Observation Deck: Bad solution looking for a problem?
“It’s a bad solution looking for a problem.” That’s what Thomas P. Stossel, M.D., professor of medicine at Harvard and co-founder of the Association of…
Articles by Mark Thill
Observation Deck: Radiation safety and the contracting executive’s role
The U.S. population’s total exposure to ionizing radiation has nearly doubled over the past two decades, according to a 2009 report by the National Council…
Observation Deck: The Vendor Credentialing Tug-of-War
Seems like the vendor credentialing issue becomes more of a tug-of-war every day. As providers demand more, vendors push back harder. While providers make their…
Observation Deck – What can you buy with a stack of Post-Its?
Physician group pushes back on strict conflict-of-interest policies The newspapers are full of news about medical conflicts of interest. We read about articles in peer-reviewed…
Observation Deck – GPOs in the court of public opinion…again
Some people really don’t like GPOs. Among them would appear to be S. Prakash Sethi, who has published a book called Group Purchasing Organizations: An…
Observation Deck – The supply chain that works
From all reports, the supply chain worked well this spring, as A(H1N1) – the swine flu – burst into public consciousness. The epidemic (now officially…
Observation Deck – Opportunities and Challenges
There’s a good chance you already belong to, – or are considering joining – a regional purchasing coalition, or aggregation group. As our story in…
Observation Deck – The Toughest Question of All
The photo of Adolf Hitler pretty much said it all. There it was, accompanying an editorial in the Washington Times whose title was “Health ‘efficiency’…
Observation Deck
‘My sales reps don’t love me anymore’ Have you noticed a drop-off in the number of branded promotional items, such as pens and Post-It pads,…
Observation Deck: They thought they’d been forgotten
The last time I saw Tom Kelly was I don’t know when. But there he was – as well as other supply chain figures –…