HealthCare Business News interviewed Mary Beth Lang, RPh, MPM, D.Sc., the Chair of the Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM), and vice president, HC Pharmacy and SCM Commercial Services, UPMC in Pittsburgh.

HCB News: How did you get involved in health care?
MBL: My first job was working for an independent pharmacy in my neighborhood. The owner was woven into the fabric of the community, serving far beyond the traditional role of a dispensing pharmacist, as an advisor used in a supporting role to primary care. I was later inspired to go to pharmacy school at the University of Pittsburgh and started my career as a pharmacist at UPMC. I was first introduced to the impact pharmacy and supply chain have on cost, quality and outcomes during the patient episode of care and the patient experience.

HCB News: When and why did you join the AHRMM?
MBL: I joined AHRMM over 10 years ago as AHRMM was recognized as the leading health care supply chain association when my career expanded to include responsibilities in supply chain management.

HCB News: What benefits does a membership in AHRMM deliver to an individual?
MBL: For me, I was looking for an association focused on health care that offered education in supply chain management, provided opportunities to network with peers to learn leading practices, and was a thought leader in emerging trends or regulatory changes. AHRMM continues to help individuals:

• Connect with peers who share and support your professional interests through online and in-person networking opportunities.
• Accomplish more with a wide range of educational opportunities, tools and resources.
• Get involved and advance [their careers], AHRMM and the profession.

HCB News: Has ongoing hospital consolidation helped or hurt the association?
MBL: Consolidation in general has impacted the supply chain field in many ways. Many health systems supported travel to local, regional and national functions and also paid for part or full membership dues. Through consolidation, systems may send fewer individuals to these events. For example, military membership has reduced as a result of cuts to travel and education funding. The field offers webinars, podcasts and other online resources to help individuals stay current.

Through consolidation, systems have increased the reach of health care supply chain management and are now responsible for all non-labor spend, adding sourcing areas that were not under management in the past. During this expansion, systems are looking outside of health care or in clinical areas for expertise. Many of these individuals are joining organizations such as AHRMM. This is not just happening on the provider side. It is also happening on the supplier affiliate side as well. This is why the background of membership has become very diverse. The AHRMM Board composition is representative of this diversity. Board members come from outside of health care, a physician, a former ICU nurse, a pharmacist, several members that have careers in multiple segments of the supply chain channel provider, GPO, manufacturer and distributor, and a member working in the government sector.

HCB News: What are the biggest challenges facing health care resource and materials managers today?
MBL: Reacting to the speed of change has been a challenge. Many systems have moved to a horizontal service line management structure. Instead of having dedicated resources for one department or hospital, health care resources and materials managers support multiple departments and/or multiple hospitals. Supply chain is being asked to manage logistics very differently. In the past, supply chain may have delivered medications or supplies to a department, then the department resource managed the process. Now supply chain resources are embedded in the pharmacy, the OR, cath lab, ED, bioengineering, etc., to manage all aspects of materials management up to and including the review of the charge master to ensure the supply appears correctly on a patient bill.

HCB News: What are the biggest challenges facing the AHRMM today?
MBL: As with all associations, AHRMM is challenged constantly to remain relevant. To stay ahead of health care trends so that members see AHRMM as the source of innovative and practice-leading information. Three years ago, AHRMM launched the Cost, Quality and Outcome (CQO) Movement (www.ahrmm.org/CQO). With the increasing financial pressures, health systems needed to change their operations. The CQO Movement recognized that supply chain leaders practice at the intersection of cost, quality and outcomes and can support the health system initiatives strategically in savings far beyond price or logistics. The leading practices from the CQO Movement are showing that AHRMM has made a lasting impact in addressing the cost per care and patient experience to support the transition to population health management.

HCB News: Do you partner with any other organizations?
MBL: ARHMM works collaboratively with many organizations. As a personal membership group (PMG) of the American Hospital Association, AHRMM collaborates with other AHA PMGs to reach members throughout the hospital family. AHRMM has been a convener around the adoption of health care data standards, working with the FDA and standards organizations (GS1) prior to the final Unique Device Identifier ruling and throughout the adoption period. AHRMM works with many academic institutions to support practice advances, research and education of future supply chain leaders.

AHRMM also works collaboratively with other health care groups to share industry trends, thought leadership and best practices. Some of the groups include: the Association of Healthcare Value Analysis Professionals (AHVAP); the Bellwether League Inc.; Economic Cycle Research Institute; Gartner; Global Enteral Device Supplier Association (GEDSA); Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS); Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA); and Strategic Marketing Initiative (SMI).

HCB News: What initiatives are you championing as chair?
MBL: Ten years ago, the discussion at AHRMM was how to get supply chain viewed as a strategic leader and elevated as a C-suite leader. Many large systems have a C-suite supply chain leader. This leader is now being tasked with unprecedented cost savings that can’t come from lower acquisition costs. These savings must come from the redesign of care, avoidance of duplicative or unnecessary care, appropriate sites of care and a focus on wellness and prevention. My role as chair is to propel the CQO Movement by strategically connecting supply chain leaders to the Triple Aim (www.ahrmm.org/CQO-Triple-Aim) being conducted across the country at the executive level. This effort began last year and has grown as a focus throughout this year.

The second area of focus during my chair year has been around succession planning. Specifically, engaging the next generation of students to want to practice in health care and to create the environment that encourages staff to grow into supply chain leaders. As with all new areas of focus, we have started small by hosting a session during the AHRMM16 Conference & Exhibition this summer in San Diego, to highlight current activities of disseminating best practices related to attracting students into health care supply chain, and promoting career ladders to retain and promote future health care supply chain leaders.

HCB News: What skills and training does a resource and materials management professional need to be successful in today’s health care environment, and has that changed significantly from a decade ago?
MBL: The qualifications profile of a supply chain professional has changed compared to a decade ago. For example, health systems are looking for master’s or doctoral training for key supply chain management as tactical functions are automated and staff focus turns to strategic activities. As mentioned previously, spend under management has grown to include all non-labor spend, necessitating broader category management and expertise.

Successful staff and leaders must also possess the desire to be a transformational leader. The old command and control management style can thwart progress. The leader of today is someone who can take charge with strong project management skills focused on change management, Lean Six Sigma process redesign. An uplifting leader is a good communicator, especially throughout the process change, a good listener willing to make plan adjustments after assimilating stakeholder feedback, strong collaborator, bridge builder, and fosters a culture of excellence.

HCB News: What is your prediction for how the specialty will have changed a decade from now?
MBL: The U.S. health care system that we know today will not and should not exist. The remnants of volume-based care will be eliminated and replaced with efforts of care coordination and prevention. Under population management, health systems, physicians, payers, pharmacy benefits managers, pharmacies and all transition of care providers will evolve into new models focused on the longitudinal view of a patient that spans all aspects of health, wellness, prevention and care. When care is needed, it will be virtual, social and personal. What do I mean by this?

• Virtual: Care will need to be convenient and available virtually through eVisits and concierge medicine delivered through a patient’s phone or computer.
• Social: Consumerism of health care is demanding that care will need to be delivered in a more transparent fashion as rating systems are adopted through publishing hospital and physician quality scores, health plan ratings and the expanded use of social medial sites such as Yelp to post patient satisfaction ratings.
• Personal: Through advanced genomics and diagnostics, evidenced-based medicine can be personalized by patient. This targeted approach can improve patient outcomes and change the cost curve by only introducing treatment or diagnosis that will produce the desired outcome for that patient. Supply chain management will expand to encompass non-labor costs across the continuum of care, focused on patient safety, quality and outcomes under shared cost agreements with the suppliers of the product or service.

We call this risk-based contracting today, but I would envision this name will morph over time. But the intent of having channel partners contract based on proposed outcome will replace contracts based on acquisition cost.