Making an Impact on Multiple Levels
By Pete Mercer
Angie Bruns joined the healthcare industry to help people. Growing up, her aunt would always share how important her work in pathology was to the community and how it impacted her. From those conversations with her aunt, Bruns was inspired to devote her professional career to the healthcare industry. Her goal was to align her career as a professional in an industry where her contributions would impact multiple levels: external, internal, and downstream in the organization.
Because healthcare has been a part of her family, stepping into the industry was an easy decision. It fits her personality as well. “I am an extrovert,” she said. “I have always enjoyed getting to know individuals and helping people. Healthcare allows me to leverage both of those traits.” Whether she is supporting a team member with mentoring, helping a clinician receive a product they need to take care of a patient or strategizing for the organization, Bruns rises to each challenge. She believes that the role of healthcare in the world is essential to everyone.
“Healthcare is a global industry,” she said. “Everyone, at some point in their life, will have sought after and needed assistance from a healthcare worker. It is a conversation with which everyone can contribute and participate.”
Starting out at TUKHS
Bruns started her career in a month-long internship at The University of Kansas Health System (TUKHS). “One of my professors was a director in Perioperative Services at the time, which gave me a peek into the supply chain realm. I was already impressed by the culture of the organization but the moment I stepped into an operating room, I was sold,” she said.
Not only did she get a better picture of what the supply chain entailed, she was also able to see the impact when a supply chain operational function failed and how that can affect patients. “It’s one thing to not have toilet paper for a day, but to not have a lifesaving piece of technology hit home for me,” she said. After her internship, Bruns went from a Business Operations Analyst to the Senior Director Supply Management and Administration, her current role.
Throughout her career, Bruns has maintained the perspective that she’s in this industry to help people. Even if she’s not one of the frontline workers, she understands that the role of the healthcare supply chain plays a critical part in saving lives. “Working in healthcare supply chain, I get the honor of helping someone, of contributing to saving a life, and giving back to my community.”
Navigating a pandemic
During the early days of the pandemic, she stepped into a role as the System Director of Clinical Supply Optimization, where she essentially had to build an entirely new team. Despite the fact that they were building a new program at TUKHS, Bruns said she is most proud of her team’s humility and teamwork.
“No one knew how to work from home. No one knew how to build a team remotely and orientate them remotely. No one knew how to build an entire program from the ground up remotely. They had to learn how to work together and trust one another without having any in-person meetings.” Her team didn’t even meet face-to-face until May 2021.
Even with these challenges, Bruns and her team have persevered and met the challenges head on. “In supply chain, understanding the end-to-end process is an art, but it is not the type everyone gets the pleasure of having up on their wall. This pandemic has enabled supply chain team members (and even those outside of supply chain) to not only understand the end-to-end supply chain process but work through each facet of it.”
Her team has even had the opportunity to educate end-users and suppliers on the scope of the supply chain from end-to-end. “Each of our customers knows a little more about supply chain, which has allowed us to develop bridges, build them, and walk over them together.”
Developing leaders
TUKHS employs lean principles as the formal leadership model. Leaders go through lean training once they are placed into a position of leadership. In her department, they are working on a leadership development plan for the manager leaders. It’s a year-long program for all supply chain managers with direct reports. “Each supply chain manager will undergo formal career development after they are hired into a leadership role, manager level and above.”
The program will focus on learning and applying key leadership traits in addition to participating
in industry and career experiences on topics like emotional intelligence, mentorship, effective communication, and innovative thinking. “After completion of the program, each manager will be responsible for trickling down this knowledge and experience with their front-line team members.”
Bruns understands the power of effective leadership, the capability to guide an organization, department, and workforce to better outcomes for the patients. “If I were to summarize my mentorship experiences throughout my lifetime, I would say they have taught me the importance of our own soft skills and how to appreciate the diversity each person carries in their own soft skills. Healthcare is one of the most diverse industries out there. No other industry can contribute more to people’s health and well-being than healthcare.”