Meet the HealthTrust members making a difference
Each year, HealthTrust’s Member Recognition Awards acknowledge leading initiatives that brought our members’ organizations to new heights. This year’s awards highlight group and facility efforts that improve health measures, are better for the environment and enhance the clinician and patient experience. All members can learn lessons and be inspired to make positive changes in their own environments, based on the examples these award winners share.
Clinical Excellence Award
Scripps Health – San Diego, California
Scripps Health received the Clinical Excellence Award for its success in reducing operating room supply waste, and improving the accuracy of operating room (OR) nursing documentation for implants and supplies used in surgery. The Southern California healthcare system with five hospitals, plus several clinics and other care facilities, created a Doctor Preference Card (DPC) Sprint Team to focus on the accuracy of DPCs. This improved case planning and case picking, simplified OR nurse charting and positively impacted surgeon and staff satisfaction.
Previously, Scripps documented OR supplies through charting by exception. Each case’s DPC listed supply items that were charted as “used” unless modified by the OR nurse. OR documentation accuracy was predicated on DPC accuracy. In this project, the team focused on DPC clean-up across all ORs by removing old and no longer used cards, establishing a DPC update process, enhancing DPC layout and readability and moving less frequently used supplies to a “hold” category.
Even after this significant DPC clean-up, the team saw that accurate OR supply charting remained challenging, viewed through post-case surgeon receipts and value analysis figures. Scripps’ catheter and electrophysiology labs piloted a scanning process for supply and implant utilization instead of charting by exception. The pilot at one hospital OR successfully yielded higher accuracy rates and led to higher user satisfaction, so the process expanded to all Scripps OR sites.
Scripps now has more accurate data on supply utilization for contracting prospects, value analytics and surgeon/procedure comparisons, providing supply savings and further standardization opportunities. Ultimately, the organization will move to a perpetual inventory method of restocking all procedure areas.
For Scripps, the award highlights the interdependence between surgery and supply chain and the value of using data-driven results to support its surgeons with important clinical decisions. “From this project, we have learned never to accept the status quo, and we are continually striving toward improvements to support excellence in patient care,” said Hampton Hurt, RN, MSN, CNOR, and Linda Ferrick, MSN, ACNS, MBA, Directors of Surgical Services.
Innovation Award
Mercy Health – St. Louis, Missouri
Mercy Health earned the Innovation Award for enabling a reliable workforce through innovative strategies amid ongoing industry labor shortages. It concurrently faced a limited labor supply and an increased demand for the clinical workforce. The goal was to innovate and achieve operational excellence while transforming its workforce strategies, structures, processes and technologies within the parameters of financial constraints. The Missouri-based integrated delivery network (IDN) has 45 hospitals plus several clinics.
The IDN achieved sustained cost savings while increasing fill rates by:
- Creating a menu of workforce options at Mercy, including Core, Flex and Agency.
- Building Mercy Works on Demand (MWOD), an AI-based adaptive technology to improve fill rates. In real-time, MWOD connects with unit-level schedules for complete visibility into labor gaps while allowing workers automated shift pick-ups. MWOD also automated incentive rates based on supply and demand. This enabled Mercy Health to simultaneously optimize staffing and scheduling integration and management.
- Enabling a centralized workforce team to manage staffing and scheduling processes, workforce layer incentive management and associated technologies in partnership with local hospital staffing teams.
Through this process, the organization decreased the cost to deliver care, including average hourly rates, and decreased its spend on agency staffing. The IDN also improved the fill rates across its hospitals.
“I am proud of the way we engaged in rapid cycle iteration to get us to the place we are now,” said Nida Al-Ramahi, MHA, CSSGB, Executive Director of Operations, System Nursing Services, Nursing Operations & The Center for Clinical Operations and Innovation (CCOI) at Mercy. “Innovation is not a commandment, but rather a persisting team sport. It requires a multitude of talent to come together and develop something operationally sustainable.”
The team appreciates the recognition as well as the member benefit of connecting with other like-minded organizations and professionals to share ideas.
Operational Excellence Award
Virtua Health – Marlton, New Jersey
Virtua Health received the Operational Excellence Award for demonstrating best practices in streamlining and maximizing supply chain operations and cost savings initiatives before going live with their new warehouse management system (WMS). During the 12-month process, the five-hospital system overhauled its self-distribution model, reorganized its warehouse and began refreshing hospital storerooms. The initiative allowed them to maximize their supply chain and build scalable workflows to meet current needs and prepare for the future.
The HealthTrust Special Operations Team embedded staff to lead the Virtua warehouse and receiving dock. These teams could then see and understand Virtua’s practices and systems to help build a new foundation. Special Ops identified and recommended corrections and helped implement the approved operational changes. The Virtua frontline team learned the importance of foundational processes and visual communication tools in supporting patient care. This enabled them to reduce inventory redundancies, standardize several product lines and decrease expired stock levels. After completing the initial engagement at its main distribution center, Virtua Health began the same processes in the storerooms of each hospital. This included training local teams to maximize and optimize not only their locations but also their time. The streamlined workflow improved the work environment.
Virtua Health sees this process as providing a solid foundation before adding the technology layer on top of current workflows, allowing it to gain the greatest value from the new WMS system.
“Many healthcare organizations are undergoing transformations that include technology. There must be a methodical plan to have processes and people supporting the expected outcomes,” says Ana Victoria Sanchez, MHA, LSSGB, VP of Supply Chain & Support Services at Virtua Health. The Virtua team members appreciated that HealthTrust Special Ops provided “elbow-to-elbow” support. “They were keenly aware of the challenges and understood the complexities and triggers of customer service.”
Outstanding Member Award
CoxHealth – Springfield, Missouri
CoxHealth received the Outstanding Member Award for achieving its annual savings objective six months into its membership and realizing more than $16 million in annualized savings within its first year of joining HealthTrust. In addition to value derived from HealthTrust portfolios, the hospital also attained value by leveraging HealthTrust capabilities such as Medical Device Management, Valify Technology, Workforce Solutions, Food and Special Operations.
CoxHealth, with six hospitals and a number of clinics, became a HealthTrust member in February 2023 and wasted no time connecting to HealthTrust agreements, beginning their conversions immediately. The initiatives started with the C-suite and trickled down to others within the organization. That included hosting a GPO kick-off meeting with leaders from all key areas at CoxHealth to ensure that everyone understood the shared mission and vision, and their roles in the process. Having buy-in at all CoxHealth levels continues to make the partnership beneficial.
One of the successes was converting numerous sole source categories to help capture some of the savings. Now that the organization has a clear line of sight on spending and opportunities, the team has adopted a road map for success going forward.
CoxHealth moved quickly with its transformation for two major reasons.
“We have experienced incredible alignment and support within the internal organization, from the C-suite and physicians to the departmental directors and leaders. Supply chain has experienced amazing collaboration and support throughout the health system,” says John Black, Chief Supply Chain Officer, Supply Chain Administration, CoxHealth. “Secondly, HealthTrust has proven to be a trustworthy partner. They push us toward success, with a ‘best for the customer’ mindset.”
Pharmacy Excellence Award
Kelsey-Seybold Clinic – Houston, Texas
The Pharmacy Excellence Award was given to the team at Kelsey-Seybold Clinic for developing a multipronged approach to lowering the cost of care for patients. It did so via the medical benefit (for infusion center treatments and in-clinic administered medications) and the prescription benefit (for retail and specialty pharmacy prescriptions). With 41 locations, Kelsey-Seybold generated over $10 million in savings through combined efforts across multiple specialties, including oncology, family medicine, OB-GYN, endocrinology and orthopedics.
The Kelsey-Seybold Clinic team manages capitated risk through an accountable care organization, and they are responsible for medical and prescription benefit medications. The team developed a multipronged approach so providers could prescribe appropriate medications for patients, while procuring them efficiently and economically. They created a value and therapeutics committee to provide clinical guidance for over 800 outpatient providers in 55 specialties. The organization implemented outpatient care pathways to treat numerous disease states in the rheumatology, dermatology and gastroenterology specialties.
Initiatives included the appropriate utilization of oral generic specialty medications for first-line prostate cancer treatment, organizationwide standardization of product selection and immunization practices for influenza, and product standardization to improve clinical adherence and procurement rates for IUDs.
As part of the process, Kelsey-Seybold’s analytics team built new dashboards showing drug utilization. The dashboards highlighted clinical opportunities, allowing interdisciplinary teams of physicians, pharmacists, analysts and electronic medical record developers to develop step therapy, contracting and procurement strategies. The organization currently has ongoing projects focused on diabetes and obesity, HIV and multiple sclerosis. Kelsey-Seybold also used the HealthTrust Drug Information Resources and leveraged the expertise of the HealthTrust Pharmacy Team to optimize drug vendor partnerships.
“This award underscores our commitment to evidence-based care, clinical outcomes and value to our patients as we also work to remove waste,” says Sunil M. Patel, M.D., MBA, Chief, Department of Hematology/Oncology, Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, and Chair, Kelsey-Seybold V&T Committee. “We’ve developed an organizational infrastructure that prioritizes our patients and their experience while also bending this part of the cost curve.”
Social Stewardship Award
Hackensack Meridian Health – Edison, New Jersey
Not pictured: Rich Killeen, Vice President of Corporate Purchasing
The Social Stewardship Award was given to Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH) in recognition of the positive outcomes it drives in environmental sustainability; organizational diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI); supporting supplier diversity initiatives and community outreach. These efforts include a $115 million investment in energy consumption reduction and diverting 40,000 pounds of waste from landfills. In addition, HMH increased its annual supplier diversity spend by 32%, and four of its hospitals were among the first ever to achieve The Joint Commission’s Healthcare Equity Certification in 2023. As an IDN, HMH includes 18 hospitals, a medical school and a research/innovation center.
HMH’s environmental sustainability efforts include a wide range of programs, including targeting clean energy, energy efficiency, green building, nutrition, purchasing and using safer chemicals. Among them, the organization increased purchasing from near-shoring and domestic/local manufacturers, created a system to reallocate surplus capital within the organization, increased third-party green cleaning solutions to at least 97% systemwide, and served antibiotic-free meat at least 50% of the time within the health system.
The organization also partnered with Supplier.io, a supplier diversity platform buyers use to find new vendors. HMH also identified diverse suppliers within its Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers, setting benchmarks and goals, along with growth opportunities. HMH is creating a supplier diversity mentorship program to support small and diverse vendors.
“This recognition will drive our team to further invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives and educate other stakeholders on the importance of environmental progress,” says Richard Killeen, VP of Corporate Purchasing at HMH. “We know that hospitals can lead the way in creating a healthier environment, and we want to share what we learn with others to help protect the health of our patients, communities and the planet for generations to come.”
Legacy Award
Jimmy Lewis – Hometown Health – Atlanta, Georgia
The Legacy Award was presented to Jimmy Lewis, CEO of Hometown Health, in recognition of his decades of contributions to healthcare organizations and providers. Lewis has partnered with HealthTrust since its beginning in 1999, while he helped grow Hometown Health to 19 hospitals across 17 states, with $98 million in GPO sales. The Georgia-based company also supports more than 70 hospital members and 60 business partners, contributing to a combined $800 million in sales. HomeTown Health member rural hospitals benefit from collective purchasing, educational programs, best practice solutions, managed care strategies, and legislative and reimbursement advocacy.
Lewis has been instrumental in this advocacy for patients and rural health. He’s done this partly by supporting rural legislation and regulation for hospital-based nursing homes, state merit, prospective payment systems and critical access hospitals. These have been key to the survival of Georgia’s rural hospitals and rural healthcare, as well as legislative representation. HomeTown Health’s efforts have been vital to saving many of Georgia’s rural hospitals.
“Having partnered with Jimmy for more than two decades, it is an honor to recognize his invaluable contributions to healthcare and the patients ultimately served,” says David Osborn, Ph.D., SVP of Account Management & Sales at HealthTrust. “It is undeniable that Jimmy’s relentless advocacy and steadfast dedication have made a remarkable impression on the rural healthcare community. He is an exemplary recipient most deserving of this Legacy Award.”
Discuss your organization’s initiatives of merit with your HealthTrust Account Manager and submit them for possible recognition when the 2025 award site opens in January.
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