Providence St. Joseph Health is a multistate health system committed to improving the health of the communities it serves, especially for those who are poor and vulnerable. With 50 hospitals, 829 physician clinics, senior services, supportive housing and other health and educational services, the not-for-profit health and social services system employs 111,000 caregivers (employees) and serves communities in Alaska, California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas and Washington.
Ginny Borncamp
Senior vice president, chief sourcing officer, Providence St. Joseph Health, Renton, Washington
Ginny Borncamp started her career in healthcare more than 20 years ago. “Very early on, I learned to approach supply chain management as a conduit to improved patient care,” she says. Prior to joining Providence, she worked with Allina Health and Intermountain Healthcare in supply chain and medical informatics. While with Intermountain, Borncamp served as the medical program director for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, and provided consulting services to organizers of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy; and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia.
At Providence St. Joseph Health, Borncamp leads strategic sourcing, clinical integration/value analysis, contract administration, data management and analytics, procurement, and accounts payable, with teams located across the IDN’s service areas. “Since we’ve centralized most of our program services for supplies, purchased services and clinical equipment across seven states, these are busy and fast-paced departments,” she says.
Journal of Healthcare Contracting: What has been the most challenging and/or rewarding supply-chain-related project in which you have been involved in the past 12-18 months?
Ginny Borncamp: One of the challenges we face is tracking and reporting realized savings on monthly purchases. To simplify and improve these processes, our supply chain and analytics team developed a set of tools that help us identify changes in price and shifts in utilization. With these innovations, we’re able to review cost drivers with our clinical leaders to help ensure our supply and equipment decisions enable the best quality and value for our patients.
JHC: Please describe a project on which you look forward to working in the next year.
Borncamp: As the result of Providence Health & Services (Renton, Washington) and St. Joseph Health (Irvine, California) coming together [in July 2016], supply chain solutions will become fully integrated. Currently, we manage parallel supply chain technologies. While we’ll be moving to a single platform in the long term, in the short term we’re implementing common tactical processes and data management strategies in procurement, accounts payable and materials management. We are already implementing sourcing strategies to aggregate volume and minimize unnecessary variation, while we continue to build on the success of the individual supply chain platforms. This is exciting work that is bringing forward many creative ideas and much energy.
JHC: How have you improved the way you approach your job or profession in the last 5-10 years?
Borncamp: I’ve had the opportunity to work with healthcare organizations that believe supply chain is an essential, strategic partner in improving health outcomes, the patient experience and affordability. This inclusive approach has taught me to see my role and my team as valuable contributors to improved patient care. Having or building a supply chain team that is passionate, capable and committed is a primary responsibility of a supply chain leader. Equally important is ensuring your team has the resources and support to inform strategic, efficient purchasing decisions across the organization.
JHC: What do you need/want to do to become a better supply chain executive in the coming year(s)?
Borncamp: The coming years will bring changes in how and where healthcare services are delivered and how health systems will be reimbursed for that care. We’ll have the opportunity (and responsibility) to be visionary in our supply channel methodologies, relationships with industry, and partnerships with clinical teams and system leaders. Providence St. Joseph Health is amazingly engaged in planning for the future. We’re implementing lean management tools and strategies, developing performance metrics to help guide our decisions, and continuing to focus on analytics and data to inform our work.
I know we’ll continue to have limited resources and prioritization challenges across the industry. My goal is to effectively balance the experience and creative solutions that our supply chain team brings to our organization, and strengthen partnerships with our leaders, providers, and the supplier community, always remembering our shared purpose – to improve the health of the communities we serve.