Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Transforming Healthcare Supply Chain Through Innovation and Strategy with Amanda Chawla

Transcript

Transforming Healthcare Supply Chain Through Innovation and Strategy with Amanda Chawla · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  - There's a small circle of people who truly
• 0:04
  - understand what it takes to lead a health
• 0:05
  - system right now. The decisions are enormous.
• 0:08
  - The variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
• 0:11
  - of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
• 0:14
  - That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
• 0:17
  - And it's why the most effective c suite
• 0:19
  - leaders are deliberate about where they go to
• 0:21
  - pressure test their thinking.
• 0:22
  - Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
• 0:26
  - brings together more than 1,500
• 0:28
  - executive level attendees
• 0:30
  - and nearly 400 speakers for four days built
• 0:32
  - around growth, financial sustainability,
• 0:35
  - workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
• 0:38
  - have easy answers.
• 0:39
  - Join us November second through the fifth in
• 0:41
  - Chicago.
• 0:42
  - For the agenda and event details,
• 0:45
  - visit beckershospitalreview.com
• 0:47
  - and click on the events tab in the
• 0:49
  - upper right.
• 0:51
  - This is Laura Dirda with the Becker's Healthcare
• 0:53
  - podcast.
• 0:54
  - I'm thrilled today to be joined by Amanda
• 0:55
  - Chawla, senior vice president and chief supply chain
• 0:58
  - and post acute care officer at Stanford Medicine.
• 1:01
  - Amanda, it's a pleasure to have you on
• 1:02
  - the podcast today. Thank you, Laura. I appreciate
• 1:05
  - being here. Absolutely. Now I'm excited to have
• 1:08
  - you on the line because I know there's
• 1:09
  - so much happening in supply chain right now.
• 1:11
  - It's such a dynamic field and truly becoming
• 1:14
  - so, so critical to any organization success. So
• 1:17
  - I know we're gonna talk a lot about,
• 1:19
  - some of the work you've done at Stanford
• 1:20
  - and how you're thinking about the future as
• 1:22
  - you head to Providence too. So, with that
• 1:25
  - in mind, before we dive into my questions,
• 1:27
  - I would love,
• 1:28
  - for you to just tell us a little
• 1:29
  - bit more about yourself and,
• 1:31
  - how you're growing your career.
• 1:33
  - Yeah. Great. Thank you, Laura. So good morning
• 1:36
  - or good afternoon, everyone.
• 1:38
  - Amanda Chawlas. So I've been in,
• 1:40
  - health care probably twenty five years or so.
• 1:44
  - I've done a little bit of everything. I've
• 1:46
  - worked in psychiatry. I've worked on the clinical
• 1:48
  - side, operational side.
• 1:50
  - I'm not a clinician by,
• 1:52
  - by trade,
• 1:53
  - and, of course, I've worked in supply chain.
• 1:55
  - Supply chain was a function I kinda fell
• 1:57
  - into.
• 1:59
  - And as I worked in supply chain, I
• 2:01
  - began to recognize there wasn't a single department
• 2:04
  - that supply chain didn't touch,
• 2:06
  - and or didn't impact. And so, you know,
• 2:08
  - part of my career and part of my
• 2:10
  - journey has been
• 2:11
  - really transforming
• 2:13
  - organizations and leading organizations,
• 2:16
  - and supply chain was an area that I
• 2:17
  - kind of fell in love with, over the
• 2:19
  - years and because of the impact
• 2:22
  - it has on the clinical side, the operational
• 2:25
  - side, strategy side, and the business side of
• 2:28
  - making an organization health system be successful.
• 2:32
  - I love that. I think it's so critical
• 2:34
  - and really interesting to have that,
• 2:36
  - kind of background and mindset coming into what
• 2:38
  - you're doing in health care, which is such
• 2:39
  - an important field.
• 2:41
  - Now I'm curious. How has your role in
• 2:43
  - supply chain
• 2:44
  - evolved over the last few years? What's different,
• 2:47
  - and how do you see supply chain elevating
• 2:49
  - within the health system structure?
• 2:51
  - I'll say it's probably not only specific to
• 2:53
  - me, but it's specific probably it's probably more
• 2:55
  - general to every supply chain leader across the,
• 2:58
  - country.
• 3:00
  - In terms of the role has to be
• 3:02
  - so much more enterprise focused. Care is, you
• 3:05
  - know, connected. We've always known that, but the
• 3:07
  - conversation around supply chain leadership,
• 3:10
  - I think, has evolved from, all the disruptions
• 3:12
  - we've experienced going back to COVID,
• 3:15
  - to the other supply disruptions to crisis management.
• 3:18
  - And so the role of supply chain has
• 3:20
  - become much more around operational continuity,
• 3:23
  - and performance.
• 3:25
  - Equally so, we know all the financial pressures,
• 3:29
  - that health systems have been in over the
• 3:31
  - years and those continue to accelerate.
• 3:33
  - And so the role has also evolved to
• 3:35
  - really for an effective supply chain leader to
• 3:37
  - be an effective
• 3:39
  - spend management leader,
• 3:41
  - and look at really expense control in a
• 3:43
  - holistic viewpoint.
• 3:45
  - I would say in the past, there was
• 3:46
  - a lot of focus on this concept of
• 3:49
  - price at the pump,
• 3:50
  - in which you negotiate the best possible price.
• 3:53
  - But that isn't just supply chain. It isn't
• 3:55
  - just about the implants or the physician preference
• 3:58
  - items.
• 3:58
  - It is about really anything and everything that's
• 4:01
  - purchased in the health system and how do
• 4:03
  - you put the right controls and the right
• 4:05
  - infrastructure? How do you think about utilization?
• 4:08
  - How do you think about expenses and waste
• 4:10
  - and sustainability? How do you think about that
• 4:12
  - resiliency and that operational reliability?
• 4:15
  - And so the focus is, I would say,
• 4:17
  - expand it,
• 4:18
  - in terms of providing more enterprise value
• 4:21
  - as well as kind of this concept of
• 4:23
  - operational,
• 4:25
  - reliability
• 4:26
  - and having supply chain work more integrated.
• 4:29
  - We often call supply chain a chain,
• 4:32
  - but I use the word it's a network.
• 4:34
  - It's a network of activities, business processes,
• 4:37
  - and infrastructure
• 4:38
  - to deliver the right product at the right
• 4:40
  - time in the right place in the right
• 4:41
  - manner.
• 4:43
  - That makes a lot of sense. And, you
• 4:44
  - know, I I love that kind of focus
• 4:46
  - of being able to have that value that
• 4:48
  - you bring back into the organization and draw
• 4:50
  - those lines for for your executive team and
• 4:53
  - then the different initiatives and things that you're
• 4:55
  - doing. I can imagine sometimes it's incorporating technology,
• 4:58
  - other times it's working with people and just
• 5:00
  - the process and and everything else that's going
• 5:02
  - on. And so,
• 5:03
  - from your perspective,
• 5:05
  - and you're thinking about where you're at today,
• 5:06
  - what are some of the biggest pressures that
• 5:08
  - are on the supply chain right now, and
• 5:09
  - how are you prioritizing them?
• 5:12
  - So a lot of the pressures, I think,
• 5:13
  - sit around the concept that Valerie mentioned. It's
• 5:16
  - around cost. It's about resiliency. It's about efficiencies.
• 5:20
  - And I would put this concept of,
• 5:23
  - advancement.
• 5:24
  - You know, we have to be thinking about
• 5:26
  - how are we upscaling our workforce and our
• 5:28
  - talent.
• 5:29
  - We have to have the domain expertise, but
• 5:32
  - also be able
• 5:33
  - to lead more broadly. You know, thinking about
• 5:36
  - how do you think about digital currency as
• 5:38
  - an integrator and an innovator,
• 5:40
  - in the supply chain. So there's not one
• 5:43
  - answer. It's a cumulative,
• 5:44
  - set of answers.
• 5:46
  - You know, we are still dealing with disruptions
• 5:48
  - and shortages.
• 5:50
  - We are managing, you know, the inflationary pressures
• 5:52
  - and cost controls, and then we're navigating uncertainty
• 5:55
  - and human and leadership dynamics all with this
• 5:58
  - rapid
• 5:59
  - acceleration of automation and intelligence. And yet you
• 6:03
  - still have to focus on the core business,
• 6:06
  - essentials
• 6:07
  - to bring it together. And so
• 6:09
  - the pressure is really around how do you
• 6:11
  - manage this integration
• 6:13
  - of all of these cumulative,
• 6:15
  - factors
• 6:16
  - to evolve your organization to the next level,
• 6:19
  - but ensure kind of that that reliability. And
• 6:22
  - I'll and I'll give a very specific example
• 6:25
  - of maybe one of the ways that Stanford
• 6:27
  - is is doing this. One of the things
• 6:29
  - that we've done is we've established control tower,
• 6:31
  - and I know organizations talk about control towers.
• 6:34
  - But what does that really mean? For us,
• 6:36
  - that has been focused on the basics, focused
• 6:39
  - on our organizational
• 6:40
  - kind of business processes,
• 6:42
  - and it's about seeing ourselves clearly to have
• 6:44
  - the reliable,
• 6:46
  - processes, to have the reliable data so we
• 6:49
  - can get intelligence in the orchestration
• 6:52
  - of how supply chain needs to operate. And
• 6:54
  - so,
• 6:55
  - we have 450
• 6:56
  - some metrics that are tracked daily measured,
• 7:00
  - across data health, logistics, sourcing, contracting, technology, you
• 7:04
  - name it.
• 7:05
  - And what we're trying to do is being
• 7:07
  - able to utilize those metrics to help us
• 7:10
  - be more effective
• 7:12
  - in that accumulation
• 7:13
  - of different challenges that we are trying to
• 7:15
  - operate of.
• 7:17
  - So those are examples I would say in
• 7:19
  - which
• 7:20
  - we've thought about the big pressures
• 7:23
  - and we're thinking about our core foundations and
• 7:25
  - how do we navigate across these different priorities
• 7:28
  - and these different, avenues as well.
• 7:32
  - That's helpful to understand. And, wow, you know,
• 7:34
  - 450 metrics tracked daily is huge. I can
• 7:37
  - imagine that's quite a dashboard we're looking at.
• 7:40
  - I I'm curious, you know, as you're making
• 7:42
  - all these changes, as you're looking at, the
• 7:44
  - challenges, the the economic,
• 7:47
  - uncertainty, and,
• 7:49
  - trying to plan for the future and and
• 7:51
  - having all of these metrics and all of
• 7:52
  - these data and this information, how do you
• 7:54
  - synthesize for your teams what's most important to
• 7:56
  - focus on and,
• 7:58
  - truly make sure that everybody has that understanding
• 8:00
  - and is, you know, really growing in the
• 8:02
  - same direction to make this all work?
• 8:05
  - Yeah. And and and your question is what
• 8:07
  - I would call the million dollar question because
• 8:08
  - it's not about tracking all of this. It's
• 8:11
  - what do you do with this information, and
• 8:13
  - how do you operationalize and execute to the
• 8:15
  - vital few,
• 8:16
  - and say this is important, but not now.
• 8:19
  - One thing maybe just for clarity to add
• 8:22
  - is, you know, the way that we've thought
• 8:24
  - about this is through daily standard work, with
• 8:26
  - our daily huddles, with our structures.
• 8:29
  - We've created pillars.
• 8:30
  - I have a multiyear roadmap that I work
• 8:33
  - with my leadership team on once a year
• 8:35
  - where we evolve it. We think about the
• 8:37
  - people, we think about the quality, we think
• 8:39
  - about the service, we think about the cost,
• 8:42
  - all the different elements that are important to
• 8:45
  - our organization's integrated strategic plan.
• 8:48
  - That often drives the priorities that I have
• 8:50
  - for supply chain. And so, you know, to
• 8:53
  - me, the foundation is we gotta keep the
• 8:55
  - bread and butter. We gotta keep operational reliability
• 8:58
  - and service. So there's a percent of focus
• 9:01
  - on that reliability
• 9:03
  - on core operations.
• 9:05
  - Equally so, we need to be viable for
• 9:07
  - the present and the future, and so financial
• 9:09
  - fiscal responsibility is kind of that secondary,
• 9:13
  - area of focus. And so as we've built
• 9:16
  - out the road map, we've we've taken the
• 9:19
  - integrated strategic plan of our organization,
• 9:21
  - and we put it up against the supply
• 9:23
  - chain priorities to say not everything is equal.
• 9:26
  - And then we take a look at teams
• 9:28
  - and people's roles. What is their operational role
• 9:31
  - and what is their kind of horizontal role
• 9:33
  - that they,
• 9:34
  - that they lead? And so one of the
• 9:36
  - ways that we prioritize things is we actually
• 9:38
  - introduce the concept of pacesetters.
• 9:41
  - So we've got a PACE Center for expense
• 9:43
  - management, through our non labor spend program.
• 9:46
  - We've got a PACE center, for example, what
• 9:48
  - we call intraoperational
• 9:50
  - preeminence, and that is really around the different
• 9:53
  - disparate functions of supply chain and how do
• 9:55
  - you have that operational,
• 9:57
  - reliability.
• 9:58
  - So those are examples of what we're trying
• 10:01
  - to prioritize and, more importantly,
• 10:03
  - how we're doing them because you have to
• 10:06
  - be able to balance different things,
• 10:09
  - in in terms of the leveling field.
• 10:12
  - That's helpful for understanding. Thank you so much
• 10:15
  - for digging a bit deeper there and kind
• 10:16
  - of describing how your teams work and how
• 10:18
  - they work together, which is so critical.
• 10:21
  - I'm curious now. Could you tell me about
• 10:22
  - the most important project or initiative that you
• 10:25
  - implemented in the last year? What did you
• 10:26
  - do and what were the results?
• 10:29
  - Yeah. So, you know, Control Tower is one
• 10:31
  - of them, and I think I've already mentioned
• 10:32
  - that one, so I won't won't go into
• 10:34
  - that one. But maybe one of the things
• 10:36
  - I will say, and then I'll give a
• 10:37
  - different example,
• 10:39
  - is in a re result is, you know,
• 10:41
  - one of the metrics, for example, in the
• 10:43
  - control tower that we measured is kind of
• 10:45
  - the health of our data.
• 10:47
  - And we started looking at purchase orders and
• 10:49
  - how many purchase orders were open versus transacted.
• 10:53
  - And so we were able to to look
• 10:55
  - at that metric, which was in the hundreds
• 10:57
  - of thousands. I think it was about 350,000.
• 11:00
  - And just by monitoring and managing and having
• 11:03
  - the visibility of the metric, we've taken it
• 11:05
  - down to less than 10,000. And so that's
• 11:08
  - an example of where we put infrastructure, we
• 11:11
  - put processes and controls,
• 11:12
  - and we have fundamentally improved things.
• 11:15
  - Another example of a really important initiative that
• 11:18
  - we've led is the transition from what I
• 11:21
  - call value analysis
• 11:22
  - to value based management. This has been a
• 11:25
  - multi year initiative,
• 11:26
  - but there's a couple different aspects around it.
• 11:29
  - Value analysis is traditionally just looking at new
• 11:31
  - product requests, but how do we actually put
• 11:34
  - our arms around utilization,
• 11:36
  - around
• 11:37
  - procedures and procedural analytics? And so our value
• 11:40
  - based management program,
• 11:42
  - which we launched about a year and a
• 11:44
  - half ago, we're well into it. We are
• 11:46
  - now seeing results of millions of dollars of
• 11:49
  - savings
• 11:49
  - and greater connection with our physicians
• 11:52
  - by
• 11:53
  - coming to our physicians with insights, with information
• 11:56
  - and data, and asking for a partnership
• 11:59
  - where it's not just about here's this new
• 12:01
  - product coming in, but here are the 10
• 12:03
  - other SKUs that we have along this product
• 12:05
  - category, and do we really need this this
• 12:07
  - variation? And so that's probably an initiative that
• 12:10
  - I am,
• 12:11
  - pretty proud of that we've launched here, at
• 12:14
  - Stanford. And we've taken that initiative to the
• 12:16
  - next level to bring in machine learning to
• 12:18
  - help us be better in those processes, really
• 12:21
  - taking friction out of the processes,
• 12:24
  - for our teams, to be able to operate.
• 12:27
  - And I would say the last is is
• 12:29
  - really the team. It's the people.
• 12:31
  - It's the level of upscaling,
• 12:34
  - within the workforce,
• 12:35
  - the leaders and how people are showing it
• 12:37
  - up. And so we instituted what we call
• 12:40
  - IOP,
• 12:41
  - which is our improvement series,
• 12:43
  - program, and we are doing
• 12:45
  - training and investment in our leaders as well
• 12:48
  - as our staff to help upscale
• 12:50
  - the entire workforce. So that's another another initiative,
• 12:54
  - that I am, very proud of the work
• 12:55
  - that we've done here.
• 12:57
  - I love it. Wow. That's a huge accomplishment.
• 13:00
  - And, certainly,
• 13:01
  - thinking through how you can have those connections
• 13:03
  - really,
• 13:04
  - make that, you know, cross departmental integration, it
• 13:07
  - seems like, to to then understand to have
• 13:09
  - a better understanding of the entire ecosystem as
• 13:12
  - a health system is critical. And then looking
• 13:14
  - at the additional
• 13:15
  - workforce upskill and training, is fascinating. And from
• 13:19
  - your perspective, you know, when you think about
• 13:21
  - the supply chain of the future, obviously, a
• 13:22
  - huge aspect of that is the workforce. And
• 13:24
  - so what has been most surprising or or
• 13:28
  - interesting,
• 13:29
  - as you've gone through this process of doing
• 13:31
  - the upskills and, really figuring out how you're
• 13:34
  - going to,
• 13:35
  - you know, shape the supply chain workforce?
• 13:38
  - Yeah. I I would say it's a journey.
• 13:40
  - We're we're not there, and I don't know
• 13:42
  - that we will be there or any other
• 13:44
  - organization.
• 13:45
  - But one of kind of the
• 13:47
  - moments that I've had, through this journey is
• 13:50
  - when we've had problems and we're thinking about
• 13:52
  - upscaling the workforce, we've actually given the problems
• 13:56
  - and asked our teams to focus on the
• 13:58
  - pain points and come forward with the solutions.
• 14:00
  - And I know everyone says that, but it's
• 14:02
  - around how do you do that. And I'll
• 14:04
  - go back to the example of our value
• 14:05
  - based management program.
• 14:07
  - There's a frontline team member that is doing
• 14:09
  - kind of meeting minutes, doing the voting, doing
• 14:12
  - the analysis
• 14:13
  - of these things. And we said, hey. Here's
• 14:16
  - Copilot. Let's get you trained with our IT
• 14:18
  - folks on Copilot,
• 14:20
  - and how can you make your job,
• 14:22
  - more efficient? How can you take the things
• 14:24
  - that are create friction and unnecessary
• 14:27
  - value in your work away?
• 14:29
  - And that's sitting that's a tactical example
• 14:32
  - of we've now resolved, we've now, I will
• 14:35
  - say, evolved
• 14:36
  - because of this one individual and because we're
• 14:39
  - looking at using our workforce as part of
• 14:41
  - our upskilling strategy.
• 14:43
  - This happened to be an individual that was
• 14:45
  - really, really interested in technology,
• 14:48
  - loved her job, but was also very, very
• 14:50
  - frustrated
• 14:51
  - with just the,
• 14:53
  - mundane workflows,
• 14:54
  - and the mundane kind of work that went
• 14:56
  - with it. And so that would be an
• 14:58
  - example
• 14:59
  - that I would give in terms of kind
• 15:00
  - of a how do we do more of
• 15:02
  - this and how do we cascade this as
• 15:05
  - kind of a culture? And if we think
• 15:06
  - about the next several years,
• 15:08
  - I think the role of the CSO
• 15:11
  - is to be that catalyst for innovation, to
• 15:14
  - be that catalyst for resilience,
• 15:17
  - leadership and financial health, of an organization as
• 15:20
  - well.
• 15:22
  - Absolutely. I love that, and it's such an
• 15:24
  - inspiring way to think about things in in
• 15:26
  - you know, I I know there's a lot
• 15:27
  - of change, but with that change comes opportunity
• 15:29
  - and innovation. So that's incredible.
• 15:31
  - Before we wrap up here, how do you
• 15:33
  - anticipate the supply chain itself will evolve over
• 15:35
  - the next three to five years?
• 15:37
  - I would say,
• 15:39
  - supply chain will be much more clinically integrated.
• 15:42
  - That's always been on our roadmap, but I
• 15:44
  - would say that integration becomes now far more
• 15:47
  - productive
• 15:48
  - predictive
• 15:49
  - and much more accountable for how it supports
• 15:51
  - across the continuum.
• 15:53
  - We're seeing and we have seen that market
• 15:55
  - shift of, like, how do you move from
• 15:57
  - a transactional
• 15:58
  - function towards a strategic capability?
• 16:02
  - I think the current industry resources
• 16:05
  - are emphasizing more on where there's strategic value.
• 16:08
  - So where do we have our resources? Is
• 16:10
  - it in the front line of moving the
• 16:11
  - boxes or is our resources planted in the
• 16:14
  - strategic aspects of our organization?
• 16:16
  - The data side, the analytics side, the category
• 16:19
  - management side,
• 16:20
  - and making sure that we we have that
• 16:22
  - shift. So I think we're gonna continue to
• 16:24
  - see that shift,
• 16:26
  - in the next three to five years. The
• 16:27
  - other piece is,
• 16:29
  - I think the concept of resiliency is probably
• 16:32
  - not gonna go away, but how do you
• 16:34
  - actually build and,
• 16:36
  - change and enhance operating models
• 16:39
  - where it makes it less vulnerable,
• 16:42
  - and creates more discipline around those critical products
• 16:45
  - and around those critical, management?
• 16:48
  - The other component that I might suggest is,
• 16:50
  - like, technology. I don't think you can go
• 16:52
  - into a conversation in the future and say
• 16:54
  - technology isn't gonna advance the future. It really
• 16:57
  - is. I mean, there's new,
• 16:59
  - tools that are coming out daily in the
• 17:01
  - woodworks around how you can automate, supply chain,
• 17:04
  - how you can think about,
• 17:06
  - the management
• 17:07
  - of expenses, the way you do contracting and
• 17:10
  - negotiation,
• 17:11
  - being more bot focused.
• 17:13
  - So I think we're gonna see some functions
• 17:15
  - perhaps of supply chain evolve to be much
• 17:17
  - more technology, but maybe there's still a human
• 17:20
  - centric touch,
• 17:21
  - within that in terms of the maturity and
• 17:24
  - the use,
• 17:25
  - the whole back end functions and the integration
• 17:28
  - from an AP standpoint,
• 17:30
  - to the business. So we're gonna see a
• 17:31
  - lot of, I think, changes in that. And
• 17:33
  - then I think there's gonna be changes
• 17:35
  - in what is the type of leader that
• 17:37
  - you need in supply chain.
• 17:39
  - And I really believe that type of leader
• 17:41
  - will continue to evolve to be more of
• 17:43
  - that ecosystem
• 17:45
  - type of leader, not necessarily the tactical subject
• 17:48
  - matter leader of Pacific Avenue supply chain, but
• 17:51
  - that orchestrator,
• 17:53
  - to integrate with what the business needs, to
• 17:56
  - integrate with what the health system needs to
• 17:58
  - drive it towards the future.
• 18:00
  - I love that. Amanda, thank you so much
• 18:02
  - for joining us on the podcast today. This
• 18:03
  - has been such a fun conversation. We really
• 18:05
  - got through a lot, and I look forward
• 18:07
  - to seeing you again soon and on this
• 18:09
  - fall at our supply chain summit. So it's
• 18:11
  - exciting.
• 18:12
  - Thank you, Laura. Thank you for having me.