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Hall of Fame for Healthcare Supply Chain Leadership salutes 7 honorees to be inducted into the 2018 Bellwether Class

SCHAUMBURG, IL (July 2, 2018) – Bellwether League Inc.,the Hall of Fame for Healthcare Supply Chain Leadership,elected 7 innovators, pioneers and visionaries for their industry contributions and performance as honorees of the Bellwether Class of 2018. They join 96 earlier honorees since Bellwether League’s founding 11 years ago.

Bellwether League’s Board of Directors selected the following professionals for the 11th Bellwether Class: Marvin J. Feldman, R.Ph., John B. Gaida, Winifred S. Hayes, Ph.D., Janine C. Jagger, Ph.D., Mary A. Starr, Nicholas C. Toscano and Robert T. Yokl.

Bellwether Class of 2018 honorees will be inducted at the 11th Annual Bellwether Induction Dinner event, scheduled for Monday, October 1, at The Westin-O’Hare in Rosemont, IL, a northwest suburb of Chicago adjacent to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

Bellwether League’s Board selected these professionals for their achievements and contributions in the delivery of quality care through efficient and innovative supply chain operations. They represent creative thinkers who take the initiative, expand the boundaries of what’s possible, and perform in a way that improves and promotes the profession of supply chain management among hospitals, group purchasing organizations (GPOs), manufacturers and distributors, consulting firms, educational institutions and media properties.

Bellwether League Board Chairman Nick Gaich praised this year’s Bellwether Class of 7.

“I am both proud to announce our 2018 Bellwether Class Hall of Fame honorees, as well as humbled by the legacy of contributions they have given to the healthcare supply chain profession.,” Gaich said. “Throughout their careers each one of our honorees exhibited three indispensable leadership attributes – purpose, character and perseverance – that clearly stand out as enduring virtues making them worthy of their distinction.

“Bellwether League is pleased to honor a lifetime of pioneering achievements, and we invite you all to join us at our 11th Annual Induction Dinner Event in October to salute our 2018 Bellwether Honorees,” he added.

Bellwether Class of 2018

Marvin J. Feldman, R.Ph., applied the concept of process redesign to the practice of hospital pharmacy long before it gained widespread acceptance as a management strategy. Through his initial groundbreaking pharmacy logistics work at two prominent Boston-area hospitals, Feldman expanded his program into a third-party service that could be implemented at other hospitals via consulting and group purchasing initiatives. Feldman’s program attracted executive-level interest into this high-cost specialized area, and by linking clinical, financial and operational elements he helped to transform it into a high-performing segment of the supply chain within healthcare provider organizations.

John B. Gaida tapped his early retail experience not merely to push the envelope in healthcare supply chain operations in the early 1980s but to punch a hole clearly through it. Gaida used early generation Apple computers and bar coding to track functions and supplies. He also converted a vacant 52,000-square-foot warehouse to serve as an off-site warehouse for multiple hospitals within his healthcare system, all operational novelties among provider organizations more than three decades ago. From California to the Northeast to Texas, Gaida left an indelible mark on supply chain operations, improving departmental performance and mentoring teammates and colleagues along the way. He also co-founded what would become Strategic Marketplace Initiative that would design and develop educational and training programs for supply chain performance improvement.

During a career that spanned five decades, Winifred S. Hayes, Ph.D., made the concept of evidence-based clinical value analysis an acceptable household term among healthcare organizations striving to access equipment and technology needs as well as link clinical decisions to strategic cost management discussions. Leading a qualified team of clinicians, researchers and technology experts, Hayes helped to apply and refine value analysis to evaluate the efficacy, safety and comparative effectiveness of drugs, biologics, immunizations, laboratory studies, radiology, genetic tests, devices, implants, medical equipment, procedures, therapies and complementary and alternative medicine and provided a wealth of data and information to shape clinical operations going forward.

As an epidemiologist and clinical research professor specializing in sharps injury prevention and control to reduce healthcare workers’ risks from occupational exposures to blood-borne pathogens Janine C. Jagger, Ph.D. didn’t just push for safer practices for hundreds of thousands of clinicians and administrators. Jagger also moved market share and industry thinking, influencing the clinical, supply chain, group purchasing and supplier communities from the early-to-mid-1980s forward. Jagger’s groundbreaking research in process- and product-related needlestick injuries and needlestick injury prevention procedures, which included the innovative EPINet tracking system, launched a nationwide sharps safety movement during the 1990s, leading to the creation and development of a new category of safety-designed medical devices and federal legislation and occupational regulations for usage.

Mary A. Starr represents one of the earliest supply chain advocates for embedding inventory control coordinators, materials managers and/or materials management information systems coordinators in the operating room and for extending supply chain expertise to non-acute care facilities. Back in the late 1980s Starr also co-developed an industry-wide initiative for supply chain performance indicators that would serve as a measurement tool on which supply chain departments could benchmark their operations and progress. Top-flight surgical services teams today employ business managers and value analysis leaders as bridges between clinical, financial, operational and quality analytics and benchmarking, while supply chain teams routinely gauge their service levels using benchmarks they provide to C-suite executives, reinforcing her early efforts.

Nicholas C. Toscano catapulted from a hospital supply chain management directorship and successfully steering the New Jersey Hospital Association’s group purchasing program as a regional leader to a groundbreaking role as a prominent integrated delivery network’s Chief Supply Chain Officer. At Virtua Health, Toscano designed and developed a “Clinically Integrated Supply Chain Model” that featured one of the nation’s pioneering Consolidated Distribution Centers, which he modeled after several large retailer and manufacturer examples. Toscano extended that model to include a “Shared Service” hub that handled a variety of services for multiple facilities – an archetype for the contemporary Consolidated Service Center model in operation at more than a dozen health systems around the nation. Through a unique partnership with General Electric, Toscano worked with GE to develop and train the first Six Sigma Black Belts among healthcare provider organizations.

For more than five decades, Robert T. Yokl has served as a foundational value analysis evangelist in healthcare, having adapted the value engineering philosophy of General Electric’s legendary value analyst Larry Miles for the healthcare provider market. After more than 20 years in hospital supply chain leadership where he put industrial value analysis intelligence into practice, Yokl decided to share his influential insights via consulting and software development, launching a software product and value analysis curriculum that has been used by several leading GPOs and more than 500 hospitals over the years. Yokl also shares his strategic value analysis education and training content via magazines, newsletters, podcasts and webinars.

About Bellwether League

Bellwether League’s Board of Directors, a veteran group of industry advocates, evaluates and validates professionals submitted for consideration in its three award programs: Bellwethers, Future Famers and Ammer-Level Supply Chain Organizations.

The Board selects deceased, retired and currently active professionals with a minimum of 25 years of exemplary service and leadership performance in supply chain operations that meet its criteria to be publicly recognized as Bellwether Class Honorees. Those honored demonstrate their qualifications by advancing the profession through work experience and performance and active participation in professional organizations and their communities.

Future Famers represent supply chain professionals early in their healthcare careers who do not yet qualify for Bellwether consideration, but have contributed to the healthcare supply chain profession in a meaningful way.

Departmental recipients of Bellwether League’s Dean S. Ammer Award for Supply Chain Excellence demonstrate superior performance achievement in their daily operations.

Bellwether League has honored 103 innovators, leaders and pioneers in healthcare supply chain management in five distinct categories: Education & Media, Supply Chain Management, Group Purchasing, Supplier and Consulting Services. Bellwether League also has recognized 21 Future Famers and two highly designated Ammer-Level organizations.

Launched in late July 2007 by a group of influential veterans in the healthcare supply chain industry, Bellwether League Inc., is a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit corporation that identifies and honors men and women who have demonstrated significant leadership in, influence on and contributions to the supply chain from healthcare providers, healthcare product manufacturers and distributors, group purchasing organizations, consulting firms, educational institutions and media outlets.

Bellwether League currently is funded by seven Founding and Platinum Sponsors – Halyard Health, HealthTrust, Owens & Minor, Premier, Vizient and VIE Healthcare – and a host of additional sponsors.

Bellwether League’s 2018 Board of Directors includes:

• Nick Gaich, (chairman) (Bellwether Class of 2013),CEO, Nick Gaich and Associates, Morgan Hill, CA
• Patrick E. Carroll Jr. (secretary), President, Patrick E. Carroll & Associates, Cypress, CA
• Deborah A. Petretich Templeton, R.Ph., (treasurer), Chief, System Support Services, Geisinger Health, Danville, PA
• Rick Dana Barlow (co-founder, executive director), President, Wingfoot Media Inc., Schaumburg, IL
• Dee Donatelli, (Bellwether Class of 2015), Principal, Dee Donatelli Consulting LLC, Newton, KS
• Todd Ebert, R.Ph., President and CEO, Healthcare Supply Chain Association (HSCA), Washington
• Edward J. Hisscock, Vice President, Clinical Sourcing and Informatics, and Transformation Officer, Non-Labor Spend, for Trinity Health, Livonia, MI
• Jamie C. Kowalski (co-founder, founding chairman 2007-2013), (Bellwether Class of 2017), CEO, Jamie C. Kowalski Consulting LLC, Milwaukee, WI
• Nathaniel Mickish (Future Famers Class of 2015), Vice President, Sourcing, Supply Chain Management, Texas Health Resources, Arlington, TX
• Mark A. Van Sumeren, Strategic Advisor, Health Industry Advisor LLC, Richmond, VA
• John B. Gaida, Chairman Emeritus, Bellwether League Inc., Arlington, TX

For more information about Bellwether League, visit BellwetherLeague.org.

Contact:  Rick Dana Barlow
Wingfoot Media Inc.
E-mail:     rickdanabarlow@wingfootmedia.biz
Phone:     847-466-7425