The Healthcare Supply Chain HUB

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The Healthcare Supply Chain HUB I help healthcare supply chain professionals grow—without wasting time or money on cookie-cutter programs that don’t teach the real world.

Whether you're on the provider or vendor side, you deserve more than generic courses and unavailable mentors.

Career growth rarely sends you an invitation first.It usually looks more like this:Can you lead this project?Can you pre...
10/16/2026

Career growth rarely sends you an invitation first.

It usually looks more like this:

Can you lead this project?
Can you present this to the executive team?
Can you take responsibility for this initiative?
Can you work with the clinical team?
Can you step into this role?
Can you handle this customer?

And suddenly, the knowledge that was enough for your current job isnt enough for the responsibility sitting in front of you.

Ive seen this happen throughout my career.

The opportunity often arrives before you feel completely ready for it.

Thats why professional development shouldnt begin only after you get the promotion, inherit the bigger account, or take on the broader role.

Preparation matters before the opportunity arrives.

For healthcare provider professionals, that can mean developing a broader understanding beyond the function where youve built your expertise.

For supplier professionals, it can mean understanding the provider environment well enough to confidently engage with Supply Chain, Value Analysis, Finance, Operations, clinicians, and executives.

You cant predict exactly what your next opportunity will be.

But you can decide how prepared youll be when it arrives.

Thats how I want professionals to think about the Certification in Healthcare Supply Chain Foundation.

Not another certification to collect.

An investment in the knowledge youll carry into whatever responsibility comes next.

The program is self-paced, includes the certification exam and Foundations credential, and enrollment includes two complimentary 30-minute Executive Success Sessions with me to support your learning and application.

Investment: $449

Dont wait for the bigger opportunity to discover what you wish you had learned earlier.

Build it now.

👉 Enroll in the Certification in Healthcare Supply Chain Foundation: https://healthcaresupplychainhub.com/foundations-of-healthcare-supply-chain

10/16/2026

If your Value Analysis process is only about the money, we need to talk.

I’ve seen Value Analysis evolve a lot over the years.

And somewhere along the way, it can become very easy to reduce the conversation to:

How much does it cost? How much will we save?

Of course the financial piece matters.

We’re operating healthcare organizations, and the economics are real.

But that’s not the whole decision.

A product entering a health system can touch clinical care, operations, contracts, technology, data, workflow, safety, outcomes and yes, finances.

That’s why I’ve always believed good Value Analysis asks a much bigger set of questions.

Not:

Is this cheaper?

But:

What is the total value of this decision?

There’s a BIG difference.

🎥 I get into it in this Learning Byte video. And if you want the bigger conversation behind it, watch the full episode...

▶️ Full Learning Byte: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glyYH09KY_c&t=562s

California healthcare supply chain friends… I’m coming your way! 🌊🎤My next October stop is the 2026 CAHPMM Conference in...
10/15/2026

California healthcare supply chain friends… I’m coming your way! 🌊🎤

My next October stop is the 2026 CAHPMM Conference in Shell Beach, October 21–23.

I'll be speaking on:

Approval Isn't the Finish Line: Where Healthcare Decisions Go to Stall and How to Fix It

But I'm also really looking forward to spending a few days with the CAHPMM community.

Providers. Suppliers. Old friends. New connections.

And hopefully some people I've been talking with here for years but have never actually met.

If you're attending, tell me now so I know to look for you.
And when you see me wandering around Shell Beach, please don't just think, I know her from LinkedIn.

Come say hello! 💜

📍 Shell Beach, CA
📅 October 21–23
👇 Who's going?

A supplier can hit the numbers and still be one of the hardest relationships your organization manages.On-time delivery?...
10/15/2026

A supplier can hit the numbers and still be one of the hardest relationships your organization manages.

On-time delivery? ✓
Fill rate? ✓
Competitive pricing? ✓
Contract compliance ✓

The scorecard looks good.

But what happens when there is a problem?

How quickly do they communicate?
How much work does the relationship create for your team?

Is the data reliable?

Do they help during implementation?
Do they solve problems, or simply report them?

Those things are harder to fit neatly into a spreadsheet. They also matter.

My newest article on The Bridge looks beyond the traditional metrics we use to evaluate supplier performance: The Supplier Scorecard Is Missing Half the Story

Because sometimes the most important part of supplier performance is what happens between the numbers.

🔗 Read the full article: https://healthcaresupplychainhub.com/post/healthcare-supplier-performance-scorecard

📩 Subscribe to The Bridge for practical perspectives on how healthcare supply chain actually works: https://healthcaresupplychainhub.com/blog

One special order doesn’t look like a problem.Neither does one expedited shipment.Or one non-contract item.Or one extra ...
10/14/2026

One special order doesn’t look like a problem.

Neither does one expedited shipment.

Or one non-contract item.
Or one extra SKU for a physician preference.
Or one workaround because the normal process takes too long.

In healthcare, every one of those decisions may have a perfectly reasonable explanation.

The problem is what happens when we make them hundreds or thousands of times.

Eventually, convenience becomes complexity.

And complexity has a cost.

Not just in the price of the product. It shows up in inventory.

Freight.
Storage.
Item maintenance.
Contract management.
Pricing updates.
Invoice exceptions.
Clinical education.
Buyer time.

And all the other work required to keep thousands of exceptions functioning across a health system.

That is what I’m digging into this Thursday in The Hub Weekly:

The Cost of Convenience Is Hiding in Your Supply Chain

We’ll look at why individually reasonable exceptions can quietly create an expensive operating model, how to distinguish necessary clinical variation from avoidable complexity, and what both providers and suppliers can do differently.

Because this isn't about eliminating flexibility.

Healthcare needs flexibility.

It’s about asking a harder question:

Is this complexity creating enough value to justify everything required to support it?

📩 The new issue drops tomorrow morning.

If you’re not subscribed yet, subscribe today and I’ll send it directly to your inbox.

👉 Subscribe here for FREE. https://healthcaresupplychainhub.com/healthcare-supply-chain-hub-weekly-newsletter

What is one “temporary” workaround in healthcare supply chain that you’ve watched become permanent?

One week from today, let’s have lunch together. 🥪🔥On October 21 at 12 PM, I’ll be joining Moving with MASHMM for a conve...
10/14/2026

One week from today, let’s have lunch together. 🥪🔥

On October 21 at 12 PM, I’ll be joining Moving with MASHMM for a conversation I think a lot of healthcare supply chain teams need right now:

Building the Future-Ready Healthcare Supply Chain in an Era of Limited Resources

Because the expectations aren't getting smaller.

Reduce cost.
Build resilience.
Develop your people.
Support clinicians.
Improve operations.
Become more strategic.

And somehow do all of that while facing the same workforce and resource constraints many of us are already navigating.

So what do we do?

That’s what we’re going to talk about.

Not from a world where everyone suddenly gets more FTEs and unlimited budgets, but from the healthcare environment we're actually working in.

📅 October 21
⏰ 12 PM
🥪 Grab your lunch and join us.

I’d love to see some of my LinkedIn healthcare supply chain community there! Comment "MASHMM" and I will send you the link.

“Just Get Me in Front of the Decision-Maker.”SKIPPY THOUGHT OF THE DAY 🐾A supplier asked:“Can you just tell me who the d...
10/13/2026

“Just Get Me in Front of the Decision-Maker.”

SKIPPY THOUGHT OF THE DAY 🐾

A supplier asked:
“Can you just tell me who the decision-maker is?”

Skippy looked around the health system.

Clinician.
Value Analysis.
Supply Chain.
Finance.
Operations.
IT.
Leadership.

Then he looked back at the supplier.

“Which decision?”

That might be one of the hardest things to understand about selling into healthcare.

There isn't always THE decision-maker.
The person who wants the product may not approve the contract.
The person negotiating the contract may not own the budget.
The person approving the budget may never use the product.

And the people using it may determine whether the expected value ever shows up.

Skippy's advice?

Stop searching only for the person with the YES.

Start understanding the people behind the decision.

🐾 Suppliers: What took you the longest to understand about how hospitals make decisions?

Providers: What do you wish suppliers understood sooner?

10/12/2026

Why does Supply Chain always seem to get the blame?

The product isn't approved yet.
The contract isn't done.
The item isn't available.

Something isn't moving fast enough.

And eventually someone asks:

Whats Supply Chain doing?

Ive worked in healthcare supply chain long enough to know how quickly that happens.But heres what gets missed.

A product doesnt move through one department.

It moves through a system.

There are handoffs. Dependencies. Decisions. Priorities.

People doing work upstream and downstream that others may never see.

When we don't understand how those pieces connect, every handoff starts to look like somebody elses delay.

And Supply Chain is sitting right in the middle of a whole lot of those handoffs.

Thats the conversation in this clip.

Not who should we blame?

But do we actually understand the system were asking people to navigate?

🎥 Watch the clip. Then watch the full Learning Byte if you want to see how all of these pieces connect.

▶️ Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glyYH09KY_c&t=557s

One thing I've had to watch throughout my own leadership career is becoming part of a workflow I was never supposed to o...
10/12/2026

One thing I've had to watch throughout my own leadership career is becoming part of a workflow I was never supposed to own.
It happens easily.

Your team knows you’ll respond.

They know you can make the decision.
They know that if an issue gets complicated enough, bringing it to you will probably get it resolved.

And if were not careful, we reinforce it by answering every question. Eventually, perfectly capable people begin waiting for the leader.

Ive found that one of the better ways to break that cycle is to stop answering quite so quickly.

1. What have you already considered?
2. What do you recommend?
3. What information would change your decision?
4. What risk are you concerned about?

It takes more time than simply giving someone the answer.
But the point isn’t to get through todays question as quickly as possible.

It’s to develop people who can handle the next one. In healthcare supply chain, that matters. There will always be situations that don’t fit neatly into a policy or procedure.

People need enough context and judgment to navigate them.
A useful leadership test:

If you were unavailable for a week, what work would stop because people have learned to wait for you?

For free healthcare supply chain training, education and resources, visit us at: https://healthcaresupplychainhub.com

Providers and suppliers can be sitting at the same table, discussing the same opportunity... and having two completely d...
10/09/2026

Providers and suppliers can be sitting at the same table, discussing the same opportunity...

and having two completely different conversations.

A supplier says: "This technology saves time."

The provider is thinking: Whose time? How much? Can we measure it?

A supplier talks about innovation.

The provider is already thinking about implementation.

A provider talks about value.

The supplier may hear price.

Neither side is necessarily wrong.

They're simply looking at the same decision through different responsibilities. And that's where some of the biggest disconnects in healthcare begin.

After spending my career on both the supplier and provider sides of healthcare supply chain, I've seen how much changes when people understand what's happening on the other side of the table.

Conversations become better.
Questions become better.
Expectations become clearer.

And relationships have a much stronger foundation.

That's one of the reasons I created the Certification in Healthcare Supply Chain Foundation.

For providers, it's an opportunity to better understand the broader ecosystem around the work you do every day.

For suppliers, it's an opportunity to understand the provider environment you're trying to navigate and serve.

Same ecosystem. Different perspectives. Better understanding on both sides.

If healthcare supply chain is your career or healthcare organizations are your customers.. I'd love to have you join us.

Investment: $449

👉 Enroll in the Certification in Healthcare Supply Chain Foundation: https://healthcaresupplychainhub.com/foundations-of-healthcare-supply-chain

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