December 19, 2022 – Jennifer Taylor is the Director of Contracts for Universal Health Services. Read an excerpt from The Journal of Healthcare Contracting’s “Women Leaders in Supply Chain” below.
In what ways has the supply chain changed for the better over the last 2-3 years?
Over the last couple of years, I have seen the Supply Chain change for the better when it comes to overall resiliency and flexibility. The entire industry was challenged when the pandemic hit. Everyone had to find new ways of accomplishing the same task but now more efficiently and creatively. The disruption really allowed UHS Supply Chain team to take a step back and re-evaluate how we were conducting business. We were able to remain resilient by further diversifying our vendor portfolio through performing more rigorous onboarding, transforming our sourcing and procurement process and most important investing in our talent. By being agile and adaptive, we improved our overall service impact and it has made us a stronger organization as a result.
What about its challenges? What keeps supply chain leaders up at night heading into late 2022?
I strive to focus on things I can control directly. With the uncertainties in the industry right now, one question we have been asking is: how do we remain strategically aligned with business partners as the market has continually evolved. One way we have done this at UHS is by having more strategic conversations to identify vendors with whom we can continue to build our relationships. Having these types of strategic relationships in place served UHS well during the pandemic. We were able to call on these vendors to assist us with getting products quickly and coming up with creative solutions to backorders and allocation issues. We are now having conversations on how we can continue with a more proactive co-development type relationship where we share data and collaborate on various projects.
To see the rest of our Women Leaders in Supply Chain list, click here.