Healthcare Supply Chain Radio with John Pritchard

In this episode we talk to Mark Cartwright, Senior Director of Supplier Diversity for Vizient; the nation's largest member-owned health care services company. Vizient provides insight in the critical areas of clinical, operational and supply chain performance. Following a recent acquisition, Vizient now manages in excess of $100 billion in annual contractual spend. Mark is often sought out for his insight on supplier diversity processes, practices, and strategic importance.

Immediately prior to Vizient, Mark was appointed by then Governor Robert McDonnell to the newly created role of Director of Supplier Diversity for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Reporting directly to the Governor, Mark was charged with providing leadership and direction to over 150 state agencies in an effort to increase spending with small and diverse businesses. Mark was able to Increase spending with minority-owned businesses by establishing an unprecedented level of collaboration and understanding between state agencies, buyers, suppliers, contractors and other stakeholders.

Immediately prior to the Governor's Office, Mark created and grew the supplier diversity program at his alma mater, Virginia Tech. Despite Virginia Tech's location in the least racially diverse area in the Commonwealth, he was able to grow the program well beyond expectations.

Prior to his entry into the supplier diversity arena, Mark enjoyed over fifteen successful years in retail, commercial, and direct banking industries in various management roles. Most recently, Mark served as Manager of Customer Care and Back Office Servicing at GMAC Bank, from its startup through the acquisition of over $15 billion in assets.

He holds an MBA degree with a Finance concentration from Virginia Tech, as well as a BS degree in Management. He is certified by the Institute for Supply Management as a Certified Professional in Supply Management and was among the first to achieve the Certified Professional in Supplier Diversity designation.

In this episode we visit with Eric O'Daffer who is a Research Vice President in the Gartner Healthcare Supply Chain group.

Mr. O'Daffer's focus is on the end-to-end healthcare value chain, starting at the point of patient care looking back. He focuses most of his time with providers and how they best manage all the components of supply chain. This involves both their internal processes as well as best practices for partnering with their trading partners to optimize the clinical effectiveness of products and provide the best total cost to serve possible.

Mr. O'Daffer's main focus is helping pull all this together in healthcare contextualizing best practices from other industries where applicable.

In this episode we talk to Matt Rowan. As President and CEO of HIDA since 2000, Mr. Rowan has positioned HIDA as the leading advocate for the medical products distribution industry before Congress and Federal agencies. He has been responsible for the development of new member services in areas such as market intelligence, data analytics and structured networking.

Mr. Rowan also serves as Vice Chairman of the HIDA Educational Foundation (HEF) Board of Directors, which represents leading manufacturers of medical products.

He is a graduate of the University of Maryland with a degree in Marketing and minor in Economics. Mr. Rowan resides in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and daughter.

In this episode we talk with Jamie Kowalski. Jamie's career as a Supply Chain Management executive in community and tertiary hospitals began in 1972.

He began his consulting career in 1980, founding Kowalski-Dickow Associates, Inc. (KDA), a leading hospital supply chain management-consulting firm. He has satisfied over 1700 hospital clients and over 180 IDNs. He has also consulted with dozens of supply chain related service provider companies, including Fortune 15 and Fortune 100 companies.

He later served in senior executive roles with Owens & Minor, Inc., McKesson Provider Technologies and Aramark Supply Chain Management Services.

Jamie is a Co-Founder and the first Board Chairman of The Bellwether League, Inc., the not-for-profit Hall of Fame for the Healthcare Supply Chain leaders.

He was selected for the George R. Gossett Leadership Award by the Association of Healthcare Resource and Materials Management, in 2011.

Jamie authored four and co-authored three more books on healthcare supply chain management, over 80 articles, and has spoken at over 125 national and international conferences on healthcare supply chain management.

Jamie earned BS in Management and MBA degrees from Marquette University.

He earned Fellow status in the American College of Healthcare Executives and the Association for Healthcare Resource and Materials Management.

In this episode we talk to John Strong.

John is a 40 year veteran of the healthcare industry with leadership experience in healthcare providers, suppliers and service providers, and group purchasing organizations. On October 4, 2011 the Bellwether League (Health Care Supply Chain Hall of Fame) inducted John for "his outstanding contributions over the years to healthcare supply chain management, development, innovation and leadership." He combines talents that include health care administration, entrepreneurship, national accounts contracting, group purchasing, the roles of President, CEO and board member, and healthcare industry consultant. John has developed and implemented programs that have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in value for his employers and clients.

In addition to his consulting practice, John served on the adjunct faculty of the Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business, at the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee for three years.

John presently serves as president of Greenhealth Management, a subsidiary of Practice Greenhealth. It operates Greenhealth Exchange, a Delaware public benefit company ("B" Corp). Greenhealth Exchange is focused on developing specifications and aggregating green, sustainable purchasing volume to accelerate the adoption of better and more sustainable products in the health care industry.

John retired from Nexera, Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of the Greater New York Hospital Association, where he was Senior Vice President of Management Services. This division provides outsourced services to clients including Supply Chain Procurement, Distribution, Central Processing, Linen, Receiving, Environmental Services, Facility Management, Clinical Engineering and Food Services.

John served as the founding President and Chief Executive Officer of Consorta, a $5 billion dollar group purchasing organization serving more than 350 hospitals for more than ten years.

Prior to Consorta, John served in a number of senior executive positions at Premier, Inc., a leading national healthcare alliance. In his final role as Chief Operating Officer of the group purchasing program he was responsible for medical surgical, operating supply and pharmacy group purchasing and clinical programs, alternate site services and international programs. He was a key architect of Premier's contracting programs, member service and marketing operations for the group purchasing program, increasing purchasing volume to more than eight fold.

John's experience also includes consulting as a Senior Vice President with Concepts in Healthcare, Inc., an Ashland, Massachusetts consulting firm.

John received his Master's Degree in Business Administration with Distinction, with an emphasis on Human Resource Management from DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois. He received a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration, with a comprehensive major in Management from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Eau Claire, Wisconsin. He is married, and has two post-college age children.

In this episode we talk with Todd Ebert, President and CEO of the Healthcare Supply Chain Association (HSCA).

Todd Ebert is a nationally recognized supply chain leader, a group purchasing industry expert, and a registered pharmacist with more than 30 years of healthcare experience.

Ebert joined HSCA in 2015 from Amerinet, Inc., a national healthcare solutions organization and HSCA member, where he had served as President and CEO since 2007. After joining Amerinet from Intermountain Healthcare in 1991, Ebert served in a series of leadership roles including Vice President of Amerinet's pharmacy program; President of Amerinet's private-label company, Amerinet Choice, LLC; Executive Vice President for Contracting Operations and Purchasing Program Development Units; President of Operations; and as President and Chief Operating Officer.

Prior to Amerinet, Ebert gained extensive experience in several other sectors of the healthcare industry. He is a former vice president and general manager of a specialty healthcare product logistics company; a director of hospital and retail pharmacy; and has owned and operated a nursing home clinical pharmaceutical consulting company. Internationally, Ebert has provided pharmaceutical consulting to foreign government officials and healthcare providers.

Ebert is a former Chair of HSCA and is the immediate past Chair of the Healthcare Industry Supply Chain Institute (HISCI). He is often requested as a guest speaker for industry events on subjects ranging from pharmacy to group purchasing trends.

Ebert holds bachelor's degrees in pharmacy and business management from the University of Utah and a Master of Science degree in pharmacy administration. He is a registered pharmacist.

On this episode we talk to Rand Ballard who leads strategic accounts; enterprise solution sales; and sales and client management for Vizient™.

Previously, Ballard served as MedAssets senior executive vice president and in the office of the chief executive since 2008 and as chief customer officer since 2006. He also served in the roles of chief operating officer, president of MedAssets supply chain systems and leader of the company's sales team.

Prior to joining MedAssets, Ballard was vice president, health systems supplier economics and distribution for Cardinal Health care.

He earned a master's degree from Pacific Lutheran University with a triple major in finance, operations and marketing. He was a deans' list undergraduate at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and earned a bachelor's degree with concentration in nuclear physics, nuclear engineering and business law.

An avid community partner, Ballard has served as chairman of the board of the Meals on Wheels Association of America Foundation, vice president of Hire Heroes USA and vice president of The Health Careers Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides scholarships and low-interest loans to non-traditional students pursuing a degree in the health care field.

On this episode we talk with Gary Fennessy. Mr. Fennessy is the Vice President of Corporate Supply Chain with administrative oversight and strategy development for Supply Chain across the Northwestern Medicine network.

Prior to his current responsibilities, Mr. Fennessy served in various executive management positions within hospital operations and the finance division at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Mr. Fennessy received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Education from Western Illinois University (1977) and his Masters of Business Administration from DePaul University (1984). He is a member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association and American College of Healthcare Executives and serves on various community board committees that include his role as a Finance Chair and Board Member of the UCAN.

In this episode we talk to Dennis Orthman.

Orthman is the Senior Director with the Strategic Marketplace Initiative, supporting SMI executive teams in the development of innovative solutions to industry challenges. Orthman has over 30 years of healthcare supply chain experience, beginning his career as a hospital buyer and progressing through respected management, consulting, and executive positions.

Orthman worked at Boston City Hospital, the Caritas Christi Health System in Boston, and served as Director of Contracting for Partners Healthcare System. Dennis has also worked as a Senior Consultant with Concepts in Healthcare and with BD Healthcare Consulting & Services, assisting IDN clients in creating hospital-vendor partnerships and delivering innovative supply chain programs.

An MBA graduate from Suffolk University in Massachusetts, Orthman is also a graduate of the Georgetown University Healthcare Leadership Institute. Orthman is an active member of AHRMM, serves on the GS1 Healthcare US Leadership Team, has been published in numerous industry trade journals, and has presented on progressive supply chain topics at both the national and local conferences.

In this episode we talk with Matt Palcich Senior Manager, CSC Inventory & Distribution Services, Providence Health & Services.

Matt is responsible for leading the development of a system wide inventory program that optimizes accountability and control through strategic planning and direct management of all medical product inventory within the Consolidated Service Center ~25m on hand inventory with 180m annual throughput.

• Directs the CSC inventory strategy and implementation of all inventory related programs for all ministries throughout Providence health & Services to include perpetual and periodic at all acute care and non-acute care ministries
• Establish Central Services inventory polices and guidelines in coordination with the Operations and Leadership team and ensure these standardized polices are consistently implemented throughout the health system
• Serve as the expert and system wide point person in development and analysis of system wide inventory strategies that optimize delivery methods, minimize total cost, reduce inventory investment, eliminate touch points and evaluate all best in class inventory initiatives such as Low Unit of Measure (LUM), Just in Time (JIT), CSC maximization, and/or point of use/supply automation systems implementing these strategies wherever feasible in a standardized and consistent manner throughout the health system.