Taking The Supply Chain Pulse
ENGINEERING A BETTER HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
Taking The Supply Chain Pulse
From Air Force to Healthcare: Dennis Mullins on Building Discipline and Leadership in Supply Chain Operations
Uncover the transformative journey of Dennis Mullins, Enterprise Vice President of Supply Chain Operations for Advocate Health, from his beginnings in the Air Force to a prominent role in healthcare supply chain management. Dennis shares how military discipline and a mission-driven mindset have been pivotal throughout his career at organizations like Columbia HCA and Indiana University Health. Hear personal reflections on his service in the Marines and the Air Force, and how these contrasting experiences have shaped his professional philosophy.
Hello again everybody. This is Fred Kranz from St Onge coming to you today with another episode of Taking the Supply Chain Pulse. Today we're blessed to have with us Dennis Mullins, who is the Enterprise Vice President of Supply Chain Operations for Advocate Health. That's a mouthful of a title, dennis, thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me, Fred.
Speaker 1:I know it's a Friday afternoon. It's late, so I appreciate your time. Why don't you tell us about yourself and your background? How did you get to where you are today?
Speaker 2:Oh man, that's a long story but we're going to try to cover it in a short amount of time. But you know, at the end of the day, I've been doing healthcare supply chain since I was about a 20-year-old kid. I started off in the Air Force doing medical supplies and you know, oddly enough, it was a career field that chose me, not that I chose, I mean, I chose the Air Force, but I went in kind of an open category, open general category. So medical material was chosen for me. I didn't have a clue what that meant, what it was, but over the course of close to an 11 year career in the Air Force doing medical supply around the world, I grew to be what I thought good at it I was at early on in my career.
Speaker 2:I was the data guy and I think that going down that path is really what opened my eyes. And oddly enough, it was a sports injury that got me down that path, because I started off just working in the warehouse doing, you know, just kind of distribution, receiving and filling parts and that kind of stuff. But I broke my ankle and had to have reconstructive surgery on my ankle, which meant I couldn't do that type of work and they put me on the administrative side doing IT work. Back then we ran end-of-day systems and end-of-month. But that gave me an opportunity to kind of look behind the curtain in supply chain and really understand how the different domains and lanes of supply chain intersected. And that's when I became the data guy and really kind of grew a love for it.
Speaker 2:But after 11 years in the Air Force and when I got out because I became a single dad with my lovely daughter, I went back home to South Carolina and started working for what was Columbia HCA at the time and through that experience was allowed an opportunity to be involved in the early beginnings of their consolidated service center model back in the mid-90s and spent about eight years working for HCA in different divisions, different roles for them, either as a contracting director of the division or facility supply chain director and then also market operations director in the Far West Division.
Speaker 2:I left the for-profit side and started working on the academic health side, joined University of Florida for a number of years before being recruited to Baylor Health Care System and was part of their merger with Scott and Mike. But then I got recruited to Indiana University Health. So continuing down this path of academic health, ran Indiana University Health supply chain as their senior BPU supply chain for about seven years before joining Advocate a blend of government medical supplies for profit and academic health not for profit. So I think that I've got a good diverse background and seen a lot of different things in this industry, but have enjoyed it. It's part of who I am. I like to say it's part of my DNA.
Speaker 1:Very good, you know. You said you spent about 11 years in the Air Force and I would joke with you and say prior to that you were in the real military because you were a Marine right.
Speaker 2:I was. I was. I was a Marine Reservist for a couple years. I actually drove tanks and went through Parris Island basic training and Fort Knox, kentucky, for tank training. But I had a wise older brother who was an active duty Marine and when I was thinking about active duty he told me to make sure I chose a career field that had a job that I could use on the outside. Nobody was driving tanks, so hence the reason I joined the Air Force, and my brother was right, because what I learned in the Air Force is what I do today.
Speaker 1:Well, your brother was also right in the last thing anyone should ever want to be is a grunt. I was a grunt corpsman, so I had to go on patrols with those guys and when someone shot them I had to go and get them, and that's a lot tougher than the Air Force, but let's talk about that. You spent 11 years in the military Air Force, but let's talk about that. You spent 11 years in the military and since then you've often served in ops roles that require a deep knowledge about transportation and logistics. How did your military experience help you to be prepared for the roles you've had since? You know?
Speaker 2:I think, more than anything, probably the discipline to show up every day and execute the mission is what I probably lean more on. From a military background perspective, as you know, being a veteran yourself, you know they kind of strip everybody down to kind of the core. Because you think about basic training and I went through two of them, going through Marine Corps and Air Force basic training. You think about basic training and I went through two of them, going through Marine Corps and Air Force basic training. So I had an opportunity to kind of see you know all of the different walks of life to join the military.
Speaker 2:You know you've got the jock, you've got the nerd, you got the privileged kids, you got the kid that's, you know, coming out of like a rough life. And you know, through basic training they kind of strip you down and then they teach you how to move as a team and you execute the mission and nothing trumps the mission and you support the mission. So I think that work ethic and that mindset has really helped me in the civilian sector in terms of how I approach what I do on a daily basis and being there. So I'm proud of that. I've had the opportunity to work with a lot of military folks that have separated from the military, either through retirement or they got out, like I did, and they all kind of we all kind of share the same mindset in terms of this is the mission, this is how we execute and how we move as one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, that's interesting. I'll get off this after this statement, but the one thing that I remember from being in Vietnam and I, like I say, I was a grunt corpsman, so I was with 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines, which was infantry Whenever you got in a firefight.
Speaker 1:you were never scared in a firefight because you were trained so well that you were doing what you said. I mean the term execute the mission. People knew their roles, they did what they're supposed to do. If you were getting incoming from mortar or artillery, you're scared to death because that stuff was indiscriminate and you couldn't do anything about it. But the discipline to execute the mission, I think is a beautiful thing that you bring up Now. I've known you since your days at Baylor Scott White, and before that you had key positions, as you said, at HCA and UHF, and since we've met you've taken on progressively more important roles at other organizations like Indiana University, health and now at Advocate. Once again, what are the similarities among those roles and what did you take from each of them to your next position?
Speaker 2:Wow. I mean the similarity is really the customer. The customer at hand obviously is the patient. And that connect to purpose being the patient I think holds true if you're going to do the job well anywhere you go, think holds true if you're going to do the job well anywhere you go.
Speaker 2:And I can remember distinctly early in my Air Force career when I had that connected purpose and realized the importance of what I do and what supply chain healthcare supply chain leaders do on a daily basis. I mean it was something as simple as someone calling and needing a particular product and I went and picked the product and I get to the units to deliver it and it happened to be something that they needed for a code card. The patient was coding at the time and they just snatched it out of my hand, opened it and started using it. And this thought the light came on, how critical that was and how important it was that we do our jobs. And I've held on to that throughout my entire career, just remembering that instance of that connect the purpose.
Speaker 2:And I've had to kind of Basically recite that story many times in my career with my staff because you know, as supply chain and health care has evolved in the last 20 years or so.
Speaker 2:We've gone from the whole centralized supply chain where you had a director of materials management inside the hospital and they wore all the hats as it relates to supply chain, to now a more decentralized excuse me, it was a decentralized where you were in the hospitals and now it's gone to a centralized model because now you have these large IDAs, you get multiple hospitals, like we have 67 in six states, but we have one procurement department.
Speaker 2:So that that evolution of supply chain over the last 20 years is really made me step back and make sure that I understood how what I did impacted the different areas within supply chain. So you know, I think Having that connected purpose when we're now in this centralized environment and even now post-COVID, where a lot of folks such as myself are remote, you're not even in the halls of the hospitals oftentimes to be able to see the patients or the physicians or the clinicians, so it's hard to visualize it. So that's the reason why I tell that story often to remind folks. We got a lot of folks that work in the administrative portions of supply chain that have never worked inside of a hospital and don't really truly understand that impact. So we have to remind them of that, and I think that that's the similarity that I see from organization to organization that I've gone. There may be a different organization, different systems, but you never forget about who's truly the customer, and that's those patients that we're serving in our communities.
Speaker 1:Do you think some of those folks that have never worked in a hospital or never been in the environment, do you think that hurts their ability to perform or do you think they acquire an understanding as they go along?
Speaker 2:I wouldn't go so far as to say that it hurts their ability to perform, but I think it's incumbent upon us as leaders to make sure that we bring awareness to them.
Speaker 2:I do think that you know there's a lot of value in bringing folks in from outside of industry because they bring different and fresh ideas on how things are done from a supply chain perspective.
Speaker 2:But we also have to make sure that they understand there's a difference between pulling supplies for cars versus pulling, you know, a vital medical device that may be life saving, such as my experience when I delivered that critical supply for someone that was coding. So I think it's incumbent upon us to make sure that they're aware of that. And then you know, once they're aware of that and I like to you know, make sure that you know my folks that are remote or in an administrative function have an opportunity to kind of work in a hospital and shadow those folks so they can see that their peers that may be working in receiving or delivering supplies in the park or working in the procedural area like a cath lab or an OR, that they can go spend, spend a few days and then actually do the work, not just watch, but actually see the finished product of the contract that you negotiated, or the purchase order that you cut, or the item master that you built, so you can see that connect to your purpose.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's very important. I always used to. You know I'm one of those guys that came from the system where it was centralized in one spot, like you said, an acute care hospital.
Speaker 1:And I not only knew where the products were going to, I knew who was going to open them up when they got there and what they're going to do with them, and I always thought that gave you a level of understanding and maybe empathy that the folks that work remotely may not get to understand, and it's a shame. But you know, idns like yours continue to grow. I mean, your current IDN advocate is the result of some mergers, advocate is the result of some mergers, and you could go to work Monday and find out that. You know, over the weekend your system acquired three more hospitals so that you now have 70 hospitals in seven states instead of 67 and six. Do you have any kind of what I would call a resiliency plan ready to bring new institutions on board? I mean, it's got to be difficult to handle that constant change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean we've got a couple of different mergers and acquisitions that are happening right now, not necessarily whole hospitals, but we've got physician practices that we bring on board, ambulatory surgery centers as well, and we've got a playbook, essentially, that again crosses all those different domains within the supply chain, whether it be making sure that I mean always, the first step is contractually are they utilizing and rostered appropriately on our existing agreements so that they can maximize their pricing. Then we start looking at what systems are they using? How are they actually acquiring products and services? We're looking at operationally how they move products throughout their system. You know, even purchase services, something as simple as security or elevated maintenance.
Speaker 2:All that stuff's important. So, you know, we've got a documented integration plan, um, that has kind of the major uh things that you need to be looking at and looking for synergies or harmonization, whatever you want to call it. But, um, obviously you have to allow some some room for for uh, for some flexibility, uh, because every every situation is a little bit different. But in large part, I think we cover all bases with the plans that we have.
Speaker 1:Oh, you got to have a plan. I don't really know how you guys can do it, because the geography is like an amoeba it's changing every day everywhere. You know it's tough, but you're one of the first you're probably one of the only people I know that has designed and built a consolidated services center, indiana University, from the ground up. From the ground up, from conception to opening the doors and making it work. Tell us about that and how you assembled a team to get that done.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, you and I talk sports often, fred, so I kind of keep it there. When I got recruited to IU Health, fred, so I kind of keep it there. When I got recruited to IU Health, our CEO well, he was a COO at the time. Dennis Murphy is now the CEO of that company, but he kind of gave me the green light to support the organization. I didn't want kind of that proven kind of head coach. I didn't want the Bill Belichick of the world Give me the next up-and-coming assistant coach. So those are the types of folks that I actually went and got that you know were as competitive as I am, because we often said we like to win, and we set a goal to become one of Gartner's top 25 health care supply chains, which we were able to accomplish after several years of years. But you know, I assembled that team of folks and you know, as I think the mark of a good leader is, can you groom right where they're at and really just understanding and being self-aware enough to understand. You know where are my strengths and where are my weaknesses, even though I was the senior executive on that team. There may be someone like and I'll mention names Derek Williams was my logistics leader. He's stronger in logistics than I am. Or I had Frito Pagan who was over on the data side. He's stronger in that space than I am. But I provided the strategic direction for that initiative and I had strong players that were aggressive in the right way and we put together that plan and we executed it and, you know, had a lot of fun doing it. I think that was a major part of it. It was just it was just a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:And you know I had a company, lewis, who was running hospital operations and you know I had a company, Lewis, who was running hospital operations.
Speaker 2:And you know we trusted each other, we worked hard, we had fun, we had a strong plan. We certainly respected the accomplishments of other health care systems, which is why we went to see what I like to call the usual suspects. We went to to Lisa. We went to Intermountain Health. We went to see an HCA distribution center to Lisa. We went to Intermountain Health. We went to see an HCA distribution center. We saw all of the usual suspects to see what good looked like. Plus, we utilized our own experience and we basically coalesced all that information, all those experiences, and we put together our own plan and we wanted more automation than what we had seen, which is why we engaged Swiss Log and was able to put the first distribution center on the provider side that had that type of automation, and it's thriving to this day. So, prior to that accomplishment, I had the most fun in my career in those seven years that I was there with that team and we did some great things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know the other thing that I think was interesting, because I visited you, I believe, before you opened the place.
Speaker 1:I was there as you were still building it, and what I thought was really unique and interesting was you had this completely new place away from other stuff. You were able to do it without having the regular work going on in your space while you were doing it. You got to really design it. You got to figure out where you were going to put the different functions, how much space you were going to have for these things going in there without having to fall over people who were doing the work already in the same geography.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean that was a plus. I mean I will say and I don't want to oversimplify it, it wasn't easy to keep the lights on and do the work while we were building a new house Because, you know, we still had to make sure products were ending up in the hospitals. But, having that open space to be able to do it, we used a lot of lean methodologies and practices to really fine tune the plan. So, like we used a 3P process to kind of lay out the distribution flow, we were using cardboard that this is where the auto store was going to be, this is where the pick-and-pass area was going to be, and we already had our material handling equipment and we were doing test flows just to make sure that, you know, things were positioned the right way. And I remember we had to actually move the auto store just a few feet to the right because we felt like there wasn't enough turn ratio for a forklift to load the, the flow racks from the back side there and we wanted it to be safe.
Speaker 2:So and we did test runs over and over and over again before we delivered the first product, because everybody needed to know, and I think that's that also ties to the military experience, not only for me. But I mentioned Derek Williams who was over logistics. He's a retired Army logistics officer. We train like the military, like the military has war readiness training, you know, and we were running dry runs over and over and over and over again. So when we got that first order, everybody knew where they were supposed to be and how it was supposed to work. So when we got that first order, everybody knew where it was supposed to be and how it was supposed to work. And not that we got it perfect right off the gate, because certainly there were still kinks in the whole system and we had to optimize it.
Speaker 1:But we were able to bring on 17 hospitals in six months without any major disruptions whatsoever. So, in effect, the first day wasn't really the first day, you'd already been doing it with planning. Yes, sir, Great. So you just authored and published a new book called Leadership Mastery. Unlock your Full Potential and Lead with Impact.
Speaker 2:Tell us about that book and what prompted you to write it. Well, you know, I've had the opportunity to work for and with some really great leaders over the course of my 30 plus years and I've seen great examples of how to do it right.
Speaker 2:But I've also seen and made some mistakes myself as a leader and I I thought you know it made sense for me because I'm a note taker and I would jot down you know best practices that I saw. Let's take the opportunity to kind of put this in writing, and you know my time between IU Health and Advocate. I had some free time there to kind of just put the stuff on paper and then recently just decided to kind of pick it up and dust it off and put it out there. But really, you know, my goal behind this really is to make sure that I shared with the leaders that are coming up behind me kind of the tool book or the playbook, I should say, on how to lead the right way. And I mean we talk a lot about just understanding yourself as a leader, how to work through challenges in a business setting, talk about the strategic part of being a leader and how to think and your decision-making abilities, making sure that you've got the right steps in place to be able to build a high performing team. And then at the end of the book we've got some training exercises.
Speaker 2:I talked about training for the service center. The book has some good ideas on how to do things, but on the back of it you've got scenarios that if you wanted to go through this with your team, you could actually use these scenarios to kind of do some test runs. You know one of the things an Air Force when I became a non-commissioned officer you couldn't become an NCO without going through what we call Airman Leadership School. You didn't just move up in the ranks, you had to actually be trained on leadership. And that is another reason why I thought about this is like there are some people that are born leaders, but a lot of us have to learn things along the way, and I think just having a very short text that really kind of lays out just in general terms what are the steps that you need to take in order to become an effective leader and build a strong team. So that's what the book is really about and why I put it together.
Speaker 1:Well, I would recommend it. I would call it a great trimmer for somebody that was an aspiring leader and also sort of a reference book for people that are in leadership positions. It's short but it's to the point. It really could be a helpful tool to have around. I think and I got it, I read it, I think it's great I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Anyone that's listening. It's available on Amazon, so if you want to get it absolutely, so, who were your mentors and what did you learn from them?
Speaker 2:Ooh, wow, that's how much time we got for it. You know, I would say my first mentors are probably my older brothers. You know, my oldest brother, the one that was marine Chuck, because we call his real name is Winston, but we call him Chuck. But Chuck, just watching him and I'm the youngest of six watching my older brothers kind of navigate through life, and I saw what they were doing, listened a lot and still to this day, you know, in my late 50s, I still listen to those guys. So I think that those three older brothers are my first mentors, my first mentors, you know.
Speaker 2:And then when I joined the military, there's a guy his name is Franco, and Franco was stationed with me when I was over in England and he, there was a group of us that just, you know, in the military you get your, your, your cohort of folks that you hang around with. But Franco was, he was like the big brother for all of us, cause he was older, he was a senior NCO and, um, you know, he spent a lot of time just really kind of coaching us and just, uh, helping us kind of cause he was like that next step above us. So so in the military I mean, I watched him and inspired to be a lot like him. I think on the civilian side, there's several folks that I that I have that I've leaned on to, to to help me navigate through my career.
Speaker 2:Two made it a name for it, but I would say that anyone that's coming up in the ranks, make sure that you got someone, or more than one, mentor, and when you reach the level that I've reached, give back and be a mentor for folks as well. So, but you know, it's it's it's important to have someone that you can bounce ideas off of, that you think about from a decision standpoint, from a leadership standpoint, from a career standpoint, someone within your industry and certainly someone outside of industry as well. But you know, 37 years, there's a lot of folks that I could I could name, but we don't have that kind of time. No, you know, and a there's a lot of folks that I could name, but we don't have that kind of time.
Speaker 1:No, you know. And a lot of people say well, I'm a self-made man or woman.
Speaker 2:None of us is.
Speaker 1:None of us is. We've all had mentors and we've all had many mentors, and sometimes we don't even realize there are mentors until later we realize. Geez, I learned that from what so-and-so taught me. I agree with you Giving back is an important thing. Right now, you're the current chair of ARUM, the Association of Healthcare Resource and Materials Management, one of the most influential roles in the healthcare supply chain. How has your term gone for you and what do you see the challenges and opportunities ahead for the industry.
Speaker 2:You know I'm about midway through my year as chair, fred. I would say that in large part it has gone very, very well, and this ties to what I just spoke about in regards to, and this ties to what I just spoke about in regards to giving back, and that's part of the reason why I have been as involved in ARM as I have been. You know, I'm on the tail end of my career, I'm not ready to retire, but I know that I got less years left doing this than what I've already accomplished. So I start thinking about those that are coming behind me and I think ARM History of ARM To me it is the foundation of health care material and there's a lot of other organizations out there now and I won't name them all, but I will say that any of them that are prominent, they can probably say that they got the playbook to start from Arm.
Speaker 2:So I would say that our mission this year with Arm is really kind of to reimagine.
Speaker 2:We know what sets us apart from other like organizations is really our ability to kind of one reach those frontline team members that are in healthcare supply chain, not necessarily just the executive leaders, but getting down to managers and directors and the educational content that we have it on I think sets us apart in that space. We've got local chapters that have linked into us and aligned with us on that methodology and that thought process, that linked into us and aligned with us on that methodology and that thought process. And we also have what we call WIPAC, the Young Professional Advisory Council. So we're intentionally leaning into those young, up-and-coming supply chain leaders in our space to help kind of build the future. So I think that's what makes us a little bit different from the other like-type organizations and there's no shade at any of them, because I think they all do great work, but you have to recognize that I've been around uh, and also our affiliation with the american hospital association really kind of sets us apart.
Speaker 1:We, we do it all and and I've enjoyed my term and and and look forward to continuing to help out with arm yeah, yeah, I just this week I interviewed Rachel Anderson and Ryan Burke, two of the YPAC folks that are there, and last year I went to one of the sessions where the YPAC folks were there, with a bunch of us old people there at the same time, and it was really an interesting dynamic. To number one, it's very uplifting to see the intelligence and the preparation that the young leaders have. And, number two, it was great to see the long-term supply chain folks learning from the young folks during that presentation. So I think you guys are doing an excellent job. So what would you like to talk about that? I missed that. I haven't asked.
Speaker 2:Well, fred, I think we talked about a lot. I think we touched on, I mean, obviously, my background, my thought process as it relates to supply chain and our industry. Thanks for bringing up my book. I mean, I didn't write it necessarily for it to become a bestseller, but I wouldn't mind if it did. So I appreciate you putting it out there and in ARM as well. I mean, I've been involved in ARM for 15, 20 years and it's just really important to me.
Speaker 2:If I had to, you know, put my finger on what I want my legacy to be, I really want it to be about what did he give back? Who did he help get to the next level? It to be about what did he give back? Who did he help get to the next level? It would be a shame to take all of this experience and knowledge and not share it. And I've never been afraid to not be the smartest person in the room, so I'm always going to look to be around and work with folks that to bring something else. You know that I may not necessarily have to the table, so that part is fun and I appreciate, you know, you opening up this opportunity for me to kind of just talk about our industry and not so much about me per se. But yeah, it's fun. I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, we appreciate having you here, dennis. It's fun, I appreciate it. Yeah well, we appreciate having you here, dennis.
Speaker 1:The one thing that this series of podcasts is turning out, from my perspective, to be is an opportunity for folks out there to meet people that have been in the supply chain for a long time, that are sort of what I call lifers in health care. That every one of them has one thing in common we're not in it for the money, because you get rich other places. You don't get rich in health care and it's great to see people like you. That is just. You've applied yourself everywhere you've been. When I met you, I thought this guy is a real serious dude Because I was trying to rag on you about the University of Florida versus the University of Miami and I'm going this guy does not like me, I've got a problem here. But it turns out that you're just a guy that's focused and I really appreciate your friendship. I appreciate your taking time to talk with us and you know, continued good luck as you make your way. Buddy, thanks for joining us.
Speaker 2:Thanks.
Speaker 1:Matt I appreciate you. Okay, buddy, have a.
