Joel Meckley
Vice president, enterprise supply chain, Geisinger Health System, Danville, Pa.
Geisinger Health Systems consists of 83 primary and specialty care sites, including seven hospital locations; $4 billion in revenue (FY14); $514 million in supplies, including all medical, non-medical, retail and pharmaceutical supplies for the entire system (FY14).
In 2000, Joel Meckley left his former career as a business manager in the amusement industry and joined the Geisinger supply chain. The following year, he assumed all purchasing responsibilities, and in 2004, he was promoted to AVP, procurement, adding sourcing and contracting functions to his resume. In 2013, he stepped into his current role, where he is responsible for all procurement activity, including purchasing, contracting and sourcing, logistics and warehousing operations, patient transport, internal mail operations, linen services, equipment transport, inventory management and central sterile reprocessing at one facility.
The Journal of Healthcare Contracting: What has been the most challenging and rewarding project you have been involved in recently?
Joel Meckley: One project has been to integrate pharmaceutical contracting for the Clinical Enterprise and Geisinger Health Plan into supply chain services. This has facilitated standardized formulary management across both the Clinical Enterprise and Geisinger Health Plan, allowing for more efficient and effective communication and treatment efforts with our patients, as well as combining volumes to go to market in a new way. We have had some very strategic discussions with many of our pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors, which has been a key negotiation point leading to over $20 million savings in the pharmaceutical space in FY15. A second project has involved the adoption of the GS1 supply chain data standards, which are essential for the future of our industry. This remains a significant challenge for Geisinger, as well as the industry as a whole. We are proud to be a member of the Healthcare Transformation Group (HTG), which is helping drive data standards adoption within our industry.
JHC: Please describe a project you look forward to implementing in the next year or two.
Meckley: We have been approved to start a consolidated service center for the organization, which will house both med/surg items (including physician preference and consignment items) and pharmaceuticals. Additionally, we will utilize the space to centralize and expand many services. Initially, this will include pharmaceutical repackaging and mail order pharmacy, however we are considering other consolidated services for a second phase. Opening this facility will allow us to efficiently manage the supply needs of the organization, as well as provide a platform to contract in different ways with our vendor partners, driving savings and efficiency through the entire supply chain.
JHC: What is the most important quality you look for in a supplier partner?
Meckley: We look for transparency, honesty and the courage to step outside the typical box and try something new, relative to contracting with customers.
JHC: What is the greatest change we can expect to see in healthcare contracting in the next five years?
Meckley: Moving forward, I believe that the insurance market is going to be a much larger player in the contracting space. Additionally, I see many organizations moving to more risk/share relationships with vendors, hopefully driving much more transparency and collaboration in the industry. A move from being adversarial with vendors to being collaborative with vendors is absolutely going to be a requirement in future contracting.