From the Chairman From the Chairman

Our U.S. healthcare system is changing right before our eyes, even before reform takes effect. FirstChoice Cooperative (FCC) understands your supply issues, because we are a healthcare provider that strives to identify and ratify agreements that will save each and every member money. Our goal is to help our members prepare to weather the reform and come out stronger than before. We hope that you will pursue all opportunities identified by FCC to help reduce your overall costs. We are here to help you identify and implement supply cost savings with the least amount of resistance.

Unfortunately, sometimes it takes change to force us to make tough decisions concerning our supply costs. It may require us to change, and no one likes change. However, when the change reduces your facility’s supply costs and helps improve the bottom line, it can mean the difference in maintaining community healthcare services and jobs.

Please don't wait to prepare for healthcare reform. Those who fail to prepare, prepare to fail. So, let's all work together to be prepared and come out stronger than ever before.

FirstChoice Cooperative has more than 600 supply and equipment agreements in place that can provide you the savings needed to succeed in these tough times. Please give us a call, and let us demonstrate the cost-saving opportunities available to your facility through our cooperative.

We're all in this together. Let's help one another prepare and prosper!

 

Remember it pays to make the right choice with FirstChoice Cooperative!

 

Sincerely,

Freddie Sanchez

Chairman

 

 
VP of Sales VP of Sales

As you can tell by reading his message, our chairman, Freddie Sanchez, is VERY passionate about quality care for all our members’ patients. He realizes that with healthcare reform pending, the need to reduce healthcare expense is critical for survival as a healthcare provider. FirstChoice Cooperative can greatly assist you in your cost-reduction efforts. But, you need to maximize your supply-cost savings through FCC.

Back when I worked as the administrative director of materials management for a large Texas healthcare system, our CEO told me, "Jeff, either our supply costs get reduced even further, or we’ll have to begin letting people go." Talk about pressure! The point in that little story is simply to emphasize the need to look at your supply costs, and let us help you reduce them even further. Have you looked at everything we have to offer?

For example: 

  • Are you considering the purchase of any capital equipment this year? If you are, give a list of the anticipated capital purchases to your FirstChoice region director, we’ll return it noting the items for which we have contracts, which vendors we have under contract and the associated contract numbers. Then, when you are ready to purchase, we can help you bid, or even review your bid responses and offer recommendations. Just remember to ask for FirstChoice pricing and reference "FirstChoice Cooperative" somewhere on the purchase order. There’s a lot of money in the Patronage Dividends on capital equipment. You don’t want to miss out on that!
  • Are you on or have you looked hard at our distribution contracts? Again, significant Patronage Dividends pass through these distribution contracts, and again, lower your costs. FirstChoice Cooperative has distribution contracts for numerous areas: med/surg, dietary, lab, pharmacy, radiology. We even have a HUB distributor for capital equipment, if you’re looking/needing to access a HUB vendor.

Change isn’t always easy. But the days of "easy" are over. Moving from a non-contracted distributor to one under an FCC contract can reduce your costs significantly without needing to change products or pharmaceuticals. That’s fairly easy.

 

Sincerely,

Jeff Nellis

Vice President of Sales