the Association for Practitioners
in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Washington, said he expects his
members to increasingly install readiness plans for bioterrorism acts.
Infection control practitioners also will use Internet technology more
in 2001 to close the gap between "data and practice," Laxton said. He
also predicted that hospital administrators will turn to infection control
practitioners more for input on cost-effectiveness issues regarding
products and patient safety.
On the legislative front, Laxton said healthcare workers in many areas
will be hoping for funding approval for the Kennedy-Frist Bill. The
bill was passed in 2000 and would allow work on emerging infections,
bioterrorism, lab capacity and a variety of other healthcare issues.
HPN
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