Supply Chain as a Strategic Differentiator; Webinar with Texas Health Resources; plus Jobs!

March 3, 2023

Hello NAW Subscribers -

I hope you like this issue of National Accounts Weekly.

It highlights this year's JHC Contracting Professional of the Year: Bill Moir and his team at Henry Ford Health.

Sincerely,

John Pritchard

President of ANAE

Publisher of The Journal of Healthcare Contracting (JHC)

Supply Chain as a strategic differentiator

Henry Ford Health’s supply chain team is the organization’s “horsepower under the hood,” says this year’s JHC Contracting Professional of the Year.

Henry Ford Health believes that everyone benefits when all businesses are afforded an opportunity to compete in the healthcare marketplace. To that end, it reinvested in its supplier diversity program, partnering closely with its strategic sourcing to ensure that diverse suppliers are identified, included, evaluated and awarded appropriately as part of the formal bid process.

“We’re one of the health systems that signed a pledge as a member of the Healthcare Anchor Network (HAN), and its multifaceted goals from supply chain to sustainability to hiring,” said Bill Moir, senior vice president of supply chain management for Henry Ford Health, and this year’s JHC Contracting Professional of the Year. “We have some lofty goals around supplier diversity which we aim to achieve through our multi-disciplinary Supplier Diversity Champions Committee.”

“This isn’t just a supply chain issue at Henry Ford, it’s an everyone issue,” he said.

Explaining the healthcare value chain

How one business professor is on a mission to demystify an important segment of the U.S. healthcare supply chain.

When Lawton Burns, Ph.D., MBA, looked at the literature available for the U.S. healthcare system, he saw a large gap in information and education about group purchasing organizations (GPOs) and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).

“I’ll give you an illustration of how frustrating this can be,” said Dr. Burns, professor of Health Care Management at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. “Everybody who talks about the history of GPOs starts with the formation of the Hospital Bureau in 1910. Then they jump to the present day – and miss what happened in the last 110+ years. There is a total gap in everybody’s understanding. I like to tell my students that the only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know.”

Wearables and the physician office

Health apps are everywhere … except the exam room.

Have you noticed that most people checking their watches aren’t looking for the time, but rather, for the number of steps they’ve taken today? The fact that so many people – an estimated 45% of Americans – wear fitness trackers has given rise to the term “quantified self.” There’s even a nonprofit based in the San Francisco Bay area called Quantified Self, whose tagline is “Self-knowledge through numbers.”

To date, consumers, employers and health plans have been responsible for driving much of the adoption of wearables and health apps, like fitness trackers. But it remains to be seen how – or if – physicians will jump in.

Interactive webinar with Texas Health Resources

Please join us for The Association of National Account Executives (ANAE) Supply Chain Leader webinar on March 23, 2023, with Shaun Clinton, Sr. VP, Supply Chain Management, Texas Health Resources.

John Pritchard, President of ANAE, will interview Shaun in a 40-minute session covering Texas Health Resources top priorities, how their supply chain is structured, and what you as a supplier can do to best support their health system and work with them more effectively.

Questions on ANAE memberships? Please contact Anna McCormick at amccormick@sharemovingmedia.com.

Efforts against forced labor in healthcare supply chains advanced

HealthTrust Performance GroupSM announced that Jocelyn Bradshaw, SVP of Strategic Sourcing and Tonya Goad, Ethics & Compliance Officer, have joined the Joint Forced Labor Working Group formed by the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to prevent, identify and combat the use of forced labor in the international healthcare supply chain.

This Working Group brings leaders from across sectors together to develop tools and resources that will assist in preventing, identifying and addressing forced labor and human trafficking in supply chain, which source products globally. These tools will include online training modules and curriculum to help educate front-line workers on warning signs; collaborative meetings; and the ongoing development of information memoranda, fact sheets, roundtables and webinars as new information becomes available around human trafficking and its impacts on health and human service systems.

CHS to sell two North Carolina hospitals to Novant Health

Community Health Systems (CHS) announced that subsidiaries of the company have signed a definitive agreement to sell 123-bed Lake Norman Regional Medical Center, an acute care hospital in Mooresville, NC, and Davis Regional Medical Center in Statesville, NC, which is in the process of transitioning from a general acute care hospital to an inpatient behavioral health hospital, and their associated assets, to subsidiaries of Novant Health for cash consideration of approximately $320 million.

MUSM and Children's advance pediatric healthcare in rural Georgia

Mercer University School of Medicine (MUSM) and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (Children’s) today announced they will be working together to launch a major initiative focused on improving pediatric healthcare in rural Georgia. The announcement, which was made by Gov. Brian Kemp at the Georgia State Capitol with legislators and healthcare leaders in attendance, includes a series of pilot programs focused on improving access to pediatric care close to home. The affiliation will be funded by a dedicated and long-term sustainable fund of $200 million that the Children’s Board of Trustees allocated in 2022.

Mass General Brigham picks Medline for medical supplies

Medline and Massachusetts-based Mass General Brigham have entered into a multi-year prime vendor agreement. After being with a previous vendor for over 25 years, Medline will now be the exclusive provider of medical and surgical supplies across the integrated academic healthcare system’s continuum of care, including the system’s acute care facilities and network for ambulatory surgery centers and physician offices.

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mass General Brigham tapped Medline to augment the health system’s storage capacity with third-party logistics (3PL) solutions enabled by Medline’s state-of-the-art 840,000 square-foot Uxbridge, MA, distribution center. With the expansion of the strategic relationship, in addition to 3PL solutions, Mass General Brigham will also leverage Medline’s supply chain optimization and logistical expertise to advance its supply chain operations and resiliency efforts.

AHA names Ascension CEO as new board trustee

The American Hospital Association (AHA) has elected Joseph R. Impicciche, chief executive officer of Ascension, to fill a vacancy on its Board of Trustees for a term effective immediately and ending Dec. 31, 2024. The Board of Trustees is the highest policymaking body of the AHA and has ultimate authority for the governance and management of its direction and finances.

“The AHA is an important voice for hospitals and health systems as we work to advance an environment that best meets the healthcare needs of those we serve,” said Impicciche. “I am honored and humbled to represent the perspectives of our associates, providers and communities as part of the AHA board.”

Premier acquires 100 Top Hospitals program

Premier acquired the 100 Top Hospitals® program from Merative (formerly IBM Watson Health). The program will be integrated within PINC AI™, Premier’s technology and services brand.

Launched in 1993 by Truven Health Analytics, the primary purpose of the 100 Top Hospitals program is to inspire hospital and health system leaders to pursue higher performance and deliver added value to their patients and communities. The program develops and provides scorecards derived from nationally recognized metrics and is published annually by Fortune as the 100 Top Hospitals, 15 Top Health Systems and 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals.