January 30, 2023 – Meena Medler is the Vice President of Supply Chain Management at UPMC. She recently sat down with Repertoire to discuss leadership and the current state of the healthcare supply chain. Read an excerpt from the interview below:
What changes brought about by the pandemic are here to stay in the supply chain?
Supply chain has been going through a paradigm shift over the past decade from transactional to a strategic arm of health systems – and the pandemic only accelerated this transformation. Focusing solely on product cost and a siloed approach to procurement should be things of the past. We’ll continue to see a greater emphasis on value analysis, clinical transformation and total cost of care within the procurement process.
Supply chain resiliency and continuity practices are areas that have been showcased throughout the pandemic and will continue to be very important moving forward. At UPMC, we are focusing on continuing to build on many areas that were of prime focus throughout the pandemic, including supply continuity, and ensuring we are proactive, rather than reactive by identifying and collaborating with distributors for country of origin (tier 1 and 2), and creating bi-directional transparency to optimize forecasting and demand planning.
What’s the most important risk you took and why?
Transitioning to a role at Premier, my previous employer, was the biggest career risk that I have taken during my 25-plus year healthcare tenure. I left the comfort of a healthcare system to grow both personally and professionally. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and increased my knowledge of supply chain, as well as the broader healthcare industry.
While that change was valuable to me, I learned that I missed the environment of an academic medical institution. When I learned about the position of vice president of source to pay at UPMC, I knew it was the right move for me to make, and I haven’t looked back.
Read more in the latest issue of Repertoire Magazine.