INTRODUCTION
Crises can happen at any moment–take Chipotle for example. According to an analysis by a risk management company, if the restaurant chain had had a vendor risk management solution, the food may have never been contaminated.
It’s also important for independent medical practices to have a vendor risk management strategy in place. If a vendor were to make a mistake, it’s your practice that unfortunately takes much of the blame and your patients who suffer the consequences. Here are tips on how to create such a strategy.
ALIGN THE PLAN WITH YOUR VALUES
When putting together the vendor risk management plan, make sure prospective vendors share the same values (e.g. customer-first mentality, trust, giving back, etc.) as your practice. If they don’t and you hired them anyway, the public backlash could be fierce(r) if an incident occurs.
Not only do the vendors need to share the same values, but they need to meet a list of requirements, such as having positive references, liability insurance and the necessary licensing and regulatory compliance like HIPAA training. Your patients will be upset if you didn’t do your due diligence.
As with personal relationships, the stronger the better. Consider your vendors as your partners, and build trust with them. They will appreciate that your practice has less red tape than a hospital has; for example, you can pay your vendors within 30 days, while a hospital may take longer.
Once your vendors have been established, look to evaluate them as this helps with flexibility, on-time delivery, costs and overall quality. Share your results with your vendor at their review, which we recommend at 30 and 90 days to start, then recurring every six months.
BE TRANSPARENT WITH YOUR PLAN
As stated above, make sure that your vendors share your same values. These values must be conveyed in the procurement process, including your vendor information page on your website, social media language and your RFPs. If you have a communications manager, they should be demonstrating your values through marketing and PR efforts. This makes it easier for your independent practice to attract the right vendors in the first place.
Create an internal FAQ document on the vendor relationship policy and make it available on the company’s shared drive. This makes sure everyone on staff has access to it and can comfortably talk about the policies.
If you expect changes to the policy, prepare the vendors 30-60 days in advance with a “coming soon” email or newsletter with the details.
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