OC Reilly Blog: Holistic and Strategic
By Vicki White, Executive Director, Business Operations, OC Reilly Inc.
Earlier this year at the World Congress on Health Care Supply Chain conference, Raymond Siegfried, senior vice president of Christiana Care Health System in Delaware, offered the idea that successful health care supply chain executives must exemplify two distinct skills moving forward – they must think in both a holistic and a strategic manner.
In our experience at OC Reilly, in counseling and advising health care supply chain leaders, we would have to agree with this assessment. Siegfried’s remarks expanded on his central idea in three main areas:
1. Holistic and strategic supply chains will help change healthcare delivery.
Hospitals must avoid the trap of relying solely on the supply chain for cost-cutting, and leaving the obligation of improving care to other areas of the operation. By working with management and clinical teams to achieve the best patient outcomes through supply chain decisions, organizations can advance more readily to value-based care.
2. Holistic and strategic executives will turn supply chains into supply systems.
A supply chain becomes a supply system when everything in the supply chain is designed and managed for the full operation it serves – in this case, making sure every part of a supply chain works toward the shared goal of improved patient health.
3. Successful executives build strategic relationships with manufacturers and distributors.
Since the FDA has no cost control in its formula for approval, the burden of cost-consciousness falls to the supply chain. By removing barriers among hospitals, manufacturers and distributors, health care supply chain leaders can create cost-conscious supplies that produce good health outcomes.
These ideas represent solid steps toward achieving success in health care supply chain operations in today’s ever-evolving environment. Reaching out for advice and guidance from a third-party provider can help smooth the path even further.