Welcome to Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm Chris Sosa,
your host, and I'm very happy to be
joined today by Joseph Carr. He is vice
president of supply chain and support services for
Akron Children's in Ohio.
Joseph, thank you for joining us today.
Thanks for having me. Awesome. Well, we wanna
give our audience an idea of everything that's
going on supply chain wise at Akron Children's.
But before we do that, could you please
just introduce yourself and give us our audience
a little bit more information about your background
and your organization?
Sure. So I'm, Joseph Carr, vice president of
supply chain and support services
at Akron Children's Hospital.
Pretty neat to share the mission of Akron
Children's
is to improve the health of children, teenagers,
and young adults,
through excellence in patient care, education, research, advocacy,
and, community partnerships. So our vision is to
be most trusted, inclusive,
and accessible pediatric health system in our communities
we serve.
So what makes Akron Children special
is the legacy,
the culture,
and,
our responsibility
to Northeast Ohio. So
since 1890,
we've treated every child as we would our
own and never turned the child away. So
that commitment,
really matters deeply in our region.
We're deep rooted here.
Families rely on us not only for everyday
pediatric care, but for the very complex and
critical needs. Being a level one pediatric trauma
center,
we serve as a regional safety net and
referral destination
in caring for children,
you know, in the most vulnerable moment moments,
ensuring that they have access close to home.
So today, we have two hospital campuses, six
regional health centers, and,
more than 50 primary and specialty care locations
across Ohio,
and care for over a million patients each
year. From surgeries and urgent care to school
health and home care, we go beyond hospital
walls
being a vital part of the health and
stability of the communities. And we've only had
a few CEOs in our history.
We are very fortunate to be led by
Chris Gessner, a visionary leader
supported by one of the strongest executive teams
I've worked with. And
so the culture, financial resiliency, and forward thinking
mindset, the inclusiveness
are very exceptional here. And, honestly, not many
workplaces include therapy dogs, Elmo,
executives
dressed as Nemo, and then the co occasional
hall of famer in the hallway. It's a
place that keeps you inspired every day.
It sounds like a fun way place to
work to be sure.
Yeah. It is. Just so before we get
into what lies in the future for Akron
Children's, let's look at at 2025
just for a moment here. So what would
you say is the most important initiative you
and your team
led in 2025?
Take us through how it evolved and and
the results,
that, you'd like to highlight.
Sure. You know, without question, it's been
transforming our supply chain support services into a
clinically integrated strategic model.
We branded that Commit for Kids program.
And so think of historically
more than
80% of contracting and inventory decisions
were handled by clinicians and department leaders,
which inevitably
pulls them away from patient care.
So our goal was to shift that back
to supply chain
while keeping clinical voices at the decision
centerpiece and
aligning operations with our mission to give caregivers
more time with patients. So
to do that, we formed a multidisciplinary
team, 20 stakeholders,
partnered with our GPO, Visiant,
alongside with a 135
hospital consortium
to standardize more than a 100 clinical product
categories.
Now we hosted
a nine day product expo with over a
140 clinicians
capturing their feedback,
to guide adoption. And alongside that,
we completed 11 lean projects,
last year to introduce automation and core performance
metrics and enhance our processes. So
the results have been transformative.
We opted into,
close to 40 product categories
generating,
half 1,000,000 in immediate savings. And now we're
projected to deliver more than 2,000,000 in annual
savings,
reducing SKUs, improving contract compliance.
And,
you know, as a previous clinician, one important
thing to me is freeing up 90% of
the clinician's time,
previously
spent on supply, relay tasks,
to focus on patient care. So think of
that spend that we talked about and that
span of control we expanded from 15% to
over
90%
of manageable spend. In addition to that, we
did a lot of other good things, you
know,
developing a heat map and
expanding clinician engagement with GPO councils.
If you kinda look at our baseline with,
like, a good Gartner
supply chain maturity model, we went from a
one plus to a near four in a
short period of time. So
without
strong clinical
partnership and external collaboration through strategic suppliers, it
wouldn't have been possible.
Yeah. As an, a nurse, Joseph, you have
that background, so you're able to
bring that into your
role here on supply chain. So, obviously, in
any sort of undertaking like this, they're gonna
be growing pains whenever you learn something new,
and changes can be difficult and time consuming.
Right? But now that you've had a chance
to look back on that, initiative that you
just shared with us, I mean, what's been
how have clinicians
should come to view this whole integration that
you've just outlined?
It's very unique here.
The clinical integration
oftentimes
thought of as
being
resistant to change has been the complete opposite.
You know, I go back to the days
when I was a clinician and I,
started in health care at Mayo Clinic and
where, you know, folks saw potential in me,
and I probably asked a question like, what's
the price of that? And they said, hey.
Let's see you as a guinea pig and
build a clinically integrated model.
And it just kind of,
became natural to have those discussions and to
speak to the quality
over price or outcomes over cost equation with
everyone.
It really connects,
the dots for them in different languages. And,
just the the receptivity has been phenomenal from,
the c suite all the way cascading through
to the leadership. It's been,
the PH has been really well primed
to bring something of a such a strategic,
nature and nonetheless do it in a short
period of time.
Many organizations,
the
the change management, the readiness,
as we've teamed up with OPEX
has not been,
primed for those type of,
ambitious
transformations. And so we're very fortunate. A lot
of folks would take a couple years to
do that. Here, it's just, been a lot
more
expedite because of the engagement, the partnerships,
and also building strategic partnerships outside of, you
know, our ins inside our walls,
with our GPO and distributors.
That's accelerated
the transformation.
That's fantastic. I mean, it's always
ideal to build that trust equity with the
staff when you're making huge changes like this,
I would imagine.
So as we look into
2026
then, now that you've got some of these
grand projects off the ground. Right? So what
would you say are your biggest priorities for
for you and your team that is and
any headwinds or or even tailwinds that you're
focused on for this year?
Yeah. You know, as we've gotten organized with
our strategic plan that cascades, of course, from,
the organization,
our our vision centers on three words,
collaboration,
performance,
value.
We love it. Ultimately, it ties back to
our mission,
giving
clinicians more time. And,
we see
five pillars for us that are customized to
supply chain,
that start with logistics, distribution, and inventory assurance.
So,
very key for us in this year is
to lay the foundation with launching an off-site
distribution
and lump model with our strategic partner, Medline,
to be able to,
free up our time in storeroom activities to
expand
inventory management operations into nursing units and,
freeing up their time.
So become operationally
efficient. That's our first pillar with that section.
And then customer fulfillment and relationships
is our second pillar.
Deepening our clinician
engagement through the commit for kids, strengthening
a service focused supply chain support.
Again, expanding
their voice,
the voice of the customer
into not just, our,
internal
four walls, but also,
in the industry.
To elaborate on that, I think it's probably
important to recognize
on a personal note, the mission of Akron
Children's is deeply
meaningful to my family.
To translate, our fourth child, Luca, Gian Luca,
has special needs,
related to a genetic neurological
condition.
So as caregivers, we understand firsthand the importance
of a standalone children's hospital. It's, truly been
a blessing, a second home for our families.
So that perspective is a gift.
And so not only do we receive care,
but be in a position to advocate for
children and the families.
This this is our journey. So when we
talk about customer relationships and fulfillment and,
expanding and advocating in that voice,
it really is,
something that is meaningful to myself and, of
course,
my team.
The third pillar is data technology process and
reporting.
So we are focused on building a supply
chain control tower aligned with our ERP
implementation that's to go live with Workday in
2027.
So the design of that, of course, is
going to be imperative to our success, gives
us visibility,
risk management, decision making, etcetera.
Fourth pillar is work culture and engagement,
modernizing
our structure.
We, just finished up building career ladders and
investing
in, talent development,
through our partners too. So just seeing the
growth and development of the teams,
that's very meaningful to me as a leader.
That kinda makes me that's my barometer for
how successful I am as a leader, at
the end of the day. And and the
last pillar is growth and financial performance. Right?
Expanding
the sourcing cost management, reinvest,
the savings in patient care, and expand access
across Northeast Ohio. So I say the biggest
headwind is capacity.
Think of health care as evolving rapidly. And
so AI and automation are starting to reshape
us, the forecasting,
the sourcing intelligence,
the workflows. And so
the challenge is adopting
innovation in a way that strengthens, not distracts
from our mission, and then assuring also
that our teams,
are properly equipped to manage the changes,
that are on the horizon.
So
keeping that balance act of running,
at the right pace,
of transformation
without,
causing burnout is something that, would usually keep
me up at night.
It's a delicate balance to be sure, Joseph,
and one that, any number of your colleagues
in in health care are facing too. I'm
sure they can relate to this when they
listen to that, and, you know, you guys
can exchange ideas beyond what you're sharing with
us here. But while we are here,
I am curious. So when you look at
all these things that you just laid out
for us coming for App Engine 2026,
and it's a lot. And I'm sure you're
looking forward to all of it. When I
ask this question, it doesn't have to be,
a downer. Let's just say that. But what
do you think is gonna be the hardest
thing you'll have to do, the toughest thing?
It could be also thing you're most looking
forward to, but, you know, it's gonna be
gonna take a lot of work. Let's put
it that way. So what what would you
put into that category?
Yeah. I think going back to that earlier
point,
managing the pace
of transformation
while
protecting our team's well-being
and staying mission focused.
As we
modernize the systems and redesign processes
and
expand our strategic thinking, our role,
preparing for all these technological
shifts,
we gotta maintain daily operations,
right, that clinicians depend on. And at the
same time, AI and,
advanced analytics are starting to transform,
from predictive to sourcing intelligence and automation. So
that challenge
is introducing
that level of innovation in a way that
empowers people rather than overwhelms them.
That means
pacing change thoughtfully,
providing
strong training and support,
and being very clear,
which helps my background
to regularly
explain
the why,
which is always gives caregivers more time with
patients and ensures reliable care for kids. So
tie it back to the mission. Tie it
back to why of why we are doing,
what we're doing to, you know, really
bring value to the organization and, ultimately, as
a organization, bring value to the community.
Yeah. Explaining the why certainly is
among this generation of leaders, Becker has found
that that's very important.
And, you know, not to say there wasn't
before, but it it definitely just seems to
be more at the forefront now,
in a in a positive way, certainly.
Joseph, last thing I wanna ask you is
also future oriented here. So you mentioned, again,
some of the projects you've got going on,
including the new control tower, you know, and
other initiatives you have going. So where do
you see the best opportunities for growth as
far as African children is concerned?
And you can look at that in a
year, five years, whatever timeline, you think fits
best.
Well, it's pretty neat to see that intersection.
An intersection of clinical integration,
operational excellence, and community outreach.
So as that intersects,
you know, it's important for us to embed,
supply chain expertise into clinical operations and vice
versa.
As we've had
a clinical,
leader join our team to help with implementation.
By doing that,
we reduce variation and manage costs responsibly,
right, and free up clinicians to focus again
on that patient care. The operational
strength creates the capacity
to grow.
That's why that talent development is so imperative.
So opportunities for growth beyond our walls, there's
a tremendous opportunity to expand outreach
into more communities
and bring services closer to where families live.
Whether it's supporting
ambulatory
expansions,
school based health, especially
pet pediatric services,
different service lines, or new partnerships. It just
means improving access,
especially for families who might otherwise face barriers
to care.
That is very common for caregivers.
The
challenge of just getting a a nonverbal nonmobile
child
to receive care.
It's a lift just to literally get them
from,
a house to a car. Imagine to do
all of the rest. So, ultimately, our differentiator
is culture.
We
really feel strongly about humility, work ethic, and
kindness, and that really is a foundation that
allows us to scale thoughtfully while staying grounded
in why we exist,
which going back to our mission is improving
the health of children, families across our communities.
Very special place,
and very blessed to to have my role
here.
Well, Joseph, thank you so much for joining
our podcast and giving our audience a great
background of of where
Akron Children's has been for over a hundred
years well, over a hundred years and where
it's gonna be going in in the next,
foreseeable future here. Yeah. We're gonna see you
coming up at a conference, which we can't
wait for, and, hopefully, this is definitely not
the last time we connect.
Thanks so much for the time, Chris. Great
to connect.