Opening a new healthcare facility on-time is the number one goal of all those involved in planning a new construction project. Every day a new healthcare facility opening is delayed can cost the healthcare system 100s of thousands of revenue dollars. CME Corp has been helping healthcare systems open their new facilities on time for over 20 years.
As anyone involved in new construction knows, a myriad of issues can impact the overall plan, many outside of the healthcare system’s control. Permits, strikes, floods, accidents, bad inspections are just a few of the more drastic problems. In a recent Medical Construction & Design (MCD) survey over 50% of the responders said their projects do not finish on time.
CME recently debuted our new CME360 suite of healthcare equipment software solutions. It was over 4 years in development and was designed with you, our customers, in mind. Following are some of the ways CME360 can help you open your new facility on-time.
1. Make sure the right products and accessories are ordered
Planning a new project happens sometimes years in advance; equipment lists are generated, vetted and approved. When it comes time to order, often-times the equipment list is not updated with the most up-to-date items, accessories, colors or specifications. This can lead to ordering the wrong product, wrong accessories, and wrong color. These kinds of errors can lead to a delayed opening as well as dollars spent on restocking fees and expedited shipments of the right products.
CME360 has a sophisticated quote hub that can mitigate many of these issues. Our highly trained account managers work in collaboration with your end-users to make sure the right products are ordered. Our quotes include specification sheets and lower priced, high-quality alternatives if requested. Once the quote is turned into an order, any product that requires a color choice will be immediately flagged. Our system is designed with equipment in mind, not consumables.
2. Products need to arrive on-time
Typical projects can include purchasing from over 250 suppliers, constituting over 6000 individual items. Tracking the movement of these products from factory to storage facilities to placement in the rooms can be daunting, time-consuming and fraught with problems. Many times, in the last stages of a project, products are missing that are crucial to the facility opening on time.
CME360 contains a proprietary project management hub that tracks every product in real-time from the day the PO is generated to when it is placed in the facility. This includes both items bought from CME and other suppliers. Any items coming to one of our 32 service centers across the country are inspected for short-shipments, back-orders, and damage. Any issues are flagged, tracked and resolved in a timely manner. And you have visibility to this information when needed. PO dates, estimated arrival dates to a CME service center or other storage facility, ship dates, tracking information and arrival dates are just some of the information you might need. It allows for that peace of mind that you will get all of the products for a project when you need them.
3. No “lost” products
At the end of a project, when reviewing open POs, sometimes products have not been received correctly and the products are now “lost”. Or you get an invoice for something, the supplier can prove it was shipped, but it has not been received. Again, it is “lost”. One major IDN once told us they had almost 10% of their products for a project not received in their system when it was time to open. Some items were found after scouring the facility, others had to be reordered. As you might imagine, this will delay the opening and increase costs.
CME360 includes an asset management hub that monitors and monetizes all of the items for a project that passes through our service centers including everything you buy from other vendors. You know where your items reside in real-time. All packages are inspected for visible damage, checked against the packing slips and assigned a warehouse location. This information, including scanned packing slips, is available on demand.
4. Delivery of equipment to the rooms needs to be complete and all items assembled and/or installed correctly
It’s time to get your product assembled, delivered and installed if required. Many times these deliveries occur haphazardly, unscheduled, with a mountain of paperwork that can be easily misplaced. Items are not assembled or installed. At the end of a project, there is usually a time crunch and if the deliveries are not done efficiently and completely, opening on time can be affected.
CME360 has a robust direct-to-site delivery hub that manages these time-sensitive tasks. Your valuable equipment is assembled in our warehouse by trained technicians, labeled including room locations, staged, loaded carefully into our trucks and then delivered to the correct rooms. We work with you to bring the products you need in the timeframe you need them. Each delivery includes a consolidated receiver that has all of the information you need to receive everything efficiently into your system. We can also create door reports that include all equipment delivered within each specific room as a double check for you.
CME360 is your one source for all equipment information on a project from the quote to the moment it is delivered and installed in the room. With complete visibility, one point of contact and streamlined automated processes, projects are tracked more accurately and completed efficiently on-time. Let CME assist you with your next new construction project and get you opened on time, every time.
About CME: CME Corp is the nation’s premier source for healthcare equipment, turnkey logistics, and biomedical services, representing 2 million+ products from more than 2,000 manufacturers.
With two corporate offices and 35+ service centers, our mission is to help healthcare facilities nationwide reduce the cost of the equipment they purchase, make their equipment specification, delivery, installation, and maintenance processes more efficient, and help them seamlessly launch, renovate and expand on schedule.
For more information, call 800-338-2372 or visit our website.
