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.
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Taking The Supply Chain Pulse
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 the Children of Grace Orphanage a 10-day retreat in the Carpathian Mountains away from air raid sirens and drone strikes.
• Scion Health operates 15 community hospitals and 63 long-term acute care facilities across 26 states
• Greg and his wife started Simply Loved Orphan Care after adopting two Ukrainian sisters in 2019
• Western Ukraine faces fewer attacks than eastern regions, but air raid sirens and drone strikes still occur
• Economic challenges include average Ukrainian salary of $6,300 compared to $73,500 in America
• Despite war, Ukrainian supply chains have adapted remarkably well with stores remaining stocked
• The mountain retreat costs only $4,000 for 26 children for 10 days including lodging and three meals daily
• Ukrainian children show remarkable resilience while maintaining their childhood despite war conditions
• Working in a war zone provides valuable perspective on healthcare supply chain challenges in America
To support Simply Loved Orphan Care, visit www.simplyloved.org or email Greg at bannergman@att.net
This is Megan with St Ant Company here to introduce another episode of Taking the Supply Chain Pulse. In this episode, fred sits down with Greg Goddard, the Division Vice President of Supply Chain and Purchasing for Scion Health. Please note there are some audio disruptions during the recording, likely due to Greg joining us from Ukraine. We appreciate your understanding. And now here's your host, fred Krantz.
Speaker 2:Greg is an Auburn University graduate and I have to ask you, greg, who is the greatest athlete to have graduated from Auburn University?
Speaker 3:Oh man, I should probably know the answer to that, but I probably couldn't tell you.
Speaker 2:Hi, okay, it was Bo Jackson.
Speaker 3:Bo Jackson, oh, okay.
Speaker 2:Bo Jackson, frank Thomas and Charles Barkley all attended pretty much at the same time at Auburn. That must have been a great place to be to be. So before we get into the special nature of today's conversation, greg, first off, thanks for joining us. Second, I'm going to tell the people that we may have some breaks or some strange sounds in our feed, because Greg is not coming to us from the Scion Health Headquarters in Louisville, kentucky. He's coming from somewhere else which we'll get to in a minute. But tell us about your role at Scion, what you do, what Scion does and what your areas of responsibility are Sure.
Speaker 3:So Scion Health is made up of several health entities, some community-based hospitals we have 15 of those scattered throughout the country and 63 long-term acute care facilities, specialty hospitals and we are pretty much coast-to-coast and operate in about 26 states and my responsibility is the supply chain operations in the hospitals.
Speaker 3:So we are working with the procurement systems, purchasing and on the specialty division. We actually have a reporting relationship with each one of the material managers in our building, so it gives us a lot of centralized control to make sure that we're very compliant from a contract perspective and that initiatives that get rolled out are done so in a complete manner so that we can reap the most benefits possible. I have a team of four under me that helps divide up the country, of four under me that helps divide up the country, and we just really enjoy, you know, watching our staff grow and being a part of all the great work that Scion's been doing. I know they've had a lot of great strides in quality and other areas and it's just really great that supply chain gets to be a part of that.
Speaker 2:It's just really great that supply chain gets to be a part of that. Okay, and this is probably the first of two podcasts that I think we're going to do together, because I really would like to get into your Scion operation with you, because you're in 25 states, you have a presence across the whole geography of the United States presence across the whole geography of the United States. So it's a complicated and sophisticated organization with probably a lot of issues that you have to deal with, but that's not why we're here today. When we first started talking about doing a podcast, you shot me back some times and then you said something about well, we could do it next week, but I'll be in Ukraine, in Ukraine, and I'm going. Oh, we could do it from Ukraine, and I'm going. Well, it sounds pretty cool. So I ask you this and I'll ask you again why are you in Ukraine?
Speaker 3:So I'm here right now with a group of kids from an orphanage in Lviv. We have brought them up into the Carpathian Mountains for a 10-day retreat. The kids love doing this. We've done it for the last three years. This is the second time I've been able to be here, but we started my wife and I did a foundation in 2021, and our goal was to work with orphanages and foster families in the Ukraine to help them to be able to provide food. We've kind of focused a lot of times on the food, the kitchens, kitchen remodels, things like that and then this one particular group that we work with out of Lviv. We've really gotten to know the kids and we've enjoyed being able to sponsor camp. So this is the week of camp and I am up in the mountains with the kids. They're actually getting ready to go down to the river here in a few minutes.
Speaker 2:Okay, am I correct to say that this is the Children of Grace Orphanage?
Speaker 3:That is correct, we're in Ukrainian blah, blah, blah. Okay.
Speaker 2:As I said, Children of Grace Orphanage.
Speaker 3:If you can imagine, that's what my week has been like here. A couple of them speak a little bit of English, so it's been very entertaining, and Google Translate is my friend.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll bet it is. I want to give our listeners a little perspective here. Ukraine, which used to be called the Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union, is in. I guess it's the second largest country in Eastern Europe, behind only Russia in Eastern Europe, behind only Russia. And it had been sort of fought over. The land had been fought over by Austrians and by the Russians throughout history, galicia being the part that was influenced by the Austrians, and then what they used to call Little Russia or South Russia was the part that came under the influence of the Russians.
Speaker 2:And then, after 1917, after the Soviet Revolution in 1920, the Ukraine, or Ukraine, became one of the earliest republics in the Soviet Union and from a geographical perspective, the area is highly, highly desirable because it has Odessa and ports on the Black Sea which have always been instrumental for trade routes and something that had been sorely lacking in Russia. Certainly, the Soviet Union wanted that and they had it. And then, when the Soviet Union disbanded in 1991 and perestroika took place and people started to identify as independent countries, I think Ukraine became an independent country in 1991. All of a sudden, russia didn't have that, didn't have those ports, didn't have the Crimea, didn't have the places that were highly valuable to them. And since 2014, there's been a war going on. There's been a war going on and in 2022, russia invaded Ukraine. Now to give people out there some perspective.
Speaker 2:In the United States, volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, makes $11,200 a year as his salary. That is mandated by law. The average Ukrainian individual makes $6,300 a year as their income. Compare that to the United States, where the president makes $450,000 if he wants to take his salary. The average American makes $73,500 a year and the median income in the United States is $50,200. So you have a country that is poor by any measure before the war started, and since 2014 they have been involved in a conflict with Russia, and the situation there has got to be pretty dire. Could you tell us a little bit about what you've seen and what you've experienced? You know how the people live, and give us some color for that? Greg Sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I would say that even before the war, there's quite the disparity between if you can call proud nation and they understand the financial situation that they live in and, honestly, most of them are very self-reliant and just used to their lifestyle. Even though they may not have much, their hospitality is incredible. It almost makes you feel bad when you go to someone's house and they prepare a big meal for you that you knew probably cost them a significant amount of their monthly salary. But that's just how these people are.
Speaker 3:You know, food used to be fairly in my viewpoint anyway fairly inexpensive. I remember kind of what got us into this is we adopted two girls from Ukraine back in 2019. And we were here for the adoption trips and we would go somewhere and have more sushi than you could possibly eat and pizza. Go somewhere and have more sushi than you could possibly eat and pizza, and even leaving something for the waitress, four of us would eat for less than $20. And I don't know the last time I've ever had sushi in the USA for $20 if it's one person, and things have gotten a little bit more expensive since the war. It's harder to get items in. It's more dangerous. You know, just inflation has been kind of crazy and, honestly, outside of that, when you travel around, there are a lot of things that are more expensive than what you would see in the United States.
Speaker 3:If you go to the shopping malls and you shop for clothes and you're gonna go to Nike or Under Armour, because of tariffs, it's quite expensive. So for them to go shopping and to buy name brand clothing could cost a significant amount of their annual salary. So a lot of them don't get to do that, and if they do, it's quite the treat. So that's been interesting. So you mentioned the difference in salaries. Your first thought might be well, things are just so much cheaper there that it's all relative. And that's really not true. It's not just relative. There are a lot of things that you pay just as much, if not more, in Ukraine than you do in the United States. Just they do about if they don't have enough money for something and if they want to do something a vacation or going to buy clothes they may save for months or years to be able to do that. Amazing. But this is a people.
Speaker 2:I close. They may say for months or years to be able to do that. Amazing, but this is a people that have learned to live with nothing over years. I mean, you go back to the early days of the Soviet Union and you get into World War II, and I was at an exhibition at the Pyramid in Memphis years ago from life in Russia during the siege of Stalingrad and the people actually would eat the wallpaper off the walls to be able to be fed. So these are people that are used to difficult times, but even that has got to be terrible. What about just the presence of supplies, the presence of food? Are the shelves empty in the stores? Do they have large queues that they have to deal with? How do they deal with that?
Speaker 3:In eastern Ukraine. It's very possible. Here in western Ukraine Know that the shelves are very full. I think at the beginning of the war, as the supply chain was trying to figure out how to keep supplies coming in, I believe that things were a little more difficult.
Speaker 3:I know that about a year into the war maybe not quite a year even my daughter and I came. She was my built-in translator, as I call her. She came with me and we went and picked up a bunch of food items and kind of filled the van with clothing and food to bring over to the Children of Grace, because they were having difficulty with some of that and food prices were very expensive at that point because of what you just said. They were having trouble with supply and demand. Now when you come across the border you don't see trucks lined up like you did in the past. You don't see trucks lined up like you did in the past. Even when I came last year to come across the border there was a line of trucks days long to come through customs and that was part of the issue early on. But they've really done a nice job. In fact, when I came through this time there was a backup of pedestrian traffic trying to get through the border but there weren't trucks that were just waiting in line.
Speaker 1:So I think they've really done a good job of adapting their supply chain to the wartime. Before we dive back in, you may be asking yourself is my supply chain future ready? At St Onge Company, we don't just optimize logistics. We engineer smarter, leaner and more resilient systems from end to end, from manufacturing to retail to healthcare. Our experts bring decades of experience and cutting-edge strategies to transform your operations. Visit and discover how we're shaping the future of supply chains, one solution at a time.
Speaker 2:And so there's, is it ease of travel in both directions.
Speaker 3:Well, it depends on your definition of ease of travel. Yes, you can definitely cross the border in a car. It can take a while. We came through and there was probably I don't know we were. I'm going to say this because Google Maps had us put them in Europe in meters. When we first pulled up, we were only 650 meters from the border crossing and it took us just close to five hours to get all the way up to the crossing and then be able to come through. In the past it did not take that long.
Speaker 3:But they're really being careful about people kind of coming and going, more so than they were at the beginning when people were trying to evacuate. And once you get into Ukraine, the trains are still running and that's one of the amazing things. I know part of the trajectory of the war has been to just break the spirit of the Ukrainians and when you go through Lviv and you talk to people and you see transportation still happening with buses and trains, their spirit is nowhere close to being broken and they're very resilient. And that was one of the first things I noticed on this trip was just how life just continues to go on. You'll see potential remnants of where bombs hit a building or something, but around it now people are still thriving and just living their life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's interesting. You know, I was in Vietnam. I was a corpsman, a medic, with the Marines in Vietnam and people forget that wars are fought by politicians and by people seeking power, but it's the average person that has to bear the brunt of that one way or another.
Speaker 1:In.
Speaker 2:Vietnam, there were people that just wanted to live their lives and had nothing in the game for them to benefit by, and the same is true there. And you say they're bearing up well under what's going on, and the thing that is true for them, the thing that was true in Vietnam, is that we got to come home after 13 months. They have to stay, they have to survive. So they have limited choices in what they really can do. They've got to bear up and hang in there until some kind of solution is found.
Speaker 3:Yes, and even the children. I think most of them have a fairly firm grasp on the situation because obviously, the air raid sirens go off quite often and they have to go to their safe places and they're very well aware of the situation. A couple of nights before I got here, I think it was on the 21st, there was an air raid through Lviv and the children were all in their safe place and one of the girls took out her phone and was I don't think she was live streaming, but she was taking a video of all of them huddled together and you actually heard the drone explosion. I don't think it hit anything, I think they shot it out of the sky, but it was sobering and a reminder of even the kids out there having to endure on a daily basis. And again, the action here in Lviv is not anything like what it is on the Black Sea.
Speaker 2:And then, of course, kiev, which we used to call Kiev. You know, anglicize everything. I have to work backwards to get some of these things right. So what you're saying is, a lot of the folks on the western part of Ukraine, a lot of the folks on the western part of Ukraine are sort of not being impacted that frequently. Is that fair to say?
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely, and whenever there are attacks on this side, really their targets are the airfields and things that are being used to deliver planes to Ukraine. So one of the young ladies who is here with us actually is not from the Children of Grace. She's not from Grace and she's from a foster family that we help support, and they do live in Kiev, live in Kiev, and so for her this is even probably more of a retreat than a lot of kids, because for her it's a lot less, you know, going to the subways and trying to get down to the safe place under the house, things like that. So I know she's really enjoying just being in the mountains and being able to be a kid.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, the reason I wanted to feature this, among other reasons, is that one of St Ange's principles is community service and we have a monthly recording of the hours that our people have provided community service and it's very important to us to give back to the community. But I think you know you've gone a couple of steps beyond that to voluntarily go into a war zone and basically taking kids out of danger up into the Carpathian Mountains and giving them a 10-day breather. Is that supported by your organization? Is it financially or anything, or is this all on your buck?
Speaker 3:No. So my wife and I have a foundation called Simply Loved Orphan Care and we've got friends and donors who we're a 501c3, and they help us support the camp each year and it's not by American standards. It's not that expensive. Is it okay if I share the number, because I think it might shock people how inexpensive it is? Okay. So it's a 10-day camp and for eight cabins. That's enough for all the kids. They have a really nice kitchen area where they can cook food for the kids. So they hire a couple of ladies from the village to come up and cook three meals a day and let me tell you, those ladies can cook. I'm probably going to leave here 10 pounds heavier than when I came and they bring four of the employees up to take shifts, and 10 days in the mountains is only $4,000 for about 26 kids.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, that's less than 200 bucks a kid. Yeah, that's pretty good, that's less than $200 a kit. Yeah, that's pretty good. That's pretty good. So you know, from your perspective, from your personal perspective, what have you gotten from this experience? And, looking at a healthcare supply chain perspective, what things have you seen and learned there that you might be able to take back to work when you go home every year?
Speaker 3:You might hear music going. That's their signal for the kids to get together for the next activity. So, you know, I think a lot of it is. Just every supply chain has challenges, obviously. Covid even brought a lot of that to light. And just to see another perspective and to think, you know, even whenever we think we've got a difficult from a supply chain chain perspective with a backorder or something else, you know, just try to think of what that might mean in a country like this, when any aid that comes in is, you know, potentially you could lose freight. Things like that. Just from a supply chain perspective, it's a lot of the resiliency and the adaptability Again the shelves aren't empty. Resiliency and the adaptability again the shells aren't empty and somebody had to figure that out and be able to determine how do we keep supplies coming to keep our people safe and keep them fed during the war, and so you see things like that and it just gives you a new perspective to say, hey, we ought to be able to face any of the challenges that we have in the United States with our supply chain because we're not constantly dodging bullets and bombs to do so.
Speaker 3:Personally, the kids they absolutely love having anyone from another country visit them. Yesterday. They had friends from Romania come up and spend the day and just you know they hug anybody that they see. They say thank you. They're very appreciative. I don't know.
Speaker 3:Some people might think because of their previous ties to Russia that they're kind of cold, but they are definitely not and the kids appreciate everything. You always wonder do they really appreciate what you're doing? Do they understand the sacrifice that you're making? And, as the kids say many times here, they either dock you, which means thank you. The kids say many times here, they either dock you, which means thank you, and they will say that to you several times a day. And everyone wants to sit by you. They want to be close to the Americans or the Romanians or anyone who comes.
Speaker 3:So a lot of it is just personal and it kind of refuels you just a little bit and helps you appreciate everything that you have, and I always carry that back with me.
Speaker 3:My wife and I started this to give back because we adopted two sisters from Ukraine back in 2019. They were 16 and 7 at the time and when we came back we both agreed right away that after we were able to kind of get them acclimated to life in America that we wanted to start a foundation to give back, because one of the things that orphanages across the country have always faced is food insecurity and for us that was something that we felt like a foundation could really step forward and potentially help you. So that's kind of been why we focused a lot on how do we assist with food and clothing and and just make sure the kids know that someone halfway around the world cares about their well-being well, two things before as we get ready to close on this Number one have your daughters become total Americans or do they retain within them, you know, the knowledge of the experiences they had before they?
Speaker 2:because I mean America can ruin you. We have everything in the world compared to anyone else. It can just overwhelm you and everything else and people can get caught up in it. Do they retain an understanding and part of who they were?
Speaker 3:So Eva was very young, she was seven, and I would say that a lot of her memories of Ukraine are pretty fake. She has lost the language. But at seven we started her in first grade and it was really important that she learn the language English because she was obviously functioning in an English-speaking school. And so Kate realized she was 16, kate realized very quickly that continuing to speak to Eva in Ukrainian was hindering her education. So Kate has retained her Ukrainian. She also speaks fluent Russian. She's certified in both and Eva is 100 percent English, 100% American.
Speaker 3:Kate still retains so much of who she was and she has struggled to fit into that. You know, hey, I'm from Ukraine, I'm now in a country that has more fluency and adapting to that, and we knew at 16 that was going to be a challenge. She struggled but just like any other Ukrainian, she's very resilient, very proud and very self-sufficient. And it's been difficult because as Americans we I hate to say this we tend to coddle our kids a little bit more and she wants to make it on her own even when things are tough. So that's been kind of the the difference between the two and and it's definitely the age difference of when they were brought out of ukraine and how many memories and experiences they had before they came oh sure, uh the and uh the final thing.
Speaker 2:the next, next final thing is if people were listening to this podcast and they wanted to participate or contribute, who would they get in contact with? Give us the contact info so that, if they wanted to participate, they could get a hold of you participate they could get a hold of you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, one of the best ways is through our website, wwwsimplylovedorg. We have donate buttons on there and lots of pictures from last year at camp and probably here in the next few weeks there will be lots of pictures from this year at camp. You can also go to our Facebook page and send us a message through our Facebook page. There will be lots of pictures from this year at camp. You can also go to our Facebook page and send us a message through our Facebook page Simply Loved Orphan Care. You can always email me. That would be fine. My wife and I run this together. We don't take any salary or anything or employ anyone. We want everything that comes in to go straight to the orphanage. So my email is bannergman at attnet.
Speaker 2:Banner G-Man, I like that. Where did you come up with that?
Speaker 3:You know, I don't exactly remember, I think it was a song that had Bannererman and then, since my name was Greg, everybody at work called me G-Man and I just put the two together and I've had that since I was in high school.
Speaker 2:Well, there you go, buddy Greg. Thanks so much for being on our podcast and, like I say, when you get back I will reconnect with you and we'll find a time to have a more general conversation about healthcare in the United States and the challenges you're facing. But I really admire what you're doing. I think it's something that people need to hear about. So many people that are in the health care supply chain do things like yours and it goes unnoticed, and I think we should take our hats off and for folks out there. I've been listening to this as we've been recording it. I know that the audio may be a little bit sketchy at times, but remember this dude's coming from seven time zones away from where I am.
Speaker 2:And so it's worth listening through the crackles if you hear him. So, greg, thanks so much for being here. I appreciate it. All right, thank you so much. And say hello and send my best wishes to all those children over there.
Speaker 3:All right, sounds good, thank you.
Speaker 1:Well, that's all for today. Thanks again for joining and, as always, don't forget to subscribe and connect with us online, where you can find all of our episodes. If you have a topic you would like to discuss or want to be a guest on the show, you can reach out to Fred directly at F-C-R-A-N-S at S-T-O-N-G-E dot com. See you next time.
