ECRI Institute's New SERVICEguide™ Drives Savings on Purchased Services in Healthcare

PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Sept. 21, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Selecting high-quality outsourced services, commonly known as "purchased services," at affordable prices is one of the more challenging tasks facing supply chain leaders in healthcare. These services can account for a significant portion of a healthcare organization's budget. ECRI Institute has been helping hospitals negotiate and save on their purchased services for many years and now launches an expanded, more robust program.

SERVICEguide™, a membership-based advisory service with a focus on quality, helps hospitals maintain and manage their purchased services processes from beginning to end.

"Our analysts have pioneered some of the best practices in the industry to help hospitals standardize and operationalize this complex process—choosing high-quality vendors at competitive prices," states Jennifer Myers, ECRI Institute's vice president of SELECT Health Technology Services.

SERVICEguide includes an interactive opportunity assessment dashboard with powerful spend analytics that quickly reveal the highest potential areas for savings within a hospital or health system's purchased services. National and regional price benchmarks on a broad range of services add value to the program.

ECRI Institute's subject matter experts are an integral component of this highly personalized program. They work closely with hospital decision-makers and contracting personnel to:

• Identify and research local and national vendors
• Develop a custom request for proposal (RFP)  
• Perform line-by-line contract analyses of RFP vendor responses
• Present key findings and recommendations to hospital stakeholders, including cost savings opportunities

For a recent project, ECRI Institute helped a large health system save more than $1 million over a 3-year term on cylinder medical gas purchases. ECRI provided accurate comparative benchmarks, in-depth custom contract analyses, end-to-end RFP support, and vendor recommendations. By moving to one vendor for the entire system, the provider was able to negotiate significant savings, improve the terms and conditions of its contract, and eliminate add-on fees.

SERVICEguide expands ECRI Institute's proven suite of technology decision-making tools and personalized services that help hospital leaders achieve immediate cost savings without compromising patient care. Healthcare organizations worldwide rely on ECRI Institute's nearly 50 years of experience delivering strategic, evidence-based technology management guidance from selection and purchasing to maintenance and replacement.

To learn more about SERVICEguide, please contact ECRI Institute by telephone at (610) 825-6000, ext. 5287, by e-mail at [email protected], or by mail at 5200 Butler Pike, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462.

Social Sharing

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• Enhanced service from @ECRI_Institute aims to help supply chain leaders reduce costs #healthcaresupplychain bit.ly/2ydGBkR

About ECRI Institute
ECRI Institute (www.ecri.org), a nonprofit organization, dedicates itself to bringing the discipline of applied scientific research to healthcare to discover which medical procedures, devices, drugs, interventions, and processes are best to enable improved patient care. As pioneers in this science for nearly 50 years, ECRI Institute marries experience and independence with the objectivity of evidence-based research. Strict conflict-of-interest guidelines ensure objectivity. ECRI Institute is designated an Evidence-based Practice Center by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. ECRI Institute PSO is listed as a federally certified Patient Safety Organization by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ECRI Institute convened and operates the Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety, a multi-stakeholder collaborative. Find ECRI Institute on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ECRIInstitute) and on Twitter (www.twitter.com/ECRI_Institute).

SOURCE ECRI Institute

Related Links

http://www.ecri.org