With his facility awash in red ink and facing a horrendous budget shortfall, irate surgeons and clueless overbearing administrators questioning his every move, the exasperated materials manager folded himself into his desk chair, hands propping his head while he pored over cringe-worthy statistics. He ruminated on the plight of George Bailey, yearning for his own Clarence to lift his spirits, if not distract him for just a little while.

As the late-night hours slipped away, ushering him ever closer to the morning board meeting, the materials manager drifts into his subconscious where he engages in a three-way battle between defiance, resignation to defeat and wonder. Could someone else in my position have prevented the situation we’re in now? What if my position didn’t exist?

Without materials management, doctors, surgeons and nurses would have to take valuable time and resources away from providing patient care to evaluate, select, negotiate contracts, purchase and store products – or at least dedicate people on staff to do it. Because none of them is trained in contracting and purchasing (after all, in this reality what are those concepts anyway?) they’d likely buy products according to their comfort zone, personal preference and persuasive selling. This undoubtedly would lead to cost overruns and deeper budget deficits, forcing layoffs, closures and service rationing– taking valuable time and resources away from providing patient care.

Without materials management, clinicians and administrators would have to receive products at the dock, check deliveries for accuracy and then redistribute products to their respective end user areas. End users would store their stash in makeshift closets, relying on individually varied organizational schemes sans rhyme or reason facility-wide, a performance and productivity nightmare. Consequently, clinicians would scurry at the last moment to find what they needed during many crisis moments. This undoubtedly would lead to cost overruns and deeper budget deficits, forcing layoffs, closures and service rationing – taking valuable time and resources away from providing patient care.

Without materials management, sterile processing would become an exclusive specialty to be managed by overburdened nursing or infection control professionals, if not merged with housekeeping and maintenance. Convenience-favoring clinicians then would migrate toward using more disposable products and outsourcing reusable device processing to the growing number of competitively minded third-party reprocessors. This undoubtedly would lead to cost overruns and deeper budget deficits, forcing layoffs, closures and service rationing –
taking valuable time and resources away from providing patient care.

Without materials management, who would oversee the mailroom and print shop? Who would ensure a properly equipped patient transport operation? Who would make sure all of the high-end capital equipment was functioning properly – from the computer applications too esoteric for the IT department to the revenue-generating imaging modalities? Who would keep the organization’s bottom line in perspective, concentrating on the minute details and not the panoramic sky-high vista from the C-suite?

Of course, the facility could outsource the entire function to some comprehensive management service company (if any existed) or split the function into its core components and outsource those to consultants, distributors or group purchasing organizations. But those contracts would need to be managed, too. This undoubtedly would lead to cost overruns and deeper budget deficits, forcing layoffs, closures and service rationing – taking valuable time and resources away from providing patient care.

Without materials management, today’s impugned and maligned healthcare system would merely be as annoying as a mile-long traffic-clogged drive-through lane at the local fast-food outlet at noon. It’s likely that financially motivated payers then would insinuate themselves directly into the management of healthcare facility operations to satisfy shareholders and politicians.

Without materials management, the products, services and tools clinicians need to care for patients wouldn’t disappear. They just would require more dedication, more effort and more time to get where they needed to be by individuals who lack the interest, motivation and training to do it effectively, efficiently and properly.

Don’t stop believing.

Fade to black.