Supply Fi

Many people recognize the honorable and indelible motto of the United States Marine Corps. as “semper fidelis” or the abbreviated “semper fi.” This Latin phrase, means “always faithful” or “always loyal.”

For four decades, Healthcare Purchasing News (including its previous names) has been always faithful and always loyal to covering, exploring, reporting on and writing about supply chain events and issues — including purchasing and materials management, sterile processing, surgical services and infection control — as important, as tantamount to healthcare organization success and patient care quality. We didn’t want you to surmise that the “Fi” in the headline somehow signified “fiction” as in sci-fi.

In fact, one of the overriding themes woven into HPN’s industry coverage involves the critical importance of supply chain to the clinical, financial and operational blueprint of day-to-day activities. Individual and organizational development hinges on it.

During the last decade, HPN implicitly and tacitly promoted the idea that Supply Chain belongs in the C-suite — either directly with a seat at the table or indirectly as the immediate go-to executive tapped by the CEO, CFO, COO, CMO and CNO (not necessarily in that order all of the time) to handle big picture issues with a firm grasp on all the snapshot issues feeding into them.

Deep down, that underlying philosophy continues and remains unchanged.

But for this decade, the next decade, HPN more overtly will reinforce the notion that for Supply Chain to justify its executive-level position and status it must fortify itself with data science and solid clinical connections. This means that whether right or wrong, Supply Chain needs to be armed with information and backed up by physician and surgeon “manpower” to influence, if not drive, decision-making authority.

Supply Chain will accomplish this through their inherent negotiating expertise, which involves a degree of persuasion, fueled by data. What’s that mean? Healthcare reform has placed clinically driven and motivated physicians and surgeons under fire for the last two decades. What these clinicians lack, by and large, is business intelligence as another dimension under consideration for thorough diagnoses.

This doesn’t mean the doctors must partner with the CIO and the IT department to succeed any more than a consumer will lean on his or her car dealership salesperson or mechanic to advise him or her how to drive. No disrespect intended for the IT folks but in simplest and most idealistic form, they make sure the communication and computer equipment works, integrated into the medical/surgical, imaging and laboratory infrastructure. Supply Chain, meanwhile, should be sourcing and acquiring that equipment, with clinician input and oversight, of course, but also delving into the data science elements of analysis and analytics (read about the difference between these concepts deeper inside this edition) to help clinicians make optimal decisions that impact the quality of care they deliver and how the patients who receive that care respond in kind.

That’s why we’re amping up and ramping up our exploration of Supply Chain’s clinical and IT connections.

No, I’m not referring to Supply Chain issues in a clinical and IT world. I’m referring to clinical and IT issues in a Supply Chain world. Big difference. Don’t believe me or agree? Stick with us and you’ll see what we mean. By our 50th anniversary in 2027, we think Supply Chain will be right where it’s supposed to be perched.