Interim Vice President, GPO Business, Financial Insights, and Analytics CommonSpirit Health®
August 2023- The Journal of Healthcare Contracting
Shireen Ahmad serves as the Interim Vice President of GPO Business, Financial Insights and Analytics at CommonSpirit Health, a faith-based, nonprofit health system operating in 22 states across the country. She helps the organization devise strategies for bringing as much spend under management to help their operating divisions optimize savings opportunities and capture as much value as possible.
Any recent stories of wins/successful supply chain projects you can share?
We recently onboarded a hospital that had entered a management agreement with our organization. After five years of negative margins, they have seen three months of successive profit after a number of revenue enhancing and cost cutting measures that my team has actively engaged in. Helping turn this hospital around that provides vital healthcare in an underserved area has been extremely fulfilling and I view it as a big win.
What about upcoming initiatives you are excited to be working on?
I am most excited about the relaunch of our wholly owned GPO which is focused on filling a gap that we see in the marketplace. Our National GPO covers a large number of items, but doesn’t necessarily cover niche or specialty products. Our wholly owned GPO is bolstered by strong relationships with key vendors in physician preference items and we’ve been able to leverage that successfully on behalf of our members.
How do you measure the success of your team and its impact on the organization as a whole?
Each team is given a set of goals and objectives that have either a positive impact or create efficiencies for the department or organization. The measurements and determinants of success often vary from year to year based on what we set out to achieve. Completion of the goals set is not the only expected outcome, we also gauge it through stakeholder satisfaction, whether it is a Division CFO that is able to take away actionable insights from our financial reporting or a member that is able to see a true decrease in their supply expense through their income statements.
What’s the biggest takeaway for you as a supply chain leader over the last few years of marketplace disruptions?
You have to be nimble enough to mobilize quickly when a disruption is imminent and have relationships established with key vendors. You have to constantly survey the environment for disruptions and shortages, develop contingency plans quickly and execute on them. We were fortunate to have great relationships with reputable vendors and manufacturers that helped sustain us through the pandemic that helped us avoid many of the challenges felt by other health systems.
What are the keys to a successful provider/supplier relationship?
Communicating early and often is key. Disruptions in the marketplace require providers and suppliers to have even stronger relationships. Providers need clearer upstream visibility into the supply chain to be able to anticipate issues as they arise from raw material sourcing to production impacts. And providers also need to communicate shifting needs so that suppliers can anticipate and plan accordingly.