Members Making Us Proud

Announcing the 2022 Member Recognition Award recipients

Each year, HealthTrust recognizes outstanding performance in healthcare through its member recognition awards. This year’s awards, given at the annual Healthtrust University Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, highlight exemplary member facilities that have achieved remarkable results and displayed a commitment to excellence in a variety of areas—from supply chain and clinical operations to pharmacy and sustainability initiatives. We are pleased to announce this year’s recipients.

Outstanding Member Award

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare | Memphis, Tennessee

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare (MLH) yielded incredible results and value with its 2021 contract compliance/contract adoption initiatives. Partnering with HealthTrust’s Medical Device Management (MDM), Clinical Consulting and Strategic Sourcing teams for contract adoption work, the MLH team also implemented biosimilars at the suggestion of the HealthTrust Pharmacy Account Director.

MLH leaders worked with internal team members to evaluate current services and local agreements to confirm the value of the HealthTrust portfolio. Combined contract adoption initiatives generated $20.4 million in new GPO spend and $1.5 million in value for MLH. The MDM work included $289,000 in savings for a hip and knee sourcing program as well as $30,000 in savings regarding an EP initiative. Biosimilar programs generated $1.1 million in value for MLH.

“The MLH supply chain team actively evaluated areas where they could align and executed new agreements to generate financial value without impacting operations or the patient experience,” says Nick Meyer, Senior Account Director, HealthTrust.

“On behalf of the entire Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare organization, we are honored and extremely proud to have received this award,” says Larry Fogarty, Vice President Supply Chain Management at MLH. “The award reflects the work of many, including our HealthTrust representatives who work with us every day to achieve the results that are important to our continued success.”

Team Members (from left to right): Jeremy Cook, Rusty Parker, Larry Fogarty, Greg Mathis, Clark Story, Christopher Bell, Steve Colclasure, Chris Hilty

Clinical Excellence Award

Lehigh Valley Health Network | Allentown, Pennsylvania

In an effort to improve efficiency and create standardization, the Perioperative Business Services Department at Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) transitioned to a centralized team to cover Coordinated Health Sites in several area towns. The growth of patient care supported by these teams grew from 55,792 in 2017, to a projected 91,124 in 2022.

Driven by data analytics and value analysis, the team has designed and implemented innovative solutions to lower costs and provide the highest quality patient care, pushing to link surgical case data with quality and cost data.

“LVHN has come up with ways to engage front-line staff to find savings while keeping patient safety and quality a priority, creating multiple cost savings initiatives among colleagues, engaging them to take a proactive approach to cost reduction while maintaining the highest quality of care,” explains Ellen Blix, HealthTrust Account Director. For example, moving from preference cards to procedure-based cards was a successful change that achieved these multi-layered results.

At LVHN, everything is managed with a quadruple aim: better care, lower costs and patient and employee satisfaction. Value analysis is the conduit to accomplishing this four-part goal.

Team members (from left to right): Janelle Alfano, Tamara Gates, Alexandre Warman, Keith Carl

Innovation Award

Hackensack Meridian Health | Edison, New Jersey

Hackensack Meridian Health developed automation tools in 2021 that drove supply chain performance, earning it the Member Innovation Award. Through new artificial intelligence software, the health system was able to free up team members from doing many manual tasks, allowing them to focus on more important needs such as sourcing critical products for the supply chain.

Automated processes helped with manual tasks such as cleaning up open orders, increasing the efficiency of ordering from the inventory system, updating purchase orders with the correct pricing and more. (See Hackensack Meridian Health Is Innovating Efficiency with AI Tools for more details around their efforts.)

Team members (from left to right): Laura Catalini, Geffry LaFortune

Operational Excellence Award

Community Health Systems | Franklin, Tennessee

In 2019, Community Health Systems (CHS) launched CHS 2.0, a margin improvement plan for the organization led by a cross-departmental team collaborating to collectively reduce costs. In 2021, CHS had record-breaking savings: over $207 million—approximately $80 million of which were supply chain-related reductions.

Like most healthcare organizations during the pandemic, organizational awareness of supply chain was elevated. CHS Supply Chain seized that opportunity in 2021, launching and completing more than 100 new initiatives—many of which spanned across other CHS departments where Supply Chain had limited experience. The work was companywide, with impressive implementation efforts from clinicians and operational leadership at hospitals and clinics.

Clinical collaboration and aligned goals, driven by disciplined project management, building subject matter expert teams to champion processes and implementation were all key to the organization’s success. One example was its effort to move dialysis from an outsourced to an in-house service. Managing that task across more than 30 facility conversions in 2021 was critical to maximize savings of $3.2 million.

Of the 102 initiatives completed in 2021, 86 were tied directly to HealthTrust contracts. Those initiatives accounted for more than $60 million of the total supply chain savings.

Team members (from left to right): Joanna Morton, Gina Nieszczur, Susan Schrupp, Scott Wood, Jamie Smigel

Pharmacy Excellence Award

Atlantic Health System | Morristown, New Jersey

Since December 2020, Atlantic Health System (AHS) has distributed more than 630,000 vaccines to some 300,000 patients. This figure includes the Morris County Megasite which vaccinated up to 5,000 people per day. What’s even more remarkable, is that the AHS team did it through only three ultra-low freezers and five hospital pharmacies.

Since opening, the Pharmacy team has distributed vaccines to over 100 clinics all over the state, including mobile and pop-up clinics, as well as vaccinating homebound patients. The team at all five hospitals came together multiple times per week to make sure that all doses were accounted for, nurses were trained, no doses were wasted, and to ensure they abided by every rule in the Centers for Disease Control handbook.

Morris County New Jersey was one of the first counties to hit 70%, and then 80% of residents vaccinated. The team went above and beyond creating signs, competencies, instructional videos and guidelines to promote vaccination information and education. The team’s overall effort resulted in zero significant medication errors.

“This award means a great deal to the team at Atlantic Health System. We have put in countless hours and resources into the COVID-19 vaccination efforts, and a team of 50+ pharmacists and pharmacy technicians have been involved over the last two years,” says Kunal J. Shah, PharmD, Assistant Manager, Clinical Pharmacy. “In addition to healthcare professionals, we also worked with our local health offices, law enforcement and National Guard, and we are all very proud of the end result. Each of us leaned heavily on our insights through HealthTrust and our technical teams who helped us build the vision electronically.”

Team Members (from left to right): Timothy Lise, Michele Sienkiewicz, Kunal J. Shah

Social Stewardship Award—Sustainability

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center | Boston, Massachusetts

At Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), Avery Palardy, Sustainability Manager, spearheaded a program with dramatic results. Her efforts led the hospital in achieving a:

82% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions associated with volatile anesthetic gases (since 2016)
54% diversion in non-hazardous waste diversion through the expansion of reduction, reuse, reprocessing, recycling, anaerobic digestion and donation programs
21% reduction in energy-related greenhouse gas emissions (since 2014)
LEED Gold Certification for a New Inpatient Building that will have a 39% reduction in energy use compared to average regional hospitals and 50%+ compared to BIDMC campus average

“The healthcare industry has historically had a significant carbon footprint and a large environmental impact through its operations,” says Palardy. “At Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, we have set organizational commitments such as achieving Net Zero by 2050 and Zero Waste by 2030 to ensure that we fulfill our mission to ‘create a healthy future for our patients, their families and ourselves.’ Our environmental successes are truly a systemwide team effort. We have amazing department heads, sustainability committees and a Sustainability Department committed to this work.”