River Edge Behavioral Health is among Georgia’s leading facilities treating mental illness, substance abuse issues, and intellectual and developmental disabilities. Founded in 1950, the outpatient service provider has improved the quality of life of several generations of Georgians.
The organization serves more than 10,000 patients annually. River Edge’s dedicated, highly-trained staff and advanced prevention, treatment, and support services have fueled its decades-long success.
They also offers an emergency response hotline, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. This underscores River Edge’s dedication to its vision: A world where all mental health, recovery, and developmental needs are met.
CHALLENGES FACED BY HEALTHCARE FACILITIES USING TRADITIONAL PROCUREMENT PROCESSES:
Healthcare providers are a special breed. They typically have a genuine desire to improve the lives of their patients. However, they can’t do that if they are constantly pulled away from patient care to source and procure materials.
River Edge recently constructed a new facility as well, allowing them to care for more patients. Unfortunately, this act of kindness placed an even greater burden on their time.
With more patients and more space, the need for materials grew. The organization increasingly struggled to keep pace with demand.
All sorts of routine procedures became obstacles to their success. Dr. Ali Yallah, Chief Information Officer at River Edge, summed it up succinctly:
“We became bogged down in manual processes, which began to hinder our effectiveness as a healthcare provider. There was too much paperwork involved, and purchase orders were regularly misplaced s a result. To make matters worse, we had no reliable way to report on purchases by department; unauthorized staff was making purchases at will. This was draining our capacity to fulfill our mission.”
Eventually, River Edge decided that it had to adopt a new method of operating. So, it began to look into procurement software solutions to eliminate manual work and free up time for staff to return their focus to patients. They started evaluating systems.
Dr. Ali Yallah
Chief Information Officer
OBJECTIVES OF A PROCUREMENT SYSTEM:
Once they started searching for the right system, they realized how urgently they needed one. Seeing all the processes that could be automated by the right procurement software validated their decision to move from a paper-based to a digital procurement process.
Dr. Yallah reflected on River Edge’s realization that it needed to make a change:
“Once we saw what procurement software could actually do, we knew it was a must-have. Before, everything was slower and manual. We were plagued by keeping track of physical paper trails to slow decision-making caused by bottlenecks in our approval process. Effective communication with internal staff and suppliers was cumbersome. We had no spend analysis reporting, so identifying cost-saving opportunities was a monumental challenge.”
The organization ended up selecting Tradogram to meet its procurement needs. The following goals were identified as ways to verify whether they’d made the right decision to go with Tradogram:
- All Purchases are needed to be tracked electronically, eliminating paper from the majority of their processes
- They needed to specify the individuals who were authorized to make and approve purchases
- The entire purchase-to-pay process needed to be faster and more streamlined
- Bottlenecks in the decision-making process were to be eliminated
- Reporting should be simple, fast, accurate, and provide actionable insights
RESULTING BENEFITS FROM IMPLEMENTING TRADOGRAM’S E-PROCUREMENT SYSTEM:
After implementing Tradogram, Dr. Yallah reflected back on their processes before and after moving to Tradogram.
Before Implementing Tradogram
After Implementing Tradogram
Time Required to Process a Purchase Order
2 – 3 business days
Under 2 hours
Approving Purchases
It was a virtual free-for-all, with maverick spending an almost daily occurrence.
Only authorized personnel can approve and place purchase orders.
Purchase Order Tracking
Tracking was next to impossible; River Edge relied on paper, emails, and excel spreadsheets.
Everything is now tracked digitally, and a record is kept of every touchpoint for future reference.
Reporting and Maintaining Insight into Performance
They had little to no visibility into what took place along the supply chain.
Customized reporting automatically now provides maximum insight.
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CLOSING REMARKS FROM ALI
With Tradogram as their new procurement partner, River Edge can provide the best quality care imaginable. Virtually everything is tracked digitally in the system.
The team has more time to focus on improving the lives of Georgians with behavioral health conditions. The facility is now thriving as it always has, and so are its patients.
“With Tradogram,” said Dr. Yallah, “we realized a load of benefits we didn’t expect. We reduced the cost of our procurement process by 20%. The platform is easy to use and streamlines the purchasing process from start to finish. But, most importantly, we’re able to serve those in need to the fullest of our capacity, and that’s the driving force behind our success.”
Dr. Yallah also had this to share about his overall experience using Tradogram:
“Tradogram is really an outstanding system. It’s very intuitive, easy to learn, and simple to use. The Tradogram team provides great customer service, which is also a huge bonus for us. It delivers everything we need and more. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a procurement system.”
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