Senior Director of Supply Chain Management,
Cleveland Clinic
August 2024 – The Journal of Healthcare Contracting
Geoff Gates leads the P2P and Technology division within Cleveland Clinic’s Supply Chain and Support Services, which encompasses Data Management, Analytics, Purchasing, Technology and Resiliency. His team supports the enterprise, managing operations in Ohio, Florida, and Nevada within the U.S. Additionally, they collaborate closely with on-site teams in the UK to support their day-to-day requirements.
What’s a recent win for your Supply Chain team?
Last October, we successfully completed our 3-year deployment of a Cloud-Based ERP; this involved consolidating 5 ERPs into one across Ohio, Nevada, and Florida. During this period, we also opened hospitals in the UK and Northeast Ohio. We also completed a similar deployment for our food service division, standardizing our main application for nutrition and meal delivery. These initiatives have helped us create a global model for operations in both the U.S. and UK.
Additionally, we unveiled plans to incorporate drone technology for pharmacy deliveries in 2025, rolled out multiple automations (bots) last year, implemented a warehouse management system and recently completed an upgrade to our e-procurement tool, which encompasses marketplace shopping, supplier management, and contracting.
What about upcoming initiatives you are excited to be working on?
There are two specific initiatives we’ve been focused on this year. First, given the ongoing emphasis on supply chain resilience, we’ve been actively seeking a solution that will help create end-to-end supply chain visibility. This involves sharing our procedure schedules, daily census, on-hand inventory, and forecasts with suppliers, while also asking suppliers to provide insight to their forecasts and on-hand inventory. Creating that visibility would be a crucial advancement toward greater resilience, enabling us to anticipate disruptions more accurately.
That leads to our second initiative, centered on the integration of AI in our operations. We’ve been working with our teams to better understand potential use cases and areas where AI could drive improvements. We’ve also started outlining what existing tools we can leverage and identifying additional resources we may need as we further expand AI integration into our operations.
How do you measure the success of your team and its impact on the organization as a whole?
Over the last few years, much of our focus has revolved around making sure we meet our implementation timelines. As we move forward, our focus shifts toward identifying and implementing efficiencies. Whether it’s through an enhancement to our systems or introducing new automation, our team has the potential to significantly impact the organization.
The U.S. healthcare system has had its share of disruptions amid the pandemic and now post-pandemic. What are your takeaways as a Supply Chain leader?
In short, expect the unexpected. To say that the last few years have been challenging would be an understatement, and we’ve learned how interconnected we all are. At the same time, it has challenged us to think differently about what it means to be resilient, paving the way for enhanced collaboration within the industry. The enhanced partnerships that exist today between providers and suppliers are one of the biggest achievements following the pandemic.
What are the most important attributes of a successful Supply Chain team today?
Two key attributes immediately come to mind. The first is being agile. In today’s healthcare landscape, priorities are constantly shifting and evolving. You need to be flexible enough to recognize when to pivot, while simultaneously staying focused on core competencies. This is one of the things I am most proud of with my team over the last couple of years as we were able to not only complete our core focus of ERP deployments but also prepare for the future by integrating automation and AI.
The second is embracing data and technology. We have more data now than we’ve ever had and are migrating to tools that rival other industries. Successful teams will be those capable of leveraging data for decision-making and utilizing technology to enhance operational efficiencies.
What are the keys to a successful provider/supplier relationship?
In a word, it’s transparency. Both parties must be willing to openly share information and details so that we can better serve patients together. Collectively, we are better off working together to solve our issues and transparency is the key to that.