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 preference cards to cut waste and risk.

• career path from OR operations to SVP supply chain
• building integrated systems across purchasing, inventory, finance
• regional GPO strategy for physician preference items
• in-house distribution for resilience and control
• point-of-use inventory in cath labs and operating rooms
• utilization governance and clinical integration with surgeons
• preference card cleanup as a cost and quality lever
• lessons from Cleveland Clinic on culture and alignment
• COVID shortages, counterfeits, and buffer strategies
• tariff volatility and leadership communication
• earning trust through transparency and consistent results

 Thank you for tuning in! Be sure to subscribe and connect with us online to access all our episodes. If you have a topic you’d like us to cover or are interested in being a guest on the show, reach out to Fred at fcrans@stonge.com. 

Chapters

• 0:03 Meet Alan Wilde And His Journey
• 1:09 Early OR Work And Systems Integration
• 3:19 Expanding Scope And Regional GPO Strategy
• 5:22 In-House Distribution And Inventory Visibility
• 6:59 Three Pillars: Price, Inventory, Utilization
• 8:19 Clinical Integration And Physician Alignment
• 9:23 OR Preference Cards As A Cost Lever
• 9:56 Lessons From Cleveland Clinic Culture
• 14:04 Ad Evolution: Future-Ready Supply Chains
• 17:13 Rebuilding Trust At Allegheny Health Network
• 21:29 COVID Shocks And Reasonable JIT
• 24:16 Earning Respect And Proving Value
• 28:52 Tariffs, Transparency, And Tough Calls
• 30:34 Sign-Off And Listener Connection

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:03

This week on Ticking the Supply Chain Help, we're diving into the heartbeat of healthcare logistics with someone who knows it inside and out, Fred's old friend, Alan Wilde. Alan is the Senior Vice President of Supply Chain at Allegheny Health Network in Western Pennsylvania. And he's here to share his experience and best practices in the industry. So grab your coffee, settle in, and let's get started.

SPEAKER_01: 0:28

Today we're uh lucky to have an old friend of mine, Alan Wilde, whom I met when I think he was working in uh in uh the OR at the Cleveland Clinic uh several, several years ago, and who now is the senior vice president of supply chain for the Allegheny Health Network in Western Pennsylvania. Alan, welcome to the program. Thank you very much. Yeah, when when I met you, you you had to be in your early 20s. I think you were working for Lauren Jacobelli, wasn't it? Yes, I was.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00

I probably was in my 20s at that point. Yep.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04

So it's been a while, buddy. You've uh you've done well. Tell us a little bit about your background.

SPEAKER_02: 1:09

Yeah, so um, you know, I will tell you that I have done probably almost every single job within supply chain, starting out with uh probably stocking shelves, putting away inventory. Um, like you mentioned, I worked in the operating room. Um I kind of set up an inventory management system in the operating room, um, was very much involved in some of the case cart stuff that we ended up, you know, having. Um so I pulled case carts, did inventory management, um, set up a computer system in the operating room. Uh, then I ended up going to um supply chain at that time that's called materials management. Um and then I put a computer system in that kind of integrated, you know, which we all take for granted these days, um the purchasing, inventory, management, um, receiving, invoicing, and general ledger all together. And a lot of you know, we all take that for granted now. Um, and uh really you see kind of a lot of the efficiency around that. Um, did a lot of different um you know automation things, you know, getting more and more EDI going. Um also I put in um QSite, which was an inventory, point of use inventory management system, um, and all the CATH labs when I was at the Cleveland Clinic. Um and then um, you know, I left the Cleveland Clinic, went to the one across the street and went to university hospital, spent uh quite a few years there. Uh expanded my scope. I ended up having um facilities engineering, food, environmental services along with supply chain, um, and um continued kind of down that journey of um organizing, consolidating, standardizing a number of different things. Uh, one of the things that I had at uh University Hospitals, we had our own distribution center. Um we actually had partnered with um later with Owens and Minor on kind of managing that for us. Um and then um from there I went down to Florida for a couple years, uh, down to Baycare. Um, had same somewhat the similar scope, had construction real estate reported to me as well. Um, tried to create some synergies with supply chain and and all the construction stuff and all of the contracting and standardization of those things. Um and then I ended back up here in Pittsburgh, and uh so I have um supply chain here in Pittsburgh. Also, I have a a regional GPO called Provider PPI. We actually um have around 30 to 35 different contracts that are in the physician preference item space. We um we sell those contracts to other other hospitals and small health systems in the state of Pennsylvania, state of Delaware, and the state of West Virginia. Um mostly our sweet spot for that is really small to mid-sized hospitals that don't have a lot of um you know sourcing or contracting um with that. Capabilities, yeah. Yeah, they don't have the capability. You know, you go into some of those smaller hospitals and the the you know director of supply chain is the you know, he's the inventory manager, he or she is the inventory manager or and also the you know contracting person and the accounts payable resolution person, and um you know does like about 10 different hats. Um and so they just don't you know always have the time to do everything. So um we've probably been trying to be helpful with that. And then the other thing is I have our own district, we've about that's about 100,000 square feet of a distribution center that we run ourselves. Um, and we service um our 10 hospitals out of that. We don't service any hospitals outside of our hospitals. Um we also have a distribution center for pharmacy too, although we're kind of redoing that right now um and creating a specialty pharmacy insider um insider, you know, distribution center. Um and you know, I will tell you my journey really kind of goes around, you know, three things. Um one is I'm constantly trying to look for better pricing, better price, better prices, better contracts. Um second is really kind of inventory management, and we're doing more and more inventory management, and I'll call it the point of use. Um we've been um installing um the uh QSite program at all of our um cath labs, and now actually we'll get into all the operating rooms, um, and really seeing some good results from really good inventory management, consignment management, um really trying to get rid of some obsolescence, um, and you know, just visibility into those procedure areas that we never really had visibility into. And traditionally, most you know, supply chain people you had you manage everything up on the nursing units, the PARs up on the nursing units, and most people do a very well, very good job, very you know, do it very well. And um we really try to expand that into some of the procedure areas where there's a lot more dollars associated. And then the third thing is really about utilization. Um, and um, I have a small team, um, they're called clinical integration, and um in my clinical integration team, I have some former sales reps, I have some former nurses, and um they actually do several things for us. One is whenever we go out to bid on a uh physician preference item contract, they will go talk to the physicians, get all the feedback, um, you know, try to get some consensus about what we're gonna bid, how we're gonna bid it. Is it gonna be a sole source or a dual source or a multi-source? Um, try to get some, you know, heartbeat about what's going on with the new technology out there, um, and that. And then um, and then we we go out to bid and we include the physicians in the decision making that we do on the physician preference items. And what's nice is these former sales reps they are typically extroverts, they love talking to other people, uh supply chain people. We don't like talking to anybody. You know, most of us are introverts. Um, and um, so you know, by having a bunch of extroverts, um, they kind of go out and and help us with that. And then the other thing that we've done from a utilization standpoint is um we are starting to um this journey of cleaning up all of our preference cards. There you go. And um we if you most people the preference cards and keeping those up to date falls on the OR nurses, and guess what?

SPEAKER_01: 9:12

Uh you have uh let me guess. You have thousands and thousands of preference cards that are incorrect. Now I want to stop you right, I want to stop you right here because I want to get into this. Uh when I met you, you were the kid in the OR, okay? I'm sorry. I don't think brutal. No, no, no, it's okay. You were sort of like the the rat running through the place. What what what did what how much did that experience of working in the OR and of working, doing the jobs that need to be done, uh how much has that colored and helped your future career?

SPEAKER_02: 9:48

Oh, I think it helped me tremendously because um I can have a conversation with clinicians and understand what they have to do on a day-to-day basis and the battles that they have. And um I also, you know, I can challenge people on some of their assumptions sometimes. Um I also can be able to challenge my own staff at times, you know. Um I understand some of how some of those jobs are and how you know how difficult it can be. Um the other thing is, you know, I I understand those the issues, and so I try to come up with as a leader, try to come up with solutions to help them become better.

SPEAKER_01: 10:34

Yep. And um the second part of that uh is you're sort of like a uh young guy, I'm not gonna say kid, I gotta stop that. The young guy who uh graduates from college and goes to the major leagues, okay? You didn't start you didn't start in the minor leagues, you not only went to the major leagues, you went to the Yankees. You went to the you went to the number one or number two healthcare organization in America. Yeah. What did you observe and learn from a standpoint of how to um behave effectively politically and leadership-wise from your days, your early days at the clinic? Um listen well.

SPEAKER_02: 11:17

And and know when to say something and what to say. And know when to say things and when not to say things. Um, you may um, you know, I uh when I worked for the clinic, you know, we had a lot of very aggressive physicians. Um what was a little different about that organization is all the physicians were employed by the organization. They were not independent. So you needed to do two things. You needed to um take care of the physicians that you were working with. You also needed to network yourself with the um the leaders in the different disciplines. So, you know, um, I used to basically what I would really try to do is provide information. Um typically when I provided information, most of the time the physicians would be like, Well, we'll get ripped off on that. And I'd be like, Yeah, I I I I agree with you that we're getting ripped off on that. Well, we can't we can't have that. So, you know, they would get all they would get all you know wired up and excited about um doing stuff to it, uh, they're doing something about it. Um and you know, I would work with them and um, you know, work with some of the the um the vendors too, um, you know, about you know the products that they were providing to those physicians. And also is, you know, sometimes we would have sales reps that weren't really servicing the physicians appropriately, and I would, you know, go through the leadership of that particular vendor and and say, hey, listen, you're not you're not listening to Dr. Smith and what he needs, and he's trying to do some cutting-edge things, and you guys need to help him with that. So they got it very appreciative of those things, and I think that really helped me a lot. Um I kind of moved up.

SPEAKER_01: 13:32

You know, it's it's interesting. Uh, you know, the reason I'm I'm asking all this is um I had attended how I I want to ask you a question. I'll ask you the question, but don't answer because I'm gonna say something afterwards. Uh, I want you to think about this. How operationally uh integrated was the Cleveland Clinic when you were there in the 90s? And the reason I'm asking is I went to an event in February of this year at the clinic, and it was a two-day event where um they had 200 uh suppliers there, all trying to get the clinic's business, right? Uh paying a lot of money uh to sit there for two days. And the clinic shared everything. And uh the leadership, all these all these physicians who you know have big egos and reason to be proud of themselves and everything, the CFO, very all these people who are insanely talented, and Steve Downey, who's one of the best supply chain leaders I know, put this thing on. And what I came out of there was these people are highly integrated in how they how they work together, they bury their egos and they're working for the same cause. Was that true back in the early 90s or has that evolved to that point? I would say that that's evolved over time.

SPEAKER_02: 14:47

Um, and you know, I uh I will tell you that um I put together the Cleveland Clinic Health System. So when I I worked originally just for the Cleveland Clinic itself, uh-huh. And then we merged with nine other hospitals over about a two-year period. I had to meld a bunch of cultures together and really create the the foundation, I think, of what they have today. Um, we got one computer system, uh, one kind of org structure. Um they um, you know, I think we delivered a lot of um in back in 2005. I think I won the uh hospital purchasing department of the year when I was at the clinic. Um that was really kind of about five years of work for me to try to get it to that point. Um, I left after that. I mean, I got an uh offer I couldn't refuse somewhere else. Um but uh, you know, um it the fundamentals of getting it all integrated was was getting there. Um and um I will tell you, I think they've continued to take it to the next level over and over and over again. Um they've added a tremendous amount of resources to supply chain. Um, their staff has to be at least three or four times, but I had it. And um, you know, they've continued to do, you know, more and more automation. Um I think their scope of what they're doing um has expanded. Um, you know, so they're getting into more and more areas of spend. Um, you know, that's they're getting into all the different clinical services and things, spend and all sorts of different areas that um I will tell you I'm just starting to scratch the surface out of.

SPEAKER_00: 16:49

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SPEAKER_01: 17:17

Let's go back to your career now. So you're at the clinic and you got romanced away by uh the other hospital uh system in the same neighborhood, and then ultimately the sunny shores of Florida called to you. Yes. You went down there and did a great job. Yeah, but you got lonely for Northeast Ohio, didn't you?

SPEAKER_02: 17:36

Yeah, I um I got I um, you know, Florida is a nice place to visit. I'm just telling you, just probably as an ordinary, and it was nice to go down there, and but I just didn't feel like it was home. Um and it's also very transient. Um Florida's very transient. Um so um, yeah. Um, I kind of lured back up north here. Um, and um the uh former CEO of Allegheny Health Network, um, her name was Cindy Hunterfield, and she actually had called me and wanted to have lunch with me one day, and she um had an opening up here and kind of asked me if I wanted to consider to come up here and work with her. So um her and Jim Benedict was uh two people that I had worked with. Um I'd known Cindy for probably over 20 plus years. Um she was uh chief administrative officer at the Clinton Clinic. Okay. Um so that's kind of how I ended up at Allegheny Health Network. Um she has subsequently left now. She's going and doing all sorts of wonderful things out there in healthcare now.

SPEAKER_01: 18:59

So when you got back and when you got when you got to the clinic, I mean I I was I I think the last time we spent any time together was sort of in that interim before after you'd gotten back and before you went to the clinic. I mean, before you went to Allegheny. Um what did you expect to find when you went to Allegheny and what challenges did you encounter when you uh when you uh started?

SPEAKER_02: 19:23

Uh I was told that it was a mess. And I was also told that the physicians didn't trust the supply chain group. Uh, you know, there were some decisions made by the previous supply chain group that was making decisions on physician preference items without make including the physicians. Well, that's good. Oh, that didn't go over well. So, you know, um when I got hired, it was and I met with you know the chief of surgery, and he's and he's like, Um, by the way, we make the decisions on the things, you don't make the decisions on the things. And I was like, Well, of course you make the decisions on the things. How could that how could that happen? He goes, You wouldn't believe it.

SPEAKER_01: 20:18

Oh it's amazing that there are still places out there that over time have just ripped one sign off, like ripped off purchasing, and put one on that says materials management, and then uh 25 or 30 years later, they ripped off that sign and put supply chain on, and they haven't changed anything along the way. They still operate the same way, just with different signs.

SPEAKER_02: 20:41

So uh so And I remember getting the I remember when the consultants came and talked to me about, you know, oh, it's a supply chain, and I'm like, this is nothing new. I mean, I was like, oh, but it's a whole new concept. It's called the supply chain. And I'm like, we buy stuff, we receive stuff, we pay for stuff, I inventory stuff. I mean, what's the difference? Yep. Um, and I'm sure somebody else is gonna come up with some new term, and we're gonna have the Deloitte's and everybody else come up with all these. There'll be some new term for supply chain, and it'll be something else. Um you know, right now, I mean, a lot of it's we're getting cut into this idea of a global supply chain and oh yeah, and and where, you know, the challenge I think right now um is really where things are manufactured now.

SPEAKER_01: 21:36

Yeah, and our uncertainty about the ability to get to to actually uh acquire those things, right?

SPEAKER_02: 21:43

Exactly. And you know, I COVID was horrible for me. I mean, that was probably one of the worst episodes for me in my entire career of just not having stuff and trying to find stuff everywhere. Um you know fraud, you know, was happening, uh counterfeit items were happening, um, you know, things that you wouldn't, you know, wouldn't think would happen were happening. Um so you know, it was uh the biggest thing right now is um just uh supply um availability. Um and um thank god I have my own warehouse now. Um and thank God I had that during COVID. Um I had friends that were all in just in time with the Cardinals, the ones in miners and medlines. They were out the next day. Yep, you know. Um at least I had 30 to 45 days of inventory on hand that gave me a little bit of a buffer before that all kind of started really getting bad. Um I will tell you, um I'm thinking, you know, we're doing more and more. And then with this IV sh situation that happened, um, again, you know, unfortunately, I think um I was very much of an advocate of just in time, still am, but um I still think I gotta have some buffers.

SPEAKER_01: 23:26

Yeah, I think there's a we should uh well let let's coin this phrase. You and I can get a trademark for it. Reasonable just in time. Reasonable just in time. Yeah. Well, let's let's do that. But you know, the point I wanted to get at during this whole conversation is number one, you started out uh at the biggest name in the business, and and supply chain was not a C-suite level position. It was not uh highly respected, and 30 years later, at that same place, it has developed over time with good leadership to a point where it is. You also have started at a place recently within the last how many years? You've been there, five years?

SPEAKER_02: 24:10

Five years now, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 24:11

Yep, five years at another place, big name, one of the Allegheny, UPMC, uh Geisinger, Guthrie, and whoever Lehigh Valley uh merged with over on the east side are the big systems in Pennsylvania. But a big name, but uh place that it just had uh different nameplates put on the same old functions and was not highly respected as a C-suite level um uh function in the organization. And what is one of you know, one of my big chips on my shoulders is we like to we have what I call the Ain't We Great Society, where we keep telling each other how supply chain is very important now and we are all C-suite level people. The fact of the matter is, Alan, and I want you to talk about this. You have earned you have to earn respect, you have to earn trust, you have to earn the the belief of the leadership, senior leadership in you in order for the function to get elevated to where it obviously operationally should be in the organization. Talk to that.

SPEAKER_02: 25:15

Um I agree with that. I mean, I you've got to build that trust. You gotta build um you need to build consistency. Um, you do need to uh understand what's happening, you know, in the organization, you know, like what's happening in different supply categories um so you can talk about it more articulately. Um you know, especially the physician space, um really understanding what those implants are for and what they're trying to do. Um and it, you know, it's it's about building awareness. You also need to sell yourself. I think that's one of the things that um you know, sell yourself on what the value is. Um, I think it used to be like, you know, I started when I took over the purchasing department at the Cleveland Clinic, it was there were there were individuals that were kind of like pushed into that department. You know, they were like, well, you didn't work out over here, so we'll put you in the purchasing department. Um, and I, you know, I had to go through a process of really kind of evaluating the staff and and making some harder decisions about those things. Um I will tell you, it's it's still really hard, even to this day, to find good talent, uh, especially on the sourcing side. It um taking a young sourcing person and getting them to understand all the products um and how they're all interconnected um is difficult. Um, it's not about just going out and buying the lowest cost thing. Um, you know, those are the the things that you really just you you need to sell yourself, you need to create awareness. Um prove, you know, you know, when you do projects and things like that, you need to prove it out, show the results.

SPEAKER_01: 27:28

Um I think you need, excuse me, I think uh I was just at a meeting last week, and this woman was speaking, and I was unfortunately for her sitting in the front row. And she says, uh, how hard is it uh to regain trust once you've lost it? And I just blurted out it's virtually impossible. Correct. And she goes, You're absolutely right. What's your name? And I told her. And she says, Fred, what do you do to gain trust? I said, You have to be trustworthy. You have to have your name, Alan Wilde. I know that if I talk to Alan, he's gonna he's gonna do his best he can to solve my problem. If he has a problem, he's gonna get back with me. I have to know that when I hear the word Alan Wilde, uh, this is a guy I trust. And it's very simple.

SPEAKER_02: 28:17

It's very simple. It's very simple. And you know, I I've always found too, it says just be truthful and front up front with people. Yep. And if you can't do something, you say you can't do it. I mean, I had a physician come up to me and say, Alan, I think we should negotiate in every single one of our contracts a research grant. Ah, up the price up the cost of things a little bit. And I I sat there and went, I I can't do that. I'm not I'm not gonna increase the price of the product so you guys can get a research grant. I'm sorry. Not not gonna happen. Um, you know, and and these people should do research grants because of who you are, um, not because of what we buy.

SPEAKER_01: 29:03

Um you know, so what before we go, I I had a I was doing a research project at a large academic institution in the South, and we found a huge savings in radiology. A huge savings. We bring it forward and said, we can't do that. I said, why? Said, because uh the company that you're talking about gives our our research folks X million dollars a year, and if we do what you what you've identified, they'll take that away. So you're absolutely absolutely right about that, Alan. So as we get ready to sort of close this, um my my uh final question is always this what uh uh burning platform would you like to talk about or say something about that I forgot to ask?

SPEAKER_02: 29:52

We haven't talked about tariffs. Tariffs have been chaos for me. Okay. I will They would just decide what they are and quit going up and down and off and they're on. And I mean, I I I have to do a briefing every couple of weeks now to my senior leadership about what's the impact of all the terrors. Um that's probably the the biggest thing that I'm concerned about right now is all the terrors.

SPEAKER_01: 30:28

Well, that's that's a reasonable thing. Alan, I want to thank you so much for being on the program. And another question just occurred to me. Um, since you moved from the land over to that other place, um, is your uh who are which pro football team do you still root for?

SPEAKER_02: 30:46

Well, I have a story with this I need to tell. So first week when I started it in Pittsburgh, they asked me about my sports allegiances. So I sat there and said, Pirates, National League. Good, I can do that. Guardians, American League, I can do that. Cleveland Cavaliers, you don't have a basketball team. I'm I'm I am so happy about that. Penguins, definitely plus. Penguins are good. Penguins are fun. I like hockey. Football couldn't go, Steelers.

SPEAKER_01: 31:25

So what did they say? They just all laughed, just like you did. They just all Well, I mean, everybody's laughing at both the Browns and the Steelers this year because I think that there's got to be some guy out there delusional enough in Western Pennsylvania to think that Aaron Rodgers is gonna make a difference. And uh I would be willing to bet the house that he isn't. That's just my opinion. So but there are people here in Cleveland that think the Browns are gonna win more than four games, too, and they're equally as delusional.

SPEAKER_02: 31:53

Yeah, I don't know about that. We've got way too many quarterbacks right now.

SPEAKER_01: 31:57

Yeah, I know. Anyway, Alan, hey, yeah. Uh thanks so much, Alan. It's been great talking. Haven't talked to you for a long time. Let's uh yeah, let's let's catch up more frequently and uh thanks for appearing on the show. Glad to have you. Yep. Take care, buddy.

SPEAKER_00: 32:14

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.