From our supply chain perspective, we look at what’s the best product at the best possible price. And, what we do is we make sure that we can get product everywhere effectively, that we can get the right price point on that product, and then we scale it to where we have one TouchPoint standard.
Whenever we’re looking at a procurement perspective, we look at the end experience, and what do we want that plate to look like when it’s delivered and served to a patient. We look at, from that perspective, to build to the plate, as opposed to letting the ingredients or the procurement perspective build the plate. It’s reverse engineering that process to make sure that whatever that end outcome is, it’s most effective.
We look at how we can use technology to augment that, too. One of the things we’ve launched and we’re rolling out nationwide is a hot hold fridge. Uses AI to manage and measure what the even atmospheric content, the nitrogen levels look like within the oven, to make sure that it can hold food hot for 72 hours.
When we rolled that out, we saw a year-over-year decrease in costs per day of 16.4%. We saw 25-plus point improvement in patient satisfaction. We had the highest satisfaction rates we’d ever seen at this account, at the lowest cost we’d seen in years.
We worked very, very closely together. It’s one of the largest in the world, and it actually, they purchased $65 billion worth of food a year. And we’re able to leverage that procurement and flex our muscles, if you will, from a procurement standpoint with our providers, so that we get the products that we need, so that we’re sourcing products that may be specifically purpose built for TouchPoint, in order to deliver the plate product and that end product that we need to serve to patients.
Supply chain can be a massive value driver. It can be a source of differentiation for you as an organization. From a supply chain perspective, and I think everyone who’s here has experienced the COVID supply chain, that was a tough time. And I bring that up because it’s a risk component of not having the right supply chain, not having the right relationships, means in some cases you don’t get the right product.
One little change in that process of, one truck driver strike can cause a ripple effect that just happens and has major downstream implications. And that’s where supply chain can be a big value add, because if you can get that product, if you can get it the right way, it can be a differentiator, because the people across the street, your competition may not.