The health system is dedicated to investing in its diverse communities across many supplier groups.
August 2023- The Journal of Healthcare Contracting
Establishing meaningful, long-lasting relationships with diverse suppliers committed to inspiring health is a mission at Greenville, S.C.-based Prisma Health, the largest private, nonprofit healthcare organization in South Carolina with 18 acute and specialty hospitals, 305 practice sites and over 5,000 clinicians across its network. Prisma Health’s coverage area canvases 51% of the state.
“It is paramount that our supply base represents the patients we serve,” said Berri Heinz, director of supply chain procurement and supplier diversity for Prisma Health. “Supplier diversity is critical in healthcare supply chains because we serve an incredibly diverse population.”
Heinz says suppliers are only two steps away from patients and those suppliers should be developing innovative products that are important to a patient base that may be historically underrepresented.
“There are so many different cultures, representations, and needs that we must bring all talents, thoughts, and experiences – past and present – to the table to make sure we’re reflecting those interests,” she said. “It’s the mosaic that everyone talks about.”
Diverse suppliers know how to pivot
Heinz started as a volunteer at Prisma Health in 2009 after losing her job in Texas during the recession. She relocated to South Carolina and worked her way up through Prisma Health’s purchasing department with her background in procurement. She says she knows the power of reinvention and how to pivot, and that lends itself to leading supplier diversity.
“Diverse suppliers know how to pivot,” she said on a Workday podcast. “They live and breathe that concept of pivoting, and they know that – right, wrong or indifferent – they have to be more agile than the big corporations.”
Supplier diversity is a business strategy for Prisma Health. It’s the intentional inclusion to ensure that diverse suppliers have a fair and equitable opportunity to bid on the health system’s product and service needs, and Heinz says it’s a way to ensure a diverse supplier base in the procurement of goods and services.
“It’s more important than ever for us to be competitive and drive down the costs associated with the healthcare supply chain because it’s very volatile right now,” she said. “Diverse businesses are typically small businesses that are statistically proven to aid in economic recovery and sustainability of their communities.”
Economic aid to underrepresented communities
Promoting innovation and providing multiple channels to procure products and services drives competition between existing suppliers, which lowers cost, and allows companies to take advantage of new opportunities for business expansion with a shifting demographic base.
Statistics from the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) speak to diverse suppliers aiding economic recovery and sustainability in America’s communities. Its latest Minority Business Economic Impact Report shows the growing impression that NMSDC-certified minority business enterprises (MBEs) are having on the U.S. economy, including:
- $316.2 billion in total annual revenues for certified MBEs (a 21% increase from 2021 to 2022).
- $482.1 billion in total economic activity.
- 1.8 million U.S. jobs supported.
- $136.4 billion in total wages.
“When we pour into an underrepresented or underserved community, they are going to pour right back into their own community,” Heinz said. “There is an incredible economic impact. Those are local and regional dollars, and they are definitely American dollars.”
Prisma Health recognizes the importance of having suppliers who mirror the diverse workforce and patient base of South Carolina. Categories of supplier diversity include minority-, woman-, LGBTQ-, veteran- and disabled-owned businesses. A business qualifies as diverse when it is at least 51%-owned or stock-owned, operated and controlled by U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents who identify as part of one or more of the following:
- African American/Black, Hispanic/Latin American, Asian-Pacific, Native American, Asian-Indian (MBE).
- Caucasian Female or Woman (WBE).
- Veteran/Service-Disabled Veterans (VBE/DVBE).
- Disabled Individuals (DOBE).
- Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender/Queer (LGBTQ).
These suppliers are grouped into two tiers. Tier I suppliers sell products and/or services directly to Prisma Health. Tier II suppliers sell products and/or services to a Prisma Health Tier I supplier. Typically, these are smaller companies subcontracted as part of a larger project or distribution system.
Maximizing exposure for diverse businesses
Prisma Health collaborates with local and regional chambers of commerce, the Carolinas-Virginia Minority Supplier Development Council (CVMSDC) and its GPO, Premier, to maximize exposure for diverse businesses through supplier matchmaking sessions and business expositions.
CVMSDC promotes and facilities business relationships between the public/private sector and certified minority-owned businesses. It is a private, nonprofit membership organization of major corporations, financial institutions, government agencies and universities that operate in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
“We get to share best practices with like-minded corporations. In South Carolina, there are some large corporations that take this very seriously,” Heinz said. “Diverse suppliers have five minutes to meet with the corporations at matchmaking events and give their elevator pitch.”
Prisma Health gets a lot of its diverse supplier referrals from these partnerships and other conferences that promote diverse businesses.
Prisma Health’s Supplier Code of Excellence
There’s also an established Supplier Code of Excellence that sets the expectation for prime, non-diverse suppliers working with Prisma Health. It centers around those suppliers demonstrating a commitment to include diverse business partners where opportunities exist. Prisma Health requires quarterly reporting from its distributors on the volume of business that was sourced through diverse suppliers.
“We want to know that our prime suppliers are having those conversations and that diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging is top of mind for them,” Heinz said. “If you partner with us, it needs to be important to your organization too. A rising tide lifts all boats and if we can plant a seed in a prime supplier base, even from another state, then those dollars will go back into their local community. That’s what I love about our expectation with our prime suppliers.”