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Motz Feinberg on Transforming Supply Chain at Cedars-Sinai Health System · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

0:00
This is Laura Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare
0:02
podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
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Mads Feinberg,
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vice president and chief supply chain officer at
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Cedars Sinai Health System. Mads, it's a pleasure
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to have you on the podcast today. Pleasure,
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and I really appreciate the opportunity.
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Absolutely. Well, I'm looking forward to digging a
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little bit deeper into some of the cool
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things that you're doing at Cedars Sinai and,
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you know, learning your spec perspective on the
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future as well. But before we dive in,
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can you tell us a little bit more
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about yourself and Cedars Sinai?
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Sure. I've been,
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with Cedars for a little over five years,
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leading a supply chain transformation,
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across our health system. We have an evolving
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health system fairly fairly new and, still growing,
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still learning how to operate truly as a
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health system and,
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we've had some great progress in the supply
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chain space.
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We we do operate as a shared service
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now,
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and and made some really good contributions and
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and value adds
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across the health system.
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Prior to Cedars, I was, with a large
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national,
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IDN,
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for about seven years. And then prior to
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that, I worked in a number of different
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industries,
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outside of health care.
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Anything from,
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CPG
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to manufacturing
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to,
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consulting,
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and high-tech as well. So, lots of different
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perspectives.
1:24
Well, that's great to hear. And, you know,
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definitely having that type of background of bringing
1:28
into health care is really beneficial.
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Now I'm curious. When you think about the
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last year or so, can you tell us
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about the most important initiative that you led?
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What did you do, and what were the
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results?
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Probably the most important has been,
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just our our
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leverage of technology and seeing how that can
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help our people.
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There's been a lot of work in the
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AI space as as I'm sure everyone's been
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diving into it.
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But the really important part is understanding how
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that can help our people be more productive,
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be less stressed,
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and be able to handle,
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you know, the fluctuating and kind of growing
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demands on them
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in a more flexible way,
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and more meaningful way and in a way
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that that really helps them feel
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that they're adding value.
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And so it wasn't a particular project, but
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it's something that we tried to weave throughout
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a lot of different activities,
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across the supply chain.
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Got it. That makes a lot of sense.
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And, you know, I know technology is becoming
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more integrated overall within health care and particularly
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looking at AI. I'm curious as you were
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going through this process of bringing more into
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the organization, integrating it, and becoming more productive
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as well,
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were there any things you learned throughout that
2:42
process that would help other organizations who are,
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you know, in the same boat or or,
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I guess, ways that you were able to,
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ensure that cultural shift as well, in addition
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to adding the technology?
2:55
Yeah. I think, you know,
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one basic thing is to
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to just try it out and and use
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it and show folks that,
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that you use it yourself as a leader.
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I use it every day,
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and and it helps people
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at least get over the barrier of, hey.
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This is something that is a threat to
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me, versus this is something that can help
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me grow and help me,
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help me be more efficient, help me be
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more
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productive and and focused on higher value activities.
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So so I started just with that and
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just getting more people excited about what you
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can do with it.
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The next thing that we embarked on is
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really trying to apply AI in the very
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fundamental
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functions within supply chain.
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So for example, we're
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we're setting up,
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bots to
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read contracts and and decipher them and pull
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information from those contracts like payment terms or
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or or various other information that we wanna
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compare,
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either across contracts, across suppliers,
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across entities,
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or even compare what's on a contract versus
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what's in our ERP system. So so really
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let it do some of the heavy lift
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that nobody enjoys doing in supply chain.
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Very tedious, very time consuming.
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And so we're we're applying AI there as
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kind of a baseline.
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But then in parallel,
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we really went and listened to our customers
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and what what are some things that
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supply chain can do better.
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And and one of those that we found,
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from many of our customers within the hospitals
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is just sharing information about what's going on
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in supply chain. And it's not so much
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just strategic information, it's more tactical because if,
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you know, if a nurse is out of
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a supply,
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they wanna know
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where that supply is, if any is coming,
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is it an ongoing back order, are there
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substitutes,
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etcetera?
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And and how else can they get that
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product or that or something similar to it?
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And as you can imagine, when you're managing
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thousands and thousands of supplies within a hospital,
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knowing who to ask and and and ensuring
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that person has all the answers
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is pretty challenging. It's been a challenge in
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health care, I think, since since supply chain
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started or kinda since hospitals started. The you
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have a lot of products with a lot
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of information, but very difficult to get to
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those. And so that that was really kind
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of the the overarching ask from nursing
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is where's my stuff? You know? Where where
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is it? Why don't I have it here?
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And,
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we've typically tried to handle that through telephone
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calls and and people answering and trying to
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keep up with all the requests, and and
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we get hundreds of requests. And one of
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our very large hospitals, we just get a
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lot of volume there. And so we we
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partnered with our IT organization
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and built a tool, an AI agent, basically,
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that
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can answer all those questions.
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Can even answer questions about
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products that, are are asked of it that
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don't have a part number. Right? That's just,
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you know, Christmas tree, for example. So that's
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a term nurses use for certain type of
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product.
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It can recognize that,
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tell the nurse where it is on the
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floor or in another floor.
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Tell the nurse if it's back ordered or
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whether there's a PO out for it or
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whether we have it in our warehouse.
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And then, directly, the nurse can just
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ask the AI agent to request the product.
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And so it really streams lines, all those
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communications,
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tremendously,
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makes life much, much easier for nursing, and
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then it also provides
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very organized and kinda ERP like information back
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to supply chain so we're not having to
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call the nurses and ask them what do
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they actually want
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because the the agent or is doing all
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that translation for us.
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So,
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so we've combined that into our workflows, and,
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you know, we're we're in pilot phase. It's
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going very well,
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but that's that's a very exciting AI adventure
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that we've been on internally.
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We're also linking it with some external partnerships
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as well, with some key supplier partners that
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we're working on,
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again, to kind of expand and scale
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the knowledge base that we're able to then
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provide back to nursing.
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I hear that. And, you know, it is
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so helpful to understand,
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the process behind,
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what you've been able to do with that
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technology and being able to build, you know,
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the the AI
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conversationally. It's just incredible to think about,
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what opportunities that affords and how you can
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grow more quickly with it. Now I'm curious
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looking ahead for 2026,
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what are some of the big priorities and
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headwinds that you're thinking about?
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So in terms of headwinds,
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we're we're based in California.
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So aside from the kind of the national
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financial headwinds that that most health care organizations
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are facing,
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there there's some additional layers,
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onto that. In California, we we recently,
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started the Office of Healthcare Affordability,
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in California
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at the state level,
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similar thing to what Massachusetts has had for
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a number of years.
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That will introduce some financial challenges,
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and as as well as, seismic,
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regulations that are coming due in California, which
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require
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hospitals to be,
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to be at certain seismic,
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readiness levels,
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from a construction perspective,
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which requires tremendous
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construction investment,
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in California.
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So that's kinda layered on top of the
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kind of the federal challenges that everyone's dealing
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with.
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And and,
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you know, to address those,
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you know, we're coming from a a position
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of strength at this point and and looking
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at ways to
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to proactively
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find ways to
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improve our revenue side, improve our,
9:01
cost controls and and efficiency side
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of the operations.
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And so those are some of the major
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areas that, everyone in the organization is involved
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with, certainly supply chain,
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on the expense piece, on on the utilization
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piece,
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working closely with our,
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clinicians and physician partners,
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looking for ways to streamline,
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that process as well as
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streamline our portfolio as much as we can.
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So the those are some some major
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elements for this the coming year.
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We're also undergoing tremendous amount of construction, not
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just for seismic, but also just
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to to upgrade a a number of our
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facilities as as well as to to help
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grow
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our our capacity,
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to
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to, address the community needs.
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We we're regularly running over our capacity in
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our hospitals,
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because we just we we've just kinda our
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our our the demands outgrown what we have
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available. So tremendous amount of construction.
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We're opening a new hospital,
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this year as well,
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and and that's keeping a lot of us
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very busy as well. You can imagine supply
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chain kinda touches,
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any sort of new build, new construction. We
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have to be there and make sure,
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everyone's got the supplies they need to keep
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the place running.
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That makes a lot of sense. And, you
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know, it's certainly a supply chain is a
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huge,
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part of health care and having it,
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run smoothly makes all the difference when you
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think about clinical outcomes, operational efficiencies, financials, everything
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else. Is so intimately tied to everything that's
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happening within the health care system.
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I'm curious, when you think of all those
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different things you just mentioned, what what will
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be the hardest thing you have to do
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in the next year? What will that be?
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So, you know, kind of and and and
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tied to the how you mentioned supply chain
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needs to be everywhere. I like to to
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compare supply chain to blood in the body.
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We we need to be everywhere
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and make sure everything is is you know,
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every cell gets gets the supplies it needs
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or the oxygen or nutrition it needs through
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the blood.
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And, generally, people don't think a lot about
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supply chain until there's a problem similar to
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your blood. You don't really think about it
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until you're cut. Right?
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And and and so as you look across
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that portfolio of activities,
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and and there there are many others I
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didn't mention,
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I I think one of our challenges is
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gonna be to balance
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that.
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And to balance that with kind of my
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initial thoughts around our people and how our
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people
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are
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able to handle all these different,
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pushes and pulls
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for their time, for their for their mind,
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for their hearts, and
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and make sure that we're resourced appropriately as
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well, and and people are getting the support
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they need,
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to to be able to be that flow
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and that blood that ensures all these different
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things happen,
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on time, right, and to support the various,
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initiatives and activities and and openings across our
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health system.
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That makes a lot of sense. And, I
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I love that analogy of the supply chain
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being like the blood. And when you think
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about,
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being able to have
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a supply chain working
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functionally
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and operationally as efficiently as possible,
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but also knowing, you know, that, there are
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certain,
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challenges with that, whether it's supply chain shortages
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or or potential increased cost and all of
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these kinds of things.
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Is there anything you're doing
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differently
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or think you'll need to approach differently just
12:40
because of the moment we're in in health
12:42
care and in the world?
12:44
Yeah. Yeah. I think, again, Cedars Sinai Health
12:46
System
12:47
has a tremendous collaborative
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culture.
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And
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I I think what
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we will need to do even more of
12:55
is figure out how we
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collaborate towards
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some fairly near term goals and objectives
13:04
and and still ensure the world class
13:07
patient care that we that we owe our
13:10
communities that we're known for
13:12
while driving those. And the only way we
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can do that is with the right clinical
13:16
integration, the right clinical partnerships,
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and similarly, the, like, the the right, vendor
13:22
partner,
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relationships and partnerships
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so that
13:28
as as kind of a a a joint
13:30
team,
13:31
we can move the organization forward. So we
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we've done a lot of that, and that's
13:35
what's gotten us to where we are today.
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I think we will have to redouble our
13:41
efforts and refocus our kind of our hearts
13:44
and minds on how we do that
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even better and more efficiently,
13:48
as as we tackle the coming year.
13:52
Got it. That's helpful to know. Now before
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we wrap up here, I wanna talk about
13:55
growth. Are there any other opportunities you're seeing
13:57
for organizational growth going forward?
14:01
So so as I mentioned in the beginning,
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we we are continuing to grow.
14:05
You know, I can't really share too many
14:07
details of that, but, but we are looking
14:10
at additional ways for access for our patients.
14:14
We we do have a new hospital opening
14:16
at the end of this
14:18
Callenton just in about a year from now,
14:20
a little bit less.
14:21
And it's all about access and making sure
14:24
that, the communities we serve,
14:27
are able to get the the the service
14:29
they deserve.
14:30
So I think that's mainly where we're seeing
14:33
our growth is just areas of opportunity to
14:36
to gain you know, to provide more access
14:38
to our patients. Again, some of that is
14:40
just construction, organic construction.
14:43
Some of that is is just expanding our
14:45
footprint.
14:46
That makes a lot of sense. Mas, thank
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you so much for joining us on the
14:49
podcast today. This has been a really, fun
14:52
conversation. I've learned a lot from you and
14:54
definitely appreciate your perspective on how things are
14:56
growing and evolving. And, you know, to that
14:58
point, I'm looking forward to seeing you at
15:00
our annual meeting as well. I know you'll
15:01
be speaking on a panel, and we'll dig
15:03
deeper into some of the themes we talked
15:04
about today. So I'm looking forward to it,
15:06
and, see you in April.
15:08
See you then. Super excited. And and, again,
15:10
really appreciate the opportunity here, Laura.