Taking The Supply Chain Pulse
St. Onge’s Healthcare Hall of Famer and industry icon, Fred Crans, chats with leaders from all areas of healthcare to discuss the issues of today's- threats, challenges and emerging trends and technologies in a lighthearted and engaging manner.
ENGINEERING A BETTER HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
We provide comprehensive planning and design services to develop world-class facilities and highly effective support services operations. Our capabilities in hospital supply chain consulting include applied industrial engineering, lean methodologies, systems thinking, and operations research to enable improved patient care and staff satisfaction. We are proud to have worked with over 100 hospitals, including 18 of the top 22 in the US, utilizing diverse design strategies, post-construction implementation, and change management.
Episodes
79 episodes
How Non-Clinical Procurement Boosts Hospital Margins
We talk with David Kirshner about why healthcare CFOs are facing extreme margin pressure and why supply chain has become a strategic tool for survival. We map out how to find savings beyond clinical supplies by using better data, tighter contra...
A Clinician’s Business Mindset Can Transform Hospital Supply Chains
A lot of supply chain leaders can talk strategy. Far fewer can trace it back to what happens when a patient is on the table and a team cannot afford a single shortcut. That’s why this conversation with Joseph Carr, Vice President and Supply Cha...
How The Bellwether League Honors Healthcare Supply Chain Leaders
We sit down with Rick Barlow to unpack why the Bellwether League Foundation exists and what it takes to honor healthcare supply chain leaders the right way. We trace the Hall of Fame’s origin story, the real world hurdles behind building a nonp...
Data Only Helps When The Data Is True
We’ve lived through a supply chain time warp in healthcare: from clipboards and carbon-copy purchase orders to scanners, dashboards, and automation. Fred sits down with Tracy Cleveland, VP of Supply Chain at Munson Healthcare, to get honest abo...
What If Trust Was The Real Cost Saver
We talk with Joe Colonna about how value analysis in the healthcare supply chain creates better decisions by balancing clinical outcomes with financial reality. We also reflect on Bill McFaul's legacy and why trust, inclusion, and change manage...
Passing The Baton In Healthcare Supply Chains
We explore how a retiring SVP and a new SVP engineered a seamless leadership handoff at a national health system, turning succession into a strategic advantage. Mentorship, team alignment, and C-suite credibility anchor a playbook any supply ch...
Strategic Leadership In The Age Of AI
We explore why AI cannot replace judgment, how curated data and sharp questions prevent elegant mistakes, and what separates strategic leadership from transactional management. The conversation centers on healthcare, leading up without title po...
So You Moved “South” To Cleveland: Building A Future-Ready Supply Chain Without The Drama
We explore how Cleveland Clinic scales supply chain excellence across 26 hospitals and hundreds of sites through daily safety huddles, rapid standardization, and honest system-wide assessments. Sarh Charai shares practical lessons on strategic ...
Standardize What Matters, Empower Clinicians, Own The Channel
We trace a practical playbook for transforming a hospital supply chain after major acquisitions, from stakeholder listening to a four-pillar strategy that ties clinical choice to operational excellence. A CSC launch, Kanban at the point of use,...
Kids Aren’t Small Adults, And Your Inventory Should Know It
We explore how pediatric care reshapes supply chain strategy and why curiosity, clear KPIs, and real relationships drive better outcomes. We also dig into rural pressures, shifting reimbursements, and building a talent pipeline that pairs educa...
Supply Chains In The Crosswinds
We take the pulse of supply chain headlines with Bryan Jensen and Tom Redding, exploring planning, sourcing, and the push for visibility amid policy shifts, tariffs, and healthcare disruption. We share practical ways to build resilience when ce...
From OR Floors To C-Suite
We explore how a former OR tech became a supply chain leader and built trust with physicians while modernizing contracts, inventory, and utilization. Alan shares the playbook for “reasonable just in time,” in-house distribution, and cleaning up...
Sixty Years Of Healthcare Supply Chain Wisdom
Season three opens with a twist: Tom Redding takes the interviewer’s chair to explore Fred Crans's 60-year journey across healthcare logistics and supply chain. What follows is a fast-paced, deeply human conversation about resilience, mentorshi...
What Suppliers Wish Hospitals Knew About Value, Quality, And Risk
We talk with Stuart Wooster, a former hospital supply chain leader now on the supplier side, about how value, quality, and risk management change when you build products as well as deliver them. The result is a practical playbook for resilience...
From Value Analysis to Sterile Processing: How Better Beats Bigger in Healthcare Supply Chain
We explore how smarter value analysis, better space planning, and disciplined sterile processing turn hidden complexity into safer, simpler care. Crystal shares cases where consolidating supply rooms, mapping risks with FMEA, and aligning teams...
When Compassion Crosses Borders: A Supply Chain Leader's Mission
Greg Goddard, Division Vice President of Supply Chain at Scion Health, shares his extraordinary work with Ukrainian orphans through his foundation Simply Loved Orphan Care. Despite ongoing war, Greg travels to Ukraine to provide children from t...
From Struggling to Standout: How a Mid-sized Health System Built an Award-winning Supply Chain
St. Luke's Health System in Boise, Idaho has been recognized by Gartner as one of the top 25 healthcare supply chains in the country, achieving this distinction as a mid-sized independent organization competing with much larger systems....
Healthcare's Next Generation is Learning Supply Chain by Design, Not Accident
Reggie Gardner, a Navy Corpsman turned graduate student, represents the future of healthcare supply chain by combining practical medical experience with formal supply chain education at the University of Tennessee. His journey highlights the ev...
Engineering the Future-Ready Healthcare Infrastructure
Tom Redding, Executive Vice President and Healthcare Practice Lead at St Onge Company, discusses why healthcare organizations need to regularly assess their supply chain operations to stay competitive and efficient in today's challenging enviro...
We Can't Keep Doing the Same Things and Expect Different Results
Mark Van Sumeren, Managing Director at Health Industry Advisor, discusses the perfect storm facing healthcare: tariffs increasing costs, Medicare demands growing with the aging population, and critical workforce shortages.• Tariffs on m...
The Heart of Healthcare Supply Chain: It's Not About Counting Beans
Régine Villain, SVP of Supply Chain at Ochsner Health and 2023 AMR Award winner, discusses healthcare supply chain resilience and the engineering mindset that has shaped her leadership approach.• Continuous supply disruptions require he...
Designing Hospital Spaces for Tomorrow's Challenges
Struggling with hospital logistics as patient populations grow but your infrastructure stays the same? You're not alone. In this eye-opening conversation with Albert Nkansah, Project Manager at St Onge Company, we dive deep into the challenges ...
The Lean Advantage: How One Leader Transformed Three Different Supply Chains
What happens when military precision meets corporate efficiency in healthcare? In this eye-opening conversation, Chico Manning, Assistant Vice President of Enterprise Supply Chain at PIH Health and 2024 Bellwether League Future Famer Award reci...
Supply Chain Turbulence: Navigating Healthcare's New Reality
"The most stirred up soup I've ever seen in healthcare." That's how host Fred Crans describes the current state of healthcare supply chains in this eye-opening conversation with industry veteran John Strong. As healthcare systems face unprecede...
The Best Kept Secret in Supply Chain Consulting
What happens when you combine a background in medieval literature with supply chain expertise? A fascinating perspective that challenges how we think about business problems. In this captivating conversation, Bryan Jensen, Chairperson/EVP of St...