Lakeland Regional Medical Center transforms freight program

Lakeland Regional Medical Center (LRMC) is a full-service medical center and health system located in Lakeland, FL. As a not-for-profit medical center with 851 beds, LRMC is the fifth largest hospital in the state and operates the busiest single-site emergency department in Florida.

After years of self-managing their inbound and outbound freight shipments and expenses, hospital management was unsatisfied with their process and knew that they needed to make a change. Being one of the busiest hospitals in Florida, time was valuable to their employees who were fully managing the program. They were interested in looking into new options that could improve their efficiency and performance and reduce freight costs.

The hospital knew that working with a third-party logistics company might be the direction they needed to take, but worried that converting would be a time-consuming and complicated process. They recognized that engaging in a streamlined method, like the one Triose has to offer, would only bring value and potential cost savings. The hospital documented several problems:

Staff was spending too much time managing the hospital’s day-to-day inbound and outbound freight logistics.

Busy employees self-managing the program resulted in lack of program focus and poor process flow.

Cost allocation, audits, billing payments and custom reporting were time consuming and often caused obstacles, increasing the potential for error for the hospital’s accounts payable department.

LRMC chose Triose, already the preferred healthcare logistics company of SESS. Fortunately, the hospital’s Director of Supply Chain, Steve Patton worked with Triose in a previous position and immediately shared his positive experiences and made the introduction. Soon after the connection was made, LRMC began working with the Triose team.

“Triose is the best in the business,” said Steve Patton. “Their freight management program was easy to implement and their team made the conversion process as smooth and seamless as possible.”

Triose implemented their complete integrated freight solution to help the supply chain and accounts payable teams gain control and visibility of their inbound and outbound freight expenses. To address the need for precise allocation of freight costs to departments at various levels, they developed a customized cost allocation and billing method that exceeded the needs of LRMC’s accounts payable department, saving hours of manual processing. Immediately after partnering with Triose, these initiatives resulted in optimized savings and improved process flow.

“We have total confidence in Triose and how they’re managing our freight spend,” said Anita Henry, Assistant Director of Supply Chain and Monika Wiley of accounts payable.

Triose on-boarded the hospital in a short time frame and has exceeded initial savings projections of $134,000, realizing savings of $465,000 since the partnership started in March 2013. During the first few months of their partnership, LRMC’s employees were completely committed to the Triose program and their accounts payable department remains ecstatic about how much more efficiently their freight spend is being managed. To date, Triose is on track to exceed initial savings projections.

In addition to reducing costs, LRMC staff was able to reallocate and better manage their time and now have more accurate visibility of all freight expenses. The teams continue to work together to expand cost-saving initiatives and improve processes for the hospital.

“We have total confidence in Triose and how they’re managing our freight spend,” said Steve Patton. “We’re saving money and finally have more time back on our plates.”