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.
Taking The Supply Chain Pulse
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 healthcare organizations to become "masters of resiliency" with dedicated teams focused on risk management
• Defining what's truly "critical" in healthcare supply chain goes beyond cost—it's about what causes delays in patient care
• Geographic challenges like hurricane season create predictable disruptions, but unexpected events require leveraging relationships and innovative thinking
• Industrial engineering background provides a methodical, process-focused framework for approaching supply chain challenges
• Bad processes can't be fixed with technology—sound foundations must come first before applying AI and other innovations
• Ochsner's recognition as a Gartner Top 25 healthcare supply chain reflects their commitment to continuous improvement
• Women leaders in healthcare supply chain bring holistic perspectives and deep connections with team members at all levels
• Successful careers in healthcare supply chain require genuine passion for service and understanding the impact on patient outcomes
For those considering a healthcare supply chain career: this field demands mission-driven commitment but offers the reward of knowing you're making a difference in patients' lives.
It's that time again for another episode of Taking the Supply Chain Pulse. I'm Megan with St Onge Company and I'm here to introduce this week's guest, regine Villene. She is the Senior Vice President of Supply Chain and Support Service Management at Ochsner Health. And now for your host, fred Kranz.
Speaker 2:Regine Villene, the 2023 winner of the AMR Award from the Bellwether League and a longtime friend of mine. Regine, thank you for coming on our podcast.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you, fred. So first of all, I will help you with the pronunciation of my last name. Okay, I want to make sure that it's said the right way. So it's Villain, so's regime, vilain vilain.
Speaker 2:Okay, I don't get the I'm. You know, you can tell I didn't take french in high school um, yeah, I can tell, but that's okay.
Speaker 3:You know, like you said, I've known you a long time, so I can let a lot of things go by oh, geez, geez, I hope I don't make that many mistakes.
Speaker 2:So good to have you here, regine. You know I wanted to get in a couple things. Number one I wanted to look at what current issues you folks are facing. And then you have an interesting background, having been formally educated as an industrial engineer, and I wanted, since most of us that entered supply chain before you had no clue what industrial engineers even were. We came to our professions totally unprepared for what we were going to face and I wanted to see, among other things, how being educationally prepared has helped you. So anyway, starting off, what are the current challenges that you find yourself facing at Ochsner?
Speaker 3:Well, if I can rephrase that a little bit, it's not so much at Ochsner, it's just challenging period. You know, so, the challenges that we are experiencing today. I'm sure if you've had a chance to talk to my colleagues in the industry, you're probably hearing a little bit of the same, some of what we're facing, you know it's the first of all, I would say, the continuous disruption of supplies and goods. You know, I find myself, my team, spending an inordinate amount of time on a daily basis trying to manage through the disruption, so things that you don't have access to today and you don't know how long it's going to be disrupted. So we're becoming, you know, master of resiliency, which is another thing that I know a lot of us are focusing on. So I actually have to create, you know, some expertise in that area, where we have folks that are focusing on making sure that we are putting together a source of data and the resources necessary in order to really help understand and manage through whatever it is that we have to do. So, for example, every time, you know, we have a disruption, an event, we certainly pivot and we start to take a look at what we need to do, but inevitably it goes back to the same answer. I mean the same question, really Sorry.
Speaker 3:What exactly do we consider something that is critical? And that's a tricky question for us because, frankly, it depends on who you ask, because critical could be anything from your tourniquet to, obviously, your you know defibrillator, to you know, your LVAD and to your neurotransmitters. The importance of an item is not necessarily derived from how much it costs or whether or not it's used in surgery. It's a lifesaving device that could cost a dollar, and so, therefore, it's important really help define what is critical and how we can get our hands around making sure that we have a plan around those items that we consider to be the most and I'm doing the air quote here the most important and critical to operations. So what are the things that, if I don't have them, that I'm going to cause a delay in care not just surgery, but a delay in care and certainly a delay in surgery and then take away the opportunity for the organization to have a gain in revenue.
Speaker 3:So we are pivoting in looking at the data, trying to figure out what we need to do, so we're becoming masters of resiliency, looking at what external partners are doing, what other industries are doing and we are working on adapting that to some of the things that we're doing. That's taking a lot of time, a lot of effort, but I'm pleased to see where we are and the things that we're coming up with. So at least it feels like we're going to have an opportunity to really get our hands around things that we consider to be and again, critical to the operation, to taking care of our patients, without too much disruption. So with that, we also have to have a different look at how we're bringing, you know, resiliency in terms of having some supplies closer to us. Certainly, we cannot have, you know, every single supply that we utilize in our warehouses, but we are working on bringing some things a little close to us and we're also leaning on our partners, such as our distributor, to figure out how we can create some 3PL strategies to have them help us bring the things also to us as quickly as we need to.
Speaker 3:So, as I look down, we're practically in April, so tomorrow is April 1st. You know, we're literally just two months away from the beginning of the hurricane season and, as you know, louisiana, especially where we are, we are in what we call that never-ending cone of uncertainty, because when you listen to the news, that's the first thing that comes up. You're in the cone of uncertainty, and so there's lots going on that we have to contend with, you know, and not withstanding all the issues that are going on around tariffs and everything else that everybody else is also dealing with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, speaking of that, though, I'd say you're probably in the cone of certainty because it's for certain that at some point, being below sea level and being in a place where hurricanes normally travel, that you're going to get some kind of natural disaster. But you probably have already had sort of well-honed reaction plans or response plans to those things, because you know they're going to happen. It's like when the storms hit Asheville, north Carolina, you have nothing at all to do with that. That's when you have a real problem, a real unexpected disruption. But you say you've created a team that can mobilize quickly to deal with the unexpected disruptions too. Is that correct?
Speaker 3:That is correct. And, frankly, you know, as I sit here and I talk to you, I know you understand too well the power of relationship. So I've also had to rely on longstanding relationships to also help us through some of those, you know, disasters unplanned, truly unplanned disasters, such as the issue in North Carolina. I mean that really took everybody by surprise. In no time we were severely disrupted, with no end in sight, and we had to quickly think on our feet, pivot and try to figure out how do we make sure that we're maintaining the quality of care that our patients are used to and making sure that we're looking ahead as well. So it's a combination of things, not only the things that I've already talked about, you know, having a team that is focusing specifically on mitigating the risk that we see on a daily basis, but also leveraging relationships, longstanding relationships, with partners perhaps with whom you didn't necessarily have a primary relationship, but you leaned on because you know them. You know like somebody, for example, like you.
Speaker 3:If you were in that industry, I would have no qualms calling you and saying hey, fred, I understand that we may not be a primary customer of yours, but is there anything that we can do in terms of at least giving you the assurance that we want to build, you know, some kind of a future relationship with you, and can you help us with the understanding that the help that I'm going to get from you may not be something that's going to cure 100% of my issues, but at that time, any gain that you could get in being able to get your hands on the necessary supplies was a gain, and so it was the power of relationships, the power of working with your partners in a way that was a little bit different and innovative, the power of the teams that you have internally, and then, notwithstanding the power and the awesomeness of the organization, also coming together and realizing that it's not just on the supply chain to try to find ways to mitigate this, but we also need to look inward and try to do things a little bit differently as well.
Speaker 3:Is there an opportunity for us to look at the processes that we have in place? Is there an opportunity to apply a different standard to some of the things that we were doing, you know, is there a way for us to get a little bit more creative from a clinical point of view? And so, when you put all of these together, we were able to really manage through this with gusto and with focus and intention until, you know, we finally got to a point where we said, okay, we can now breathe a little bit, but it took a lot of efforts from all of those different areas in order to get us through. And so I think that's the beauty of the supply chain is that you learn that it's not just you, it's not even just your community. It's everybody who is part of this, whose focus is to help the patient. Experience takes a part in trying to get to a solution that's going to be, you know, a long-term solution.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So let me sort of combine two questions that I had. You know historically and you know I think I've known you since your days at the Medical University of South Carolina, so we've known each other for a pretty good amount of time. And historically, if you're running a supply chain, you'd be told two things. Number one give me better prices and number two get rid of people. Those are the two ways that you have to go about lowering your costs. But you've done a lot of work on rethinking traditional supply chain operations and you have a formal background in industrial engineering. How has your formal background helped you find new ways of saving money out of operations that most people never really had the education or the foresight to look into, and what have you done in those areas?
Speaker 3:I appreciate the question, fred. I see you've done your homework. Yes, I've known you for a while. I'm not going to say how many years, because that's not really important, right, it's just been a while. I'm not going to say how many years, because that's not really important, right, it's just been a while, right.
Speaker 3:So, yes, I don't think that many people know that this is my background industrial engineer and I always say once an engineer, always an engineer, because you think that way. And so for me, what it has done in my career is really helped me be very methodical in my approach, and I remember, as I was coming out of, you know, the industrial and systems engineering program from the University of Florida. This is a shameless plug. Go Gators, final four, we're going all the way, all right, I'm closing that parenthesis. I want to say that one of the things that I think has set me apart sometimes is the ability to really look at things in a very methodical way and a logical way. For me, the approach when I'm looking at solving and solutioning something is always about okay, what can we do and how can we create a structure that's going to be sound enough? So, again, that engineering background helps me to think about.
Speaker 3:Okay, in order for us to have something that works well, we need to have great processes at the very base of everything that we're doing. Because these days, for example, everybody's talking about technology, everybody's talking about AI, and, of course, I'm one of those people as well. But one thing that we all need to stop and realize that applying technology and AI over bad processes is a disaster. And so how do you go back and make sure that you establish the right processes, that you have a good planning algorithm and that you're also looking at the logistics and of your operation? How do you go methodically from A to B to C and, at the same time, you keep an overview of everything that's going on?
Speaker 3:So, for me, I never stopped thinking that way. The engineering in me is always there and I'm always looking at ways. I mean, my brain thinks in mathematical way as well, so I like to look at things in terms of measure. It's a measured approach to look at certain things and, at the same time, applying a little bit of the people element, so you also learn to evolve. It's not always very rigid, very black and white, so that's a starting point, but you eventually get to a point where you have to also take other stuff into account and say, okay, based on this, the rigidity that comes with thinking as an engineer comes into play in order to create a frame. But in order to fill that frame and build upon that foundation, you need other things and you know soft skills that you need to bring into the equation as well.
Speaker 2:Well, you know it's funny. I hear that and you know I'm one of the old guys. I started out, I was a history major at the University of Miami. And we say go Gators do, but I don't want to tell you where we want them to go in miami. And we say go gators too.
Speaker 3:But I don't want to tell you where we want them to go um, but I do like, I do like be nice I do like florida's basketball team this year we interrupt this podcast for a quick pulse check.
Speaker 1:Is your supply chain ready for the future? At st onge company, we don't just optimize logistics. We engineer smarter, meaner and more resilient systems from end to end. Visit and discover how we're shaping the future of supply chain, one solution at a time. From manufacturing to retail to healthcare, our experts bring decades of experience in cutting-edge strategies to transform your operations.
Speaker 2:You know, coming in from a history background, I didn't have the structure, didn't have the education. I spent my whole career learning to look at opportunities aside from getting better prices the stupidest and least effective strategy that anyone can implement, especially these days. So I have really come to appreciate all that your efforts have borne. Fruit Ochsner is one of the top healthcare supply chains, voted 2024 by Gartner. How does your team feel about that?
Speaker 3:Oh, they're excited. I mean it's again. Anybody knows me knows that I want to be. I want to be among the best, working really hard at you know, taking care of all of those things that I mentioned earlier, that you are really taking care of your resources, your people, your, you know, your, your, your processes, you looking at the right technology and you're really working hard to build the partnership and relationships that are truly important to this industry All of those things, and that you're not afraid to fail forward and that you're innovative, and so all those things are part of the equation that comes into being a Gartner top 25. And so my team, you know, has gotten to be part of that very, very prestige group of people and every year we want to push ourselves further. But also every year the bar also raises every year, and so it's never really you're not measuring yourself against what you did last year, because the standards and everything kind of changes a little bit. So you're really almost like every year resetting yourself and trying to go for the gold.
Speaker 3:And as far as the team is concerned, you know they're all in when it comes to that and we frame a lot of the strategies that we have around the supply chain operation along the line of the things that Gartner also wants to do. But we also want to transcend that. Again, the focus should not just be on Gartner and being Gartner top 25. How can we be a top supply chain organization or be regarded as one of the top supply chain organizations, so that we can not only continue to learn, we can also be a catalyst for others. And, as you know, you know that whole thing about all. You know rising tides, lifts all boats. We want to be among. You know those grades and the team appreciates the fact that they are part of that.
Speaker 3:And every year after the Gartner announcement, we immediately go into the following year and start thinking about okay, what things should we really continue to do? We have a debrief to understand where we may have fallen short, what things we should focus on. But it also lets us know again that you know what we need to just continue to push ourselves. Because, again, lets us know again that you know what we need to just continue to push ourselves. Because, again, supply chain is not about counting beans anymore. That's not what we do. Right, we are in the business and I know I've said that before and I love saying that because we are in the business of delivering medical innovations. Right, I agree with that. Go ahead, elevate ourselves, elevate our skill sets, elevate our understanding of what needs to be done for the patient experience, our communities, and then we have a role. I see myself as having a role to also bring the organization along so that they can truly understand the impact and importance of the supply chain and support services organization.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, all that being said, I used to do the math and people would say how could you, as a history major, become a supply chain leader? And I would answer back that in healthcare, supply chain leadership is 80% political and 20% operational knowledge. Would you agree that I may have been right when I said that? And then I'm going to ask you an add-on question. I'll give you the add-on question before you answer the first question. With it being 80% political and 20% operational knowledge, it has to be really difficult for women to have gotten at the highest levels of leadership, not just in supply chain, but anywhere in healthcare. And I look now at Joni Rittler from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, marisa Farabaugh, you know, teresa Dale, amanda Chawla, rachel anderson and sarah henderson and yourself. Uh, there is a tremendous amount of really excellent uh, uh women leaders, and I I think that my, uh, my personal opinion has been that women bring one quality that men have to learn with them, and that's empathy.
Speaker 3:How difficult was it for you to, you know, make it from where you started to where you are now? Wow, that's a great question. And let's not forget my friend, allison Corey from Into Mountain as well. Yes, we actually are. Finally, because when I started in the supply chain field, there were not nearly that amount of women leaders, and I might add that the women leaders you know are pretty, if I can say that they're pretty bad asses leading some bad asses organization.
Speaker 3:So I think you know that also says something. It's that we're not talking about small community hospitals, right? Not that there's anything wrong with that. I want to make sure that I'm not saying that small community hospitals are an issue, but I'm saying that those women that you've mentioned and others you know perhaps that we're not thinking about right now are folks that are leading very large, complex organizations. So, yes, I mean I can say that certainly. You know I don't want to get into a debate between gender differences and what have you, but I know that I can speak for myself. You know, one of the things that I know I look for when I'm dealing with anything I look at the whole and entirety of the issue. It's not an a one note issue, and so you can say perhaps that translates into women being more empathetic. But again, I want to be cautious as to not generalize this, but I can speak for myself that when I look at something, I want to look at exactly the whole thing.
Speaker 3:And then there's that feeling that I also want to make sure that I'm connecting with my team in a way that is more, that is a lot deeper than just surface level. I want to know who they are. I want to know the names of their spouses, their children, what's going on in their lives, because I think when you have that human connection it makes it so much easier, and that's not just with the team. Really I want to know the name of the person who comes into my office every afternoon and who takes out the garbage pail right. That person, in my opinion, is as important as well, because they're doing something that is absolutely important, and so it's great to be able to stop and have that conversation, be able to talk to them about. You know, the joy that they have in their heart because their kids just graduated from college and maybe that kid is the first one in the family to have graduated. So I want to know their first names.
Speaker 3:I want to know what's going on, if there's anything I can do, if there's anything I can offer. That is who I am, and as I'm speaking about this, you should see me getting all animated because it speaks to my heart and my soul. So I know that, as a woman, that's important to me and that's what I do. I don't want to speak for others, but I'm sure that you know, when you bring that wholeness and the whole relationship and the whole of a person, the whole of an interaction, into anything that you do, you're going to find yourself being a little bit more successful perhaps than others that are just, you know, looking at this as hey, it's a mechanical thing, I'm just doing this and I'm just going to go and do X, y, z. To me, there's a lot more than that. The human element is something that's really important, and for me that's really important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, you know, you sort of got into something. A few weeks ago I went down to Randy Bradley's place at Knoxville along with a co-worker to talk to a couple of his classes, and I was telling them that, you know, people don't get into health care and stay in health care because they want to get rich. They get into health care because it's a mission-driven industry, it's a mission-driven occupation and it's a lifestyle choice, I believe. So my last question would be if I were a young kid out there in school wondering whether or not I should get into health care and I asked you this question, how would you answer? What advice would you give me? If I'm thinking of getting into healthcare supply chain, what advice can you give me?
Speaker 3:Wow, I would say you are looking at this at the right time because, since COVID healthcare supply chain became very sexy and you know what, this is an opportunity to let others understand that. You know, if somebody like I've had a couple of like college kids that have come to me and expressed their desire to be in supply chain and I've encouraged them and helped them understand some of the things that we have going on and some of the things and some of the joy of the you know of the profession. However, also cautioning them that if you're just coming in, just kind of like what you said, if you're just coming in thinking that it's going to be this glamorous thing, that's not what it is. You have to want to wake up every day having to deal with complex issues that are coming to you left and right, but knowing that at the core of this, the reason why you're doing this, is because you are playing an amazing and awesome and just privileged part in taking care of people. That's what drives me every morning. If you don't have that drive and that's what I've told the younger folks who want to get in if you don't have that drive to want to serve, to want to be a servant leader, to want to serve your community, to serve your patients, to serve your clinical partners, to serve the institution, the organization that you are part of, in order to advance healthcare through supply chain. You are not going to make it. This is not going to be for you, because if you don't have that, you are quickly going to be disenchanted and you're going to find yourself getting very frustrated, because frustration is the name of the game for us.
Speaker 3:The reason that gets us up and going the next day to get beat up again is because we have a love for what we do for our patients, for our doctors, our nurses, our providers, the people that are walking in. And, frankly, at the end of the day, we're also a little bit selfishly doing it for ourselves, our family and our friends as well, because, let's not kid ourselves, we all, at some point, either have been patients or will become patients, right, our families, our loved ones. While we're doing the things that we're doing, god forbid something happens they're probably already in the hospital and you don't know that. So if you think that way, not that that should be what drives you, but if you definitely think that way you should know that what really drives us every single day is that I'm making a difference in a person's life, a person's outcome.
Speaker 3:Because of me, grandma is able to go and have Thanksgiving with grandkids right. Mom is able to come home and spend more time with the kids, that is able to be able to go to a soccer game again, and that is just the beauty of it. I'm getting chills right now saying this, but if you don't get this and you want to get into supply chain and you can't get passionate about it, then it's not for you. Don't even attempt it.
Speaker 2:Well, regina, there's nothing I can add to what you've just said. That was, uh, that was a great answer and, uh, the next time, uh, someone asks me, I'm going to give them your email address and have them ask you that question, because that was a better answer than I could give, that's for sure I appreciate that fred well, regine, thank you so much for being on our podcast.
Speaker 2:It was a pleasure having you on. It's always great to talk to you. I know I'll be seeing you at some of the upcoming meetings this year and I look forward to it. Thanks again for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Thank you, fred, and I appreciate the opportunity, know the opportunity to be part of this, and so I love that you reached out to me. It's an honor for me as well, and I look forward to seeing the great things that come out of your podcast with other folks. We have some great folks in the industry, so I'm rooting for you and I'm looking forward to this podcast. And you know, and I'm looking forward to this podcast and I'm available anytime, just let me know. Thank you again and go Gators, okay.
Speaker 2:Thanks again, Regine.
Speaker 1:That's all we have for today's episode. Thanks for joining in and don't forget to subscribe to the show. If you have a topic you'd like to discuss or want to be a guest on the show, you can reach out to Fred directly at fcrans at stongecom. See you next time.
