Cleveland Clinic, IBM Partnership; Intermountain ASCs; Nominate a Healthcare Hero; plus Jobs!

January 27, 2023

Hello NAW Subscribers -

I hope you like this issue of National Accounts Weekly.

It spotlights the January issue of The Journal of Healthcare Contracting and Cleveland Clinic's IBM partnership to bring the first quantum computer onsite to a U.S. health system in 2023.

In other news, we urge you to nominate a healthcare hero by Feb. 3 for the 2023 Heartbeat of Healthcare Individual and Team Supply Chain Award. See more information below.

Sincerely,

John Pritchard

President of ANAE

Publisher of The Journal of Healthcare Contracting (JHC)

Always Innovating

Cleveland Clinic’s IBM partnership to bring first quantum computer onsite to a U.S. health system in 2023

The first onsite quantum computer in U.S. healthcare is set to be located on Cleveland Clinic’s main campus by early 2023. It is a key part of a 10-year partnership between Cleveland Clinic and IBM aimed at fundamentally advancing the pace of biomedical research through high-performance computing.

The Cleveland Clinic-IBM Discovery Accelerator is a joint center that leverages Cleveland Clinic’s medical expertise with IBM’s technology expertise. The IBM-managed quantum computer will advance high-performance computing in healthcare through:

Always Prepared?

Where we stand in our bid for total pandemic preparedness

The Girl Scouts, the Boy Scouts and the U.S. Coast Guard have the right idea: They’re always prepared. It says so in their mottos. How about the healthcare supply chain? Not quite, as COVID-19 demonstrated. However, since March 2020, lawmakers and supply chain organizations have instituted and promoted many safeguards to better prepare us for next time. They include:

CARES Act.
Trucking Action Plan.
Freight Logistics Optimization Works initiative.
Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022.
PREVENT Pandemics Act.
A “fast pass” system for medical supplies and equipment.

So, can we say we are “always prepared?” Maybe not. But it’s safe to say we are better prepared.

Nominate a Healthcare Hero by Feb. 3

The 2023 Heartbeat of Healthcare Individual and Team Supply Chain Award

RSV, COVID-19, the flu in addition to supply shortages continue to challenge our healthcare industry in profound ways. The stories and images from the frontlines remind us of the heartbreaking loss AND breakthrough moments of inspiration.

The pressure has been relentless. Supply chain and agency leaders now engage in preparedness efforts to reimagine and build a more resilient healthcare supply chain.

Our dedicated professionals throughout the healthcare supply chain have been quietly saving lives, accelerating innovation, collaborating with each other, and giving every waking hour to this cause for almost three years.

Is there a hero you know in healthcare supply chain that deserves recognition? Nominations due by Friday, Feb. 3.

Nominate Here

Intermountain Breaks Ground on New ASC

As healthcare costs continue to rise throughout the country, consumers and patients are looking for lower cost options without sacrificing the quality of care that they need. Ambulatory surgery centers provide that exact type of care experience that so many people in this country are looking for, providing an alternative care route that is financially feasible and efficient.

Intermountain Health broke ground on a new ambulatory surgery center in Layton, Utah. The ASC should be completed in January 2024, according to the Standard-Examiner.

It also recently opened a state-of-the-art ambulatory surgery center at St. George Regional Hospital in St. George, Utah. Intermountain Surgery Center – St. George will offer same-day urology and orthopedic surgeries in four specialized operating rooms, and most patients will be able to recover at home shortly after surgery.

TriHealth Affiliates with Cleveland Clinic

TriHealth, a Cincinnati, OH-based integrated healthcare delivery system, today announced it is now an affiliate of Cleveland Clinic’s Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute – the nation’s top-ranked heart program, according to U.S. News & World Report.

Cleveland Clinic will work with TriHealth clinicians and multidisciplinary teams, including those at Good Samaritan Hospital, Bethesda North Hospital and the TriHealth Heart & Vascular Institute. Cleveland Clinic’s Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute will share clinical best practices for patient care, giving TriHealth patients access to the expertise of Cleveland Clinic physicians as well as the latest technologies and innovations in heart care.

Ascension Names Adams as Regional Operating Officer

Tim Adams was named regional operating officer and senior vice president for Ascension in St. Louis.

In this role, Adams will oversee Ascension ministry markets in Alabama, Florida and Gulf Coast, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington, DC.

He previously served as president and CEO of Saint Thomas Health, now Ascension Saint Thomas, in Nashville, TN and ministry market executive for Ascension Tennessee starting in 2018.

B. Braun Expands Manufacturing Capacity in the U.S.

The medical device company invests to bring manufacturing closer to patients

The pandemic and the supply chain crisis exposed vulnerabilities in the healthcare supply chain during the past three years as the U.S. was hit with shortages of critical therapies and medical supplies. International healthcare manufacturers with U.S. customers reassessed their strategies to become more resilient, and reshoring manufacturing back to North America became critical.

B. Braun, an international medical device maker with its global headquarters in Germany, has operated in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania since 1979. It opened its Allentown, Pennsylvania, campus in 1985 and recently expanded there with a more than $200 million, 310,000-square-foot addition. The expansion will add over 200 jobs to B. Braun’s existing 1,500 workforce in Allentown and aims to revolutionize manufacturing of medical devices, including life-sustaining infusion therapy devices to treat millions of patients in the U.S.

Healthier Tomorrow Fund Promotes Access to Careers

HCA Healthcare announced multiple HCA Healthcare Foundation grants, through its Healthier Tomorrow Fund, to provide high school students early access to careers in healthcare and to connect unemployed and underemployed jobseekers with meaningful healthcare career opportunities. The HCA Healthcare Foundation is giving $250,000 to community colleges and universities and $130,000 to the Urban League of Broward County.

The HCA Healthcare Foundation will work with community colleges and universities to help high school students learn about various healthcare careers through the following grants:

Cardinal, Palantir Team for Clinically Integrated Supply Chain Solution

Cardinal Health announced that it has entered into a strategic collaboration with Palantir Technologies, a leading builder of operating systems for the modern enterprise, to design a solution that will give health systems and hospitals dynamic purchase decision insights in order to quickly improve their bottom line.

The Cardinal Health solution, which will be integrated into Foundry, Palantir’s industry-leading operating system, will deploy artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to bring together diagnosis and clinical data with real-time customer purchasing and consumption data for pharmaceutical products with best-in-class data and privacy protections.

BD Publishes 2022 Cybersecurity Annual Report

BD released its third annual cybersecurity report to update stakeholders about the company’s ongoing efforts to advance cybersecurity maturity, protect against cyberattacks and empower customers with information about cyber risks and vulnerabilities.

Through the BD 2022 Cybersecurity Annual Report, the company is increasing awareness of health care cybersecurity challenges and the company’s commitment to transparency and collaboration.