Obtain senior management commitment. Continual commitment from senior management helps keep projects moving and demonstrates their importance to all hospital staff. Even if the project originates in materials management, the materials manager should win executive team support before engaging physicians and surgeons. Senior leadership must be willing to support the process, stay with it through difficult moments and see it through on an ongoing basis.

Build a representative project team. Initiatives will affect numerous stakeholders ranging from physicians, surgeons and nurses to materials managers, the CEO and CFO. To ensure that the project meets both its quality and cost goals, the project team must include representatives from each of these areas. Physicians and clinical staff will support the final cost-savings initiative if they are invited to work with senior management and materials management through benchmarking and establishing protocols.

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