BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – August 26, 2013 – HealthTrust honored its 2013 Member Recognition Award winners on August 22 during the 2013 HealthTrust University Conference & Vendor Fair, held in Nashville. The organization established this annual program five years ago to acknowledge the outstanding performance and contributions of its members in the healthcare supply chain. The four categories for nominations include:
- The Outstanding Member award recognizes members who have demonstrated the greatest financial improvement using HealthTrust cost savings initiatives, contract compliance and adoption of new contract categories.
- The Operational Excellence award recognizes members who have implemented and demonstrated a best practice in streamlining and maximizing supply chain operations and/or cost savings initiatives.
- The Clinical Excellence award recognizes members who have implemented and demonstrated a best practice in supply chain clinical initiatives.
- The Social Stewardship award recognizes members who have demonstrated a commitment to conservation and preservation of the health care environment and/or those who have a proven track record of advancing diversity in their use of Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises.
The 2013 member winners are:
Outstanding Member Award
Dennis Smith, director of facilities management at Catholic Health Initiatives.
When Dennis assumed his current role at CHI in 2011, his responsibilities included system-wide energy cost reduction. After engaging with suppliers through our EnergyTrust program, CHI saved $1.6 million in natural gas procurement within the first year alone. Over the last five years, savings for gas and electricity total more than $10 million. And, over the past five years, the number of CHI facilities taking advantage of EnergyTrust’s natural gas and/or electricity procurement strategies rose from 25 to 71. In addition to the contract savings, CHI has also saved money by applying EnergyTrust’s Utility Bill Pay program across its entire organization.
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Outstanding Member Award
Joyce Hagen-Flint, division director of Food & Nutrition Services at HCA’s West Florida Division in Tampa, Florida
Joyce was the food service director at a single HCA hospital when she began leading the charge to convert the entire, 16-hospital West Florida Division to a consolidated approach to food service management. She has formally directed the division’s food & nutrition services for the past 18 months. In the first year alone, Joyce guided the business unit to more than $2 million in savings by focusing on contract compliance and developing relationships with HealthTrust contracted vendors. The West Florida Division has the highest level of contract compliance within the entire HCA organization and, in the first quarter of 2013, it also had the company’s lowest food cost per adjusted admission.
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Operational Excellence Award
Supply Chain Services Team at Brandon Regional Hospital in Brandon, Florida. Team members include:
- Michelle Clark, supply chain director
- Paula Griffis, OR materials manager
With assistance from HealthTrust Supply Chain Solutions and Stryker Sustainability, this team began spearheading an initiative to purchase reprocessed supplies in 2008. Known internally as the “OR Program,” Brandon Regional is able to buy the items they have reprocessed at half the cost of the original products. In addition to drastically reducing the amount of waste tossed into a landfill, the OR Program has cut supply costs significantly, saving the hospital close to $1.4 million since the initiative began.
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Operational Excellence Award
Supply Chain Team from Franciscan St. James Health. Team members include:
- Annette Corradetti, director of materials management
- Rick Daniel, administrative director of support services
- Eric Bober, distribution manager in Chicago Heights
- Joseph Mroz, distribution manager in Olympia Fields
Utilizing a dashboard metric system that tracks inventory against savings goals, the Franciscan St. James Supply Chain Team has reduced inventory for its two-campus facility by more than 21 percent over the past few years, saving $7 million in supply costs. To facilitate clinical buy-in and adoption, the Supply Chain Team has engaged the director of nursing and her staff in quality analysis of new products. Among the 13 hospitals comprising the Franciscan Alliance, the Franciscan St. James team is proud to say it occasionally ties, but often wins “best score” on the organization’s supply chain dashboard.
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Clinical Excellence Award
Infection Prevention Team from HCA Clinical Services Group. Team members include:
- Julia Moody, clinical director for infection prevention
- Jason Hickok, assistant vice president, critical care, infection prevention and laboratory
- Dr. Edward Septimus, medical director, infection prevention and epidemiology
- Dr. Jonathan Perlin, president, Clinical & Physician Services Group and chief medical officer
In 2009, HCA’s Infection Prevention Team embarked on a large-scale study at 43 of its hospitals to identify the best way to reduce the risk of MRSA infections. The study was conducted in conjunction with researchers at Harvard, the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The research found that universal decolonization reduced bloodstream MRSA infections by 44 percent. A scalable protocol, implemented throughout all of HCA’s adult ICUs, will likely be replicated in thousands of other hospitals worldwide. The implications of this research are vast, as MRSA currently represents about 20 percent of all hospital-acquired infections and billions of dollars in potentially unnecessary healthcare treatments.
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Social Stewardship Award
Diversity Value Team from Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. Team members include:
- Esther Malazita, administrative director of supply chain
- Anna Kuchinski, director of purchasing & value analysis
- Margaret Grayeski, clinical resource manager
- Bill Stitt, vice president of supply chain
In 2011, the Diversity Value Team set out to expand RWJ’s contracted spending with Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprises. With assistance from their HealthTrust account director, they
identified all HealthTrust contracts with minority- and women-owned businesses. Working through an intensive value analysis process, they found find new savings opportunities by engaging MWBE vendors. Within the first 18 months, RWJ increased its MWBE spending by 88 percent. While RWJ enjoys the cost savings, their diversity initiative goes beyond the bottom line—It has also created goodwill in the community with its commitment to using local vendors from New Brunswick, whenever possible.
About HealthTrust:
HealthTrust, (legally known as HealthTrust Purchasing Group, LP), is committed to strengthening provider performance and clinical excellence through an aligned membership model and the delivery of total cost management solutions, including supply chain solutions and a contract and service portfolio unparalleled in quality, scope and value. HealthTrust (www.healthtrustpg.com) serves 1,400 acute care facilities, 800 ambulatory surgery centers and members in more than 10,600 other locations including physician practices, long-term care and alternate care sites. Headquartered in Brentwood, Tenn., HealthTrust is closely integrated with the proven capabilities of Parallon (www.parallon.com), a leading provider of healthcare business and operational services including revenue cycle management, workforce and technology solutions.
Media Contact:
Faye Porter, director of Communications & Education, HealthTrust
o: 615.344.3008
c: 615.498.5858
