ALTHEA is one of the largest independent buyers of clinical consumables and devices for Cardiology and Interventional Radiology departments in the UK & Ireland, managing a catalogue of over 3,500 clinical consumables and devices sourced from 100+ suppliers in line with our ethos of vendor-independence.
Through our existing customers we have already achieved economies of scale that lead to significant financial savings of up to 15% whilst delivering reliable, efficient, and patient-focused services.
The financial savings generated by the consumables management service are an enabler for re-investment in Cardiology and Interventional Radiology departments – guaranteeing the future replacement of equipment or the addition of new technologies – whilst contributing to cost improvement programme.
Please download our consumable management service case study where we reduced expenditure by £2.4M in the first year.
In addition to cost savings, clinical teams will be able to maintain their focus on safe, effective and responsive patient care as non-clinical activities associated with stock management and replenishment will be delivered by our on-site inventory management team.
Clinical choice is at the heart of our consumable management service.
We will ensure innovation through vendor independent selection to provide the very best patient outcomes – providing full patient procedure costing and service transparency. Innovations within the first 12 months for one of our customers included:
Our service requires on-site inventory management staff to be active within a customer’s stock room department on hand to support clinical services.
In addition to on-site staff, we will provide remote support staff based at our head office in Reading (Berkshire) including: healthcare economic specialists, clinical support, procurement, finance, accounts payable, and infrastructure.
Our preferred inventory management system will enable on-site and remote head office teams to monitor the end-to-end consumable management service. Operationally our inventory system offers proven and optimal integration with other hospital IT systems and will be configured to manage the full range of general consumables, devices and procedure packs.
Overall the systems are designed to minimise administration and the number non-clinical tasks performed by your clinical team, whilst retaining full, real-time visibility of the inventory.
Our partner inventory management system is ISO9001 and GS1 accredited and CFMD certified.
Additionally, our service allows optional access to a paperless device management system which provides a complete data, management and reporting system for the registration and (remote) monitoring of pacemakers, ICDs and loop recorders.
Our partner device management system is ISO9001 and ISO13485 accredited.
Both IT systems are cloud-based and are provided by Crown Commercial Service G-Cloud 9 Framework-approved suppliers and can be securely accessed via the Health & Social Care Network (formerly N3) with which ALTHEA is accredited.
Customer clinical teams will have access to unlimited training in the use of the inventory management and device management IT systems throughout the term of the service including the use of industry-standard handheld scanner / barcode technology.
In addition, an agreed training programme will be delivered for the imaging, haemodynamic and other relevant systems throughout the term of the contract.
For more information and guidance regarding Cardiology & Interventional Radiology clinical consumables and devices please contact 0118 900 8100.
