Kent Nance
Director of contracting and supplier diversity, HCA, East Florida division.
HCA East Florida division consists of 13 hospitals; 3,933 licensed beds; $457 million in supply cost spend.
Following a career with Blockbuster Entertainment’s Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based corporate office, Kent Nance joined HCA in September 2011 as the director of contracting. He currently is responsible for managing all division-based contracts for the IDN’s 13 acute care facilities, including lawn care, linen processing, pest control, elevator maintenance, perfusion and dialysis services. In addition, he works with a team that provides hurricane preparedness services covering bulk fuel reserves, emergency water, linen and auxiliary generators – a key area for HCA’s supply chain organization, given that South Florida’s hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30. Indeed, his team has had substantial firsthand experience managing this program in support of the IDN’s East Florida facilities.
The Journal of Healthcare Contracting: What has been the most challenging and rewarding project you have been involved in recently?
Kent Nance: The most rewarding part of my job is the daily support we provide our hospitals (internal customers) in addressing supplier issues, reviewing local contracts and, most importantly, providing division base contracts, which offer not only savings but value and support that does not require much management on their part. This allows our facilities to do what they do best: provide excellent patient care. Having worked with so many different and diverse contracting areas in support of our facilities, it’s very hard to name one specific project that stands apart from the others.
JHC: Please describe a project you look forward to implementing in the next year or two.
Nance: Because I am retiring this summer, I do not have a project in the works. However, I am excited about the time I have spent preparing my successor to take over my responsibilities in this ever-changing healthcare environment.
JHC: What is the most important quality you look for in a supplier partner?
Nance: In my opinion, for a supplier to be a true partner to our organization, it needs to be proactive in helping us manage both our supply cost and product utilization; it cannot be just a sales organization looking to increase its margin. I also look for suppliers that can address service and product issues with positive results, in a timely manner, since our hospitals run 24/7.
JHC: What is the greatest change we can expect to see in healthcare contracting in the next five years?
Nance: I expect supply chain executives to continue to manage their supply costs in an environment in which we are seeing a lot of consolidation in our supplier community.