How HealthTrust’s Special Ops Team is redefining how results are delivered
A health system facility is hit by a natural disaster, rendering its warehouse nonfunctional. An integrated delivery network (IDN) acquired a hospital and needs help incorporating its operations. A six-hospital system needs more efficient stocking and inventory management for its operating rooms. Who should they call?
In response to needs such as these, HealthTrust established a Special Ops Team in 2023 to identify root causes and find assets and solutions quickly and accurately. During the customized intake process, the team completes a thorough review of existing practices, conducts a comprehensive gap analysis, recommends improvements to operational workflows, develops best-practice roadmaps and, when needed, may deploy an onsite team to work with the organization to implement and manage the solutions.
Leading the team is Ramy Hanna, a Supply Chain Executive with HealthTrust, who likes to say that Special Ops acts as “resultants, not consultants,” providing rapid turnaround strategies to address critical needs by optimizing inefficient operations and driving value across the enterprise. “We take an approach that shows we are a team that covers a lot of ground,” explains Hanna. “Your organization can pose a problem to us, and we will assess and then deploy assets or individuals to help you solve it.”
Leadership & helping hands
This was Virtua Health’s experience, after asking Special Ops to help the organization with the people, process and technology implementation for a new warehouse management system (WMS) serving five hospitals, five urgent care centers and cross-docking for more than 300 physician practices. Virtua contracted with Special Ops in Q1 of 2023 with a plan for the WMS to go live by early 2024, which it did.
Virtua was not only short-staffed, but its supply chain team was busy with daily operations, says Ana Victoria Sanchez, VP of Supply Chain & Support Services at Virtua Health. She needed Special Ops to complete the foundational work for the WMS, ensuring the inventory information was accurate when the system went live, helping prepare for bin location and labeling, and consolidating emergency reserves. At the same time, Virtua Health was transitioning to a new enterprise resource platform (ERP), which is still in process.
As for the people and process portion, Sanchez asked Special Ops to help determine the human resources and skills needed to work with the WMS automation, and to help revise Virtua’s supply chain policies and procedures.
Virtua chose HealthTrust not only because of their existing relationship, but because Special Ops would give an “at-the-elbow level of support,” doing the actual work in person alongside Virtua staff. “They have the leadership, understanding and experience,” Sanchez explains. “They were more than consultants and helped me assess what I needed now and for the future.”
What makes Special Ops different?
The team comprises handpicked industry experts who bring an operator’s perspective to assignments. With a laser-like focus, they assess and address complex healthcare facility issues and then empower the staff to continue the work once it’s time for the Special Ops Team to leave. With this interdisciplinary approach, the Special Ops Team draws in other HealthTrust experts as needed to ensure that all aspects of the member’s issues are considered and resolved.
Hanna compares a health system to a Swiss-made watch. One cog might have an issue, and fixing the mechanism may improve the watch’s overall functioning. That cog could be the operating room, where supplies are wasted or unavailable in the quantities needed, for example. Addressing the physician preference cards and overhauling the inventory ordering and stocking process may improve the situation.
When viewing it from an operational perspective, though, it may become clear that the problem is not just in the operating room, but also in the warehouse and with supply ordering. Each issue may seem minor on its own, but when combined, these inefficiencies can create larger challenges. The Special Ops Team can evaluate all the moving parts and identify the issues contributing to the overall problem.
This solutions-oriented team does not offer a fixed menu of services. They are driven by the member’s stated needs, along with the team’s in-depth assessments. Again, this was Sanchez’s experience, when she asked HealthTrust to provide reports using Virtua’s preferred format. She was pleased Special Ops could do this, as other companies she has worked with offer only their own pre-established format for reports and playbooks.
Another aspect that makes the Special Ops approach unique is that the members each serve a different role on the team. Some team members have worked as health system operators for decades, bringing their on-the-ground insights, while others are from outside of healthcare, utilizing different experiences and skill sets, having worked at companies such as UPS. “Their desire for learning, impact and curiosity is huge,” Hanna says.
How Special Ops works
“Our team approach is nonformulaic; it’s showing up in a different way,” Hanna adds. “After we identify the problem, the key is to get the right information to the right people so they can make the most informed decisions.”
Working together with a facility’s team, Special Ops finds the best way to maximize clinical and operational efficiencies, ensuring a cross-functional approach that acknowledges and leans on the health system’s interdependencies. A resilient supply chain gives great results, but when it is combined with a strong service line, the results are even better.
HealthTrust aligns with members’ goals for performance and savings, and the team leverages its experience operating supply chains for some of the largest healthcare systems. Special Ops wants to partner with members on how best to deliver on their mission. “Think of the team as a coach or mentor empowering the member with knowledge and resources to problem-solve, while creating sustainable solutions and governance going forward. System leadership can rest assured that once an engagement is done, we leave them in good hands,” Hanna says.
The Virtua team felt they were in good hands, to the extent they added on another engagement mid-stream to improve ERP readiness for hospital inventory management. “They were a great resource to help us without our spending an ungodly amount, which is very common in our industry for this level of help. For us, the price was right and the resources were knowledgeable,” Sanchez says.
Sanchez’s team now shares pride of ownership and responsibility for the new WMS. “They speak very fondly of the Special Ops Team that was here because they were truly engaged in actually doing the work alongside us and providing some mentoring and leadership guidance during a time when we needed it the most,” she says.
Contact us today to learn how HealthTrust Special Ops can drive value for your organization.
Share Email Operations, Performance Improvement, Q3 2024, Savings
