Top 3 HealthLeaders Supply Chain Stories of 2021

Find out how healthcare supply chain leaders are rising to the most daunting challenges in their field.

Strained supply chains have been a significant concern this year, and HealthLeaders has been following developments in the healthcare system supply chain.

Here are three of the top healthcare supply chain stories published by HealthLeaders in 2021:

1. Supply Chain Strategies Needed: Fewer Elective Procedures, Higher Costs

The COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging for health systems in many ways. But even supply chain leaders firmly entrenched in their roles learned lessons that will improve their operations for years to come. LeAnn Born, vice president of supply chain at M Health Fairview is one such leader. Born has been at the supply chain helm of this Minneapolis-based health system since 2010, responsible for supply chain at eight hospitals, more than 40 primary care clinics, and outpatient services such as healthcare transportation.

Born says health systems need to identify their best supply chain leaders to foster quick decision-making, focus on standardizing products, engage physicians at the right time and support them with information about supply chain changes, and use data to monitor contract compliance and benchmark pricing.

2. Robotics, Drones, and Centralized Purchasing: How Houston Methodist Is Changing the Supply Chain

When David Peck arrived at Houston Methodist in 2018, there was no centralized purchasing. Each entity of the health system purchased its own goods. Peck, vice president of supply chain management, centralized all purchasing at the corporate level, delegating it into pods: The operating room buyers. The laboratory buyers. The general medical-surgical buyers. And so on.

Peck says health systems should standardize products and renegotiate contracts for increased savings, compare the cost to buy equipment such as beds versus renting, and work with local partners to manufacture critical products to decrease sourcing reliance on other countries.

3. How One Supply Chain Leader Borrows Auto Factory Concepts for a Health System

While Hal Mueller worked briefly in healthcare before, the bulk of his corporate life was spent in purchasing at Ford Motor Company. Auto parts aren't healthcare supplies, but there are similarities. He brings that perspective to his work as chief supply chain officer at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. "In some ways, there are parts of the business world where healthcare gets closer and closer to a manufacturing environment," he says. "We talk about variation being the enemy of quality. We like to optimize variation; it's not about minimizing variation."

Mueller says health systems should use the 2-bin Kanban method to understand product cycle time and avoid product expirations, enlist clinical partners to help evaluate and drive supply decisions, and analyze and renegotiate supplies in cycles.