By R. Dana Barlow
December 2024 – The Journal of Healthcare Contracting
Driving north-south on interstates 94 or east-west on 10, among others, and you’d be hard-pressed to miss near the exit ramps a familiar sign consisting of 11 yellow squares, each containing a black letter used to spell two words that epitomize a different type of Southern comfort.
More than offering a hearty and relatively wholesome breakfast after a long night of entertainment or weary travel, or even serving a few classic lunch options and dinner dishes, Waffle House also represents something else of discernable and reliable value. (Noteworthy factoid: Back in the mid-1960s, Waffle House briefly served Chick-fil-A sandwiches under license, too, until they overshadowed the restaurant chain’s original fare. You don’t mess with hash browns.)
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), meteorologists, weather forecasters and disaster planners use Waffle House’s schedule to determine atmospheric and climate severity. Basically, authorities use Waffle House activities and behaviors to gauge how dangerous a hurricane or tornado or other weather phenomena might be.
Waffle House remains reliably open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. (Why didn’t Tim Allen use Waffle House instead of Denny’s for his 1994 film, “The Santa Clause?”) The chain maintains locations in 19 states that span the southwest, southern Great Plains, Rust Belt, mid-Atlantic states and the Deep South with the bulk peppered throughout Georgia, the Carolinas and Florida.
When a hurricane makes landfall and the local Waffle House location continues serving customers, this business behavior calms and reassures the public. If it closes, however, then that simple activity signals authorities and residents alike that it’s time to evacuate. By the same token, Waffle House also functions as a refuge during recovery efforts – whether people need a warm and dry place to hang out for a while, to eat a quick meal, to charge electronic devices or just to mingle socially with others.
In a way, Waffle House could serve as a hospitality-oriented caduceus.
FEMA tracks and color-codes Waffle House operations, too, with green signifying full operations, yellow meaning partial operations with a limited menu that hinges on power and staff availability and red indicating that it’s high time for the townfolk to skedaddle.
They call it the “Waffle House Index.” What a respectable reputation to have.
Hospitals and other healthcare facilities shouldn’t waffle about their disaster planning and preparations either. They should implement the “Supply Chain Index.”
Granted, the SCI may be a bit more complex than the WHI. After all, when is anything related to healthcare simple? Providers would have to ensure that all products on the storeroom and warehouse shelves are electronically – and accurately – recorded in the database – bonus points for using GS1 Healthcare supply data standards because that could translate into multiple facilities working in alignment within a local area or community.
The materials management information system (MMIS) or supply chain module of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system could be linked to the item master, charge (data) master (CDM), electronic health record (EHR), surgical scheduling and patient billing to close the loop.
Dwindling supplies could trigger a digital alert to the supplier (be that the distributor or manufacturer-direct or online exchange) for replenishment with medical procedure scheduling and payer reimbursement hanging in the balance. This merely reinforces how integral supply chain is to hospitals and other healthcare facilities as it is to Waffle House and disaster recovery efforts.
Admittedly, this doesn’t represent rocket science as the healthcare provider and supplier industry segments have debated and discussed such an idealistic and utopian model for more than 50 years running. Unfortunately, convincing all participants in the healthcare marketplace to embrace such unity with unanimity tends to be slower than molasses.
Hospitals generally keep the same schedule as Waffle House, but perhaps such dedication may be something too many fail to appreciate. Until it’s no longer available.
As a helpful reminder, maybe hospitals should start serving waffles in the cafeteria and/or bestowing waffle lapel pins to their capable supply chain crews, whichever is more, ahem, cost effective.
R. Dana Barlow serves as a senior writer and columnist for The Journal of Healthcare Contracting. Barlow has nearly four decades of journalistic experience and has covered healthcare supply chain issues for more than 30 years. He can be reached at rickdanabarlow@wingfootmedia.biz.