By Mark Thill
Points of View
Reading about this year’s “Ten People to Watch in Healthcare Contracting” is like viewing a blueprint for successful, thoughtful leadership in the profession. These 10 individuals discuss things like:
- Engaging with others in the organization (and beyond it).
- Learning how to gather data and share it so that it’s meaningful and actionable to others.
- Being a lifelong learner – asking questions, looking for new opportunities.
- Embracing new technology (while watching for “technology creep”).
Here’s what I’m talking about:
“To be a great supply chain practitioner, you need to be well-versed in process improvement, project management and data analysis. To be a great servant leader, you need to use influence and develop meaningful relationships to build trust and sustain results.” (Adrian Wengert, St. Luke’s Health System)
“The most challenging work on our plate lately has been changing our relationships with our supply base. These relationships are traditionally transactional, and it will be in everyone’s best interest if we shift that to something more collaborative – and lean. For instance, there are tremendous opportunities to drive costs out of our suppliers’ Selling General and Administrative (SG&A) expenses.” (Ed Hisscock, Trinity Health)
“Our teams manage contracting as a byproduct of managing larger relationships with our constituents and suppliers. Contracting becomes a lot easier when you are engaged with the people making decisions about the service line and its future – as we were with cardiovascular. I would tell a young person to find time to have a dialogue with the people who are influencing a service line.” (Fred Keller, HealthTrust)
“There has been a significant change in the practice of supply chain over the years. The industry is not only more equipped to capture data, but has also improved the way we visualize it. Bridging the gaps between purchasing data and clinical data has strengthened relationships between clinical teams and has directly impacted supply chain’s ability to contribute to patient outcomes and quality care.” (Herman Lovato, Centura Health)
“The next generation of supply chain professionals will face many of the same challenges that we are facing today – but quite likely on a greater scale, and at a faster pace. Successfully meeting those challenges depends almost exclusively on continuing to identify, recruit and retain the most talented professionals possible to address whatever situation arises. (Anand Joshi, NewYork-Presbyterian)
“The transition to value-based care is not slowing down. If anything, it is accelerating. The future generation of supply chain professionals will need to be both experts in their fields and partners with their management teams as those organizations are more and more challenged to improve care quality and [achieve] cost reductions through value-based reimbursement models.” (Sparkle Barnes, CNECT)