New organization recognizes healthcare supply chain leaders

SCHAUMBURG, IL (Jan. 21, 2008) – Because supply chain management professionals are integral to the successful delivery of quality healthcare service and effective and efficient patient care a new organization plans to recognize their efforts and achievements.

Lacking the equipment, supplies and tools needed to perform surgery effectively renders a surgeon powerless and places the patient at risk. But it also highlights the critical and pivotal role played by an important group in the hospital who perform a fundamentally essential function – supply chain management professionals.

These business-oriented but clinically minded men and women must keep their feet firmly planted in two distinct worlds. Not only do they have to supply all of the necessary devices and equipment for doctors and nurses to care for patients and generate top-line revenue for their facilities, but they also have to manage the bottom line through product evaluations and selections, contract negotiations and maximizing the efficiency of the processes that get products to the points of use. The supply chain impact on a hospital’s financial performance can be significant, consuming up to 45 percent of a hospital’s budget. So these professionals continually are challenged to balance clinical needs with holding the line on total delivered costs.

Launched in late July 2007 by a group of influential veterans in the healthcare supply chain industry, Bellwether League Inc. seeks to identify and honor individuals who have demonstrated significant leadership in and influence on and contributions to the healthcare supply chain, including professional from hospitals, non-acute healthcare providers, manufacturers and distributors of healthcare products, group purchasing organizations, consulting firms and educational institutions. Bellwether League Inc. will select individuals that meet its criteria to be publicly recognized and recorded in print and online media for their contributions in advancing and improving all segments of the healthcare supply chain. The criteria include ethics, innovation, integrity, leadership, longevity, mentoring, reputation, speaking, teaching, writing and volunteering. Nominations for prospective candidates can be made via Bellwether League Inc.’s Web site at
www.bellwetherleague.org.

Bellwether League Inc. plans to recognize its first group of honorees in April 2008, its second group in October 2008, and annually thereafter in October.

Bellwether League Inc. is a non-membership, non-stock, not-for-profit educational organization that anecdotally profiles the influencers and leaders in healthcare supply chain management, highlighting their achievements, accomplishments, innovations, philosophy and vision as part of an industry “hall of fame” whose recipients are selected annually by the Bellwether League Inc. Advisory Council.

The Chicago-based Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM) has expressed its support for Bellwether League Inc. and also will provide visibility and promotion of its activities.

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