Taking The Supply Chain Pulse

Value analysis can feel like a never-ending queue of new product requests, urgent conversions, and “can’t you just get a better price” demands. But when we treat value analysis as the front end of the healthcare supply chain, it becomes something bigger: a decision system that protects patient care, strengthens standardization, and finds savings that contracting alone can’t touch.

Fred Crans is joined by Bob Yokl for a forward-looking conversation on value analysis in 2026 and beyond. We unpack why health systems are staffing more specialized value analysis roles inside periop, cardiology, and other service lines, and how clinician trust helps drive change when the stakes are high. We also talk about the real work of utilization management: benchmarking supply use with patient volume-centric metrics, comparing hospitals inside the same IDN, and using data to uncover variation that quietly drains budget.

The biggest shift is moving from price-first thinking to “savings beyond price” and revenue integrity. Bob explains why reimbursement assumptions can backfire, why finance needs to be embedded in the workflow with pro formas, and how a few non-reimbursed procedures can turn a promising trial into a costly mistake. We close with practical leadership advice: build a value analysis strategic plan, invest in tools that replace spreadsheets, track ROI with discipline, and design a smarter funnel so the team can focus where it matters most.

If you want a clearer playbook for healthcare value analysis, supply chain strategy, cost reduction, benchmarking, and clinical integration, subscribe, share the episode with a colleague, and leave a review so more leaders can find the show.

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Care is moving farther and faster than most health systems are organized to support and the supply chain is right in the blast zone. We sit down with returning guest Karen Conway to talk through what she’s working on now, why she’s studying improv, and how those lessons translate into better listening, less bias, and smarter problem-solving in a high-stress healthcare environment where burnout is real and shortages still steal time and attention.

From there, we get practical about the biggest healthcare trends reshaping healthcare supply chain management: site-neutral payment policy, reimbursement cuts, and the steady migration of procedures to hospital outpatient departments, ambulatory surgery centers, and hospital at home models. When care spreads across hundreds of sites, logistics and transportation become strategic capabilities, not backroom tasks. We also dig into rural healthcare and what Medicaid cuts and thin margins mean for access, technology investment, and the surprisingly high percentage of rural hospital budgets consumed by supplies.

We close with the operational basics that decide whether any of this works: clean data, item master discipline, and electronic UDI capture. Karen explains why “AI will fix it” is wishful thinking without solid foundations, and how granular utilization data can uncover simple clinical changes that improve outcomes at low cost. Along the way, we explore supplier collaboration, risk management as a path to resilience, and emerging business models like servitization that can reduce waste while keeping organizations financially sustainable. If you found this helpful, subscribe, share the episode with a colleague, and leave a review so more supply chain and healthcare leaders can find the show.

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We sit down with Bellwether League inductee Gail Kovacs to trace her path from biology and the lab into nursing, healthcare supply chain leadership, and hospital administration in Cleveland. We talk about the moments that shaped her leadership style, why reimbursement changes made supply chain strategic, and what it takes to earn trust when the stakes are high. 
• working-class upbringing, Catholic school influences, and early advocates shaping confidence 
• lab work, research funding uncertainty, and the decision to pivot toward a steadier path 
• nursing and infectious disease as a foundation for patient-centered thinking 
• direct caregiving changing how we see complexity, safety, and advocacy 
• entering materials management by bridging clinical and logistics language 
• mentors who open doors and the specific lessons that stick 
• TEFRA and DRGs shifting hospitals from cost plus to evidence-based cost control 
• clinician inclusion in committees to reduce friction and improve adoption 
• leadership advice for women and the long-term cost of losing credibility once 

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We talk with Dr. Rubin Pillay, Chief Innovation Officer at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, about why healthcare needs “unreasonable” thinking to make real progress. We also map a future where AI, automation, and patient-led care shift the system from sick care to wellcare.
• Dr. Pillay’s roles at UAB and why a multi-hat view helps innovation
• What “thinking unreasonably” means and why other industries hold the playbook
• The sustainability crisis in healthcare: access, cost, quality, and outcomes
• Why the current business and operating model cannot be tweaked at the edges
• How AI, digital tech, sensors, biotech, and platforms create a rare window to transform care
• The regulation dilemma: protecting patients while enabling innovation
• What healthcare could look like by 2050: prosumer care, automation, and on-demand specialist-level guidance
• The shift from sick care to wellcare: prevention, longevity, and earlier intervention
• How hospitals change: acute intervention sites, command centers, advanced diagnostics, regenerative medicine hubs
• The next big thing: responsible AI deployment at scale
• Why the Chief AI Officer becomes a core C-suite role and what that leader needs to know
don't forget to hit that subscribe button and connect with us online so you'll never miss an episode and can catch up on all the ones you might have missed.

Got a topic you're fired up about, or maybe you want to be a guest on the show? Fred would love to hear from you. Just reach out @[email protected]

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Capital equipment can make a hospital grow or quietly drain millions through rushed buys, weak justification, and devices that end up parked in a hallway. We want fewer surprises, fewer spreadsheets, and a capital process that actually helps clinicians while protecting margins. So we sit down with Tom Derek from Open Markets to talk about the unglamorous but high-impact work of capital asset management and capital equipment planning in healthcare supply chain.

We get specific about why so many organizations still run capital like a year-by-year scramble and how to change that without waiting years for a “perfect” redesign. Tom explains the difference between a front door strategy (where every request enters the funding process) and a back-end asset replacement strategy (important, but never enough). We also unpack what standardization really looks like in practice, why formulary management matters especially during mergers and acquisitions, and how buy-in from clinical leaders and administrators determines whether any process sticks.

Then we tackle tools and governance: why your ERP is great for cutting POs but not built for early planning, research, or replacement forecasting. We walk through a practical cadence for asset replacement planning with clinical engineering, finance, and supply chain, plus a simple scoring mindset to test ROI, patient safety impact, network needs, and regulatory requirements. You’ll also hear real-world examples, including what Banner Health is doing and how regional aggregation can drive measurable savings.

If you care about smarter capital procurement, fewer wasted purchases, and better visibility across teams, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a colleague in finance or clinical engineering, and leave a review so more healthcare supply chain leaders can find the show.

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If your supply chain analytics feel shaky, clinicians are probably sensing it too and that’s where savings go to die. We sit down with Steve Kinsella, owner of Data Leverage Group, to get blunt about the healthcare supply chain data quality problem hiding in plain sight: messy ERP foundations, inconsistent item master data, and downstream systems that amplify every error. Steve explains why the real cost isn’t just bad reporting, it’s the loss of trust that keeps value analysis teams from even getting to the starting line on standardization and cost reduction.

From there, we tackle the temptation of “fast data” and why artificial intelligence does not equal artificial infallibility. AI tools can generate instant summaries and confident answers, but Steve walks through the real risks when those answers are built on dirty sources or weak prompts. In healthcare, decisions around products and clinical practice can’t be made on autopilot, so we talk about validation, responsible use, and the guardrails that keep AI helpful rather than harmful.

We also get practical about what actually moves decisions forward: a repeatable value analysis workflow that includes clinicians early, runs disciplined trials that don’t turn into black holes, and hands off cleanly to logistics for implementation. The through line is clear: strong process plus clean data protects critical thinking and speeds up the right outcomes.

Subscribe for more healthcare supply chain and value analysis insights, share this with a colleague who fights the item master every week, and leave a review so more teams can find the show. What’s the one data issue you’d fix first?

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We step away from the daily hospital storeroom grind and zoom out to the bigger idea of supply chain design with Taylor Wilkerson from Design for Life. We talk about using design thinking to rebuild public health supply chains so more people get the medicines and care they need, even as budgets shrink.
• Taylor’s career path from engineering to public sector supply chain work
• Why public sector supply chains measure success in impact, not profit
• How professional groups build real relationships and career options
• Practical alternatives to shallow “networking” and why friendships matter
• What design thinking and systems thinking mean in supply chain design
• Common structural problems in national healthcare supply chains
• Warehouse count, inventory flow, and procurement choices that cut waste
• The patient impact of stockouts and the trust cost of failure
• Partnerships Design for Life is seeking: funding, technology, volunteers
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We talk with HonorHealth Strategic Sourcing Program Director Matthew Mitchell about why healthcare capital is uniquely hard to manage and why demand for care creates real pricing pressure. We dig into practical ways to plan, fund, and measure major equipment purchases so capital dollars go further and technology actually gets used. 
• Matthew’s path from government and healthcare to hospitality and back, and what it taught him about cost control 
• Inelastic demand in healthcare, explained with simple examples 
• Why capital management looks different across IDNs and why standards are still rare 
• Moving from reactive buying to proactive capital planning after acquisitions and infrastructure strain 
• The growing role of IT and cybersecurity in capital prioritization 
• Mapping capital to a five to ten year strategic plan while vendors refresh models faster than depreciation 
• Managing internal customers across finance, clinicians, biomed, IT, construction, and purchasing 
• How we decide between buying, leasing, and placement deals for fast-changing technology 
• Using dashboards and utilization lookbacks to validate ROI and adjust operations 
• Why capital “savings” is often cost avoidance that funds more priorities 
And don't forget to hit that subscribe button and connect with us online so you'll never miss an episode and can catch up on all the ones you might have missed. 
Got a topic you're fired up about, or maybe you want to be a guest on the show? Fred would love to hear from you. Just reach out at [email protected]

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We talk with Eric O’Daffer about why healthcare supply chains need to invest more aggressively in AI platforms, indirect spend governance, and capital equipment planning. We share what’s working now, what still feels early, and what leadership teams must do to turn supply chain into a true enterprise value driver. 
• Eric’s post-Gartner focus on advancing healthcare supply chain as his true north 
• Doubling investment in supply chain technology, AI, and analytics to connect data and reduce labor 
• Platform strategy vs best-in-class point solutions, aligning roadmaps to the health system AI strategy 
• Where measurable ROI shows up now, including pricing accuracy, preference cards, and transaction discipline 
• Indirect spend and purchased services as a major under-resourced opportunity, requiring governance and executive air cover 
• Capital equipment as a 7% to 10% spend category, needing standardization, lifecycle planning, utilization management, and cybersecurity oversight 
• Leadership and resourcing as the common requirement across AI, indirect spend, and capital ownership 
And don't forget to hit that subscribe button and connect with us online so you'll never miss an episode and can catch up on all the ones you might have missed. Got a topic you're fired up about, or maybe you want to be a guest on the show? Fred would love to hear from you. Just reach out at [email protected]

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Encore Episode: We talk with sterile processing expert Kim Jones about why central sterile is the hidden driver of operating room performance and patient safety. This conversation is still highly relevant as health systems continue to face OR efficiency and staffing challenges.

• how Kim transitioned from HR into sterile processing leadership and education
• how certification and education directly impact performance and team pride
• why small breakdowns in SPD drive major OR delays and disrupt surgical schedules
• where OR, sterile processing, and supply chain fall out of sync and how communication gaps create ripple effects
• how to build trust with surgeons through stronger partnerships and visible OR leadership support
• what audits at leading health systems reveal, including outdated assumptions about SPD performance
• why Lean efforts break down when point-of-use cleaning and tray completeness are inconsistent
• how traditional staffing models miss complexity and why volume alone is misleading
• where robotics and automation can improve safety, reduce injuries, and increase throughput
• how traveler pay gaps and post-pandemic dynamics are fueling ongoing retention challenges
• how to confidently make the case to the C-suite using both data and real operational constraints

Subscribe: Don't forget to hit that subscribe button and connect with us online so you'll never miss an episode and can catch up on all the ones we might have missed. Got a topic you're fired up about, or maybe you want to be a guest on the show? I would love to hear from you. Just reach out [email protected]. 

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