Chuck Jensen, director of sourcing & contracting, Froedtert Health
About: Chuck Jensen has served as director of sourcing & contracting at Froedtert Health in Wisconsin for the last five years. Within this role, he leads the purchasing team as well as the sourcing/contracting team. Jensen developed and led a major departmental restructuring 18 months ago that dramatically improved the capabilities and results of the department. Previously, Jensen served as director of supply chain at Comanche County Memorial in Lawton, Oklahoma, and director of materials management at McLaren Northern Michigan in Petoskey, Michigan.
Repertoire: What is the most challenging/rewarding project you have worked on in the last 12-18 months?
Jensen: For me, personally and professionally, the one thing that has provided me the most satisfaction has been my growth journey (my Hero Quest). A series of events, including new leadership, a major departmental restructuring as well as personal challenges, led me to seek a career coach, which I began working with in the fall of 2018. That fall, the framework for a year-long engagement was developed. Some early activities in 2019 included baseline data gathering from an employee engagement survey and targeted data from a 360-degree leadership review. The data received provided themes for targeted improvement. The themes were personal connection, communication and respect.
The journey led me to a greater sense of self reflection, love and caring for others and recognition of others (putting others ahead of myself). The results have been nothing less than amazing. My connections with others have increased tremendously. The team – both my leadership and the entire team – has become more engaged. In fact, the score from the 2020 employee engagement represents some of the highest scores within the organization. The benefits go far beyond the department. My interactions with physicians and others I interact with have also strengthened. This was an extremely challenging journey as it requires personal reflection and the willingness to hear feedback that generates emotional responses. This remains the most challenging, but rewarding, experience in my recent history.
Repertoire: What project or initiative are you looking forward to working on?
Jensen: I have been a part of developing a Strategic Partner Council (SPC) at Froedtert Health. The SPC is made up of senior leaders from Froedtert Health’s top suppliers as well as key leaders from the supply chain, finance and surgical services teams. The SPC’s goal is to work towards best practice solutions for the mutual benefit of all organizations. I am looking forward to this because the group, although formed and meeting regularly, is between the storming and norming phase in group development. (Editor’s Note: The forming-storming-norming-performing model of group development was developed by Bruce Tuckman, who said these phases are all necessary and inevitable in order for the team to grow, face up to challenges, tackle problems, find solutions, plan work and deliver results.)
I am excited to work on team projects. One currently starting is the development of a supplier scorecard. This will be made of metrics developed and agreed by all suppliers with goals and standards also set by the entire council. This will set the standard for how all suppliers will be measured collectively and change how we do business with all suppliers, not just the SPC members.
Repertoire: How are you better at practicing your profession than you were 5-10 years ago?
Jensen: I have learned patience, the ability to utilize relationships and the value of personal connections.
Regarding patience, I am by naturally driven and hardworking. I want to get all my goals (savings, processes and strategies) completed in the first month of the year. But I have learned to purposely plan for the achievement of goals or a project. This has allowed me to teach my leaders and staff the skills I have and delegate projects to them. This, in turn, speeds up the results and provides learning and accomplishment of others, and then recognition for them.
Relationship utilization is a practice that I have developed over time. For me, it involves listening to others perspective and coming up with a decision or pathway that meets the needs of everyone involved. Five to 10 years ago, I may have approached situations with more stubbornness and my solution or pathway was the one I would hold firm to as the sole choice. My current approach has been rewarded with relationships and positive outcomes from my team and those I work with throughout the health system.
Historically, personal connections have not been my strong suit. While I have always been good at relationships with a few close confidants, I have learned to be caring and thoughtful towards all those I work with and interact. I am not always successful, but I realize it when I’m not and look to find ways to strengthen and improve the relationship. Almost always, that involves a face-to-face meeting or phone conversation.
Repertoire: What lesson or lessons do you think supply chain leaders will take from the COVID-19 pandemic?
Jensen: There are a few lessons that I personally have learned and suspect most supply chain leaders also have learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, the connections to local businesses and physician partners proved extremely valuable. For example, at Froedtert Health, a handful of local businesses worked with us to develop and quickly change their production lines to produce hand sanitizer, face shields and masks.
Secondly, we have opened non-traditional channels for sourcing products. Froedtert Health utilized direct purchasing or a broker to secure where our distributor, regional GPO or normal supply partner was not able to meet our PPE or other supply needs. This may translate into longer term relations with those sources that proved reliable and serve as a secondary source moving forward.
Finally, communicating key data internally is so valuable. Froedtert Health Supply Chain developed a supply dashboard and distributed it to the organization daily. This dashboard provided a color-coded system to communicate the levels of PPE available. This provided transparency in an environment of fear and information overload from internal rumor and external media on the pandemic. Froedtert Health was fortunate to not have run out of any PPE during this critical time and, in large part, the data and subsequent conservation methods were to credit.