WellStar Named Supply Chain Management Department of the Year

Healthcare Purchasing News chose WellStar as the recipient of its 8th Annual Supply Chain Management Department of the Year Award. HPN, which has covered the people, places, processes and products that influence the supply chain for more than 34 years, selected WellStar for its supply chain division’s emergence as an integrated group striving for world-class status from a “fragmented and unsophisticated” function.

Since joining WellStar in 2009, Anthony Trupiano, vice president, Supply Chain, has played the lead role in helping WellStar Supply Chain slash supply cost per adjusted discharge by more than 22 percent halfway through the System’s four-year financial improvement plan. Supply Chain also has operated under budget by more than $57 million for the past three years. FY 2011 savings currently exceed $6 million, despite inflation, increases in patient volume and the expansion of the WellStar Medical Group.

Trupiano credited his Supply Chain team of 172 men and women who serve our System for earning the award.

“WellStar was in need of wide and deep systemic changes in supply chain that would take considerable time to implement and required structural change,” Trupiano said. “Our System’s Supply Chain was very good at getting supplies to the end users, but we lacked strategic direction and were not meeting the needs of our internal customers. There is no way we would apply for this award, much less be fortunate enough to be selected as a winner, if not for the exceptional talent of our team. We transformed the organization farther and faster than I could have imagined when I first came on board.”

“Having the right resources, at the right time, in the right place is absolutely critical to support our delivery of world-class healthcare,” said Jim Budzinski, executive vice president and CFO. “Our Supply Chain team does this exceptionally well, and the extensive value the supply chain provides the System illustrates the importance of the department. Every WellStar employee should be honored by this recognition and proud of the hard work put forth by this outstanding group. They are making a difference in people’s lives.”

Kenneth Kunze, M.D., senior vice president and chief medical officer, reinforced the supply chain team’s relevance to the clinical staff and patients. “The award speaks to the impact supply chain has on our System, from a fiscal perspective to patient safety,” he said. “Building a culture of collaboration between our physicians, nurses and other team members in the value-analysis process has been an added value for our system.”

WellStar’s supply chain management team was featured in HPN’s August edition and distributed at the 2011 Annual Conference of the Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM) in Boston, Mass.