December 2024 – The Journal of Healthcare Contracting
Vice President of CHAMPS Group Purchasing
As the Vice President of CHAMPS Group Purchasing, Maria Summers’ primary responsibility is to grow the GPO by building strategic partnerships and ensuring members realize their savings potential through the program’s supply chain solutions. She leads an incredibly talented team that is committed to consistently delivering quality results by creating strong, trustworthy relationships with members and vendors. Her role also involves collaborating with other leaders to ensure that their solutions not only meet the needs of the healthcare industry but also stay aligned with emerging trends and challenges, and markets outside of healthcare.
What is a recent or current project you’ve been excited to work on?
I have had the privilege of working for CHAMPS for over 13 years, and I still derive immense joy and excitement from new projects and challenges.
In 2023, CHAMPS partnered with Premier SmartPO™ – a one-stop purchasing and inventory management solution. This ERP solution saves members both time and money by streamlining and simplifying the procurement process and helping them identify opportunities for cost savings. Most importantly, it is very cost effective for the Continuum of Care market of healthcare; really for any organization! I’m proud to support this solution offering for our membership.
In addition, we have recently embarked on an exciting venture to collaborate with a national channel partner, officially expanding CHAMPS into the public sector and more strategically into private, commercial organizations.
This opportunity has enabled us to thoroughly re-evaluate and restructure our sales and service team, ultimately empowering us to capitalize on our strengths in account management. The future is promising for CHAMPS, and I’m excited to lead the team into this new chapter, bringing greater value, savings, and benefits to all organizations that are a part of our membership.
Tell us a little bit about your team. What’s unique about them and the way you go about your work?
At CHAMPS, we’ve achieved milestones that might have once seemed daunting, and this success is a direct result of my team’s unwavering dedication and exceptional work ethic. What makes the team truly unique is their diverse range of skills and deep understanding of the industries we serve.
Our members and suppliers gain tremendous value from dedicated account managers who possess specialized expertise across various trade sectors and are skilled at understanding our members’ businesses and identifying their greatest potential for savings in both the CHAMPS and Premier portfolios. We’ve been fortunate enough to bring on incredible talent in recent years. The team’s growth includes additional account managers and member developers to support a rapidly growing membership base, vendor relations, expanded field operations, and contracting experts.
We are strategically structured to ensure maximum efficiency and deep proficiency, streamlining our operations and focusing on areas such as acute and non-acute healthcare and private-sector non-healthcare. By offering direct access to account managers, we empower our members and suppliers to save both time and resources, further enhancing their positive experience with CHAMPS.
My team has consistently impressed me as they’ve confronted new challenges and ambitious goals. Each and every one of them demonstrates a genuine passion for advancing CHAMPS to new heights of customer satisfaction, all while maintaining a true love for the work we do in this industry. In short, they inspire me to be the best leader I can be.
What industry level trends are you keeping an eye on as we head into the close of 2024
and beginning of 2025?
There are a few important issues that I am closely monitoring as we head into 2025.
Sustainability: As the push for greener supply chains continues to become more prominent, keeping an eye on sustainable sourcing and waste reduction strategies is key. This includes determining how we can meet members’ expectations and properly provide these options in our portfolio.
Technological advancements: Emerging technologies like AI are reshaping supply chain efficiency and transparency and need to be assessed carefully to determinate how our team can best utilize these new tools.
Regulatory changes: Staying informed about healthcare regulations that may impact procurement and supply chain processes.
Stability: There is work being done in the policy arena intended to lead to overall increased stability in our supply chain by increasing diversification and domestic sourcing. As we have witnessed in recent years, through the global pandemic, with natural disasters that can impact manufacturing, and even workforce disruptions like the port strike, it is increasingly important to implement strategies that can help ensure a stable and resilient supply chain.
When it comes to diversity in the U.S. healthcare supply chain workforce, has the industry improved since you started your career? If so, in what ways? And, what work remains to be done?
Yes, there has certainly been progress made. Today, there are initiatives that directly focus on increasing diversity in the supply chain workforce and that ensure practices are in place to facilitate spending with diverse vendors.
At CHAMPS, our regional portfolio is made up of about 30% diverse and local vendors. I’m proud of how our portfolio has evolved and grown to include an increase in diverse agreements with woman-owned and minority-owned businesses, and the positive impact this has had on our members and communities.
While there has been an improvement in the diversity of the workforce across the industry, it is vital we continue to do more. Diverse perspectives generate new ideas and drive innovation. By incorporating individuals from varied backgrounds, healthcare supply chains can better address disparities and promote economic opportunity for minority-owned businesses. This not only strengthens member trust and satisfaction but also enhances overall organizational performance, resilience, and social responsibility.
In 2022 and 2023, CHAMPS was recognized as an “Inclusive Workplace” by Best Companies Group and COLOR Magazine. I’m honored to work for an organization that prioritizes inclusion and belonging and fosters a healthy workplace culture. We hope to receive this recognition again for 2024 when awardees are announced in December. Enhancing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging is a long-term commitment for our organization.