The Healthcare Supply Chain HUB

A question I've asked healthcare leaders for years:
How can an organization be overstocked and understocked at the same time?

The answer is surprisingly simple.
They're looking at different symptoms of the same problem.

Finance sees excess inventory.
Clinicians see missing inventory.
Supply chain sits in the middle trying to explain both.

The reality?

Stockouts and overstock rarely happen because someone ordered too much or too little.

They happen because decisions across the organization are disconnected.

👇 Have you experienced the stockout vs overstock paradox in your organization?

Healthcare has mastered a strange skill.
Being overstocked and underprepared at the same time.

One storeroom is overflowing.
Another department can't get a critical item.

Finance sees excess inventory.
Clinicians experience shortages.

And everyone wonders how both can be true.

Here's my hot take:

The problem isn't inventory.
The problem is the decisions behind it.

What gets purchased.
What gets standardized.
What gets monitored.
What gets challenged.
What gets ignored.

Inventory doesn't create itself.

It reflects thousands of decisions being made across an organization every day.

That's why throwing more inventory at a stockout problem rarely works.
And cutting inventory to reduce costs can create an entirely different problem.

The organizations that get this right aren't managing products better.
They're managing decisions better.

👇 What's the bigger risk in your organization right now: stockouts or overstock?

After nearly 30 years in healthcare supply chain, here’s something I’ve learned:

The urgent work will always try to steal time from the important work.🤣

Every day, leaders are faced with unexpected challenges.

A supplier issue.

A system problem.

A staffing concern.

A contract escalation.

A project delay.

Most of these issues deserve attention.

Some require immediate action.

But here’s the lesson I’ve learned over time:🌺

If you spend all of your time reacting, you eventually lose the ability to lead proactively.

Early in my career, I measured success by how many problems I solved each day.

Today, I measure success differently.

Did I make progress on the things that matter most?💥

Because healthcare organizations don’t move forward through crisis management alone.

They move forward through intentional planning, disciplined ex*****on, and strategic thinking.

That’s not always easy.

Especially in healthcare.

The urgent work never stops.

But neither should the important work.😊

One habit that has helped me throughout my career is asking myself a simple question:

“Am I working on today’s problem, or am I preventing tomorrow’s problem?”

The answer often determines where I invest my time.

Healthcare leaders:❓

What’s one thing you do to protect time for strategic work when operational demands are competing for your attention?

Here is something most people in healthcare do not want to say out loud.
Change does not fail because of bad ideas. It does not fail because people do not care. It does not fail because the resources were not there.

It fails because of what happens after the launch meeting.

Leadership moves on to the next priority. The team assumes someone else is watching. And the organization quietly accepts the appearance of progress as the real thing.

Compliance gets checked off. Adoption never actually happens. And somewhere along the way those two things stopped being treated as different.

That is the part nobody puts in the project closeout report.
The initiative looked successful on the dashboard. The floor told a completely different story.

I have seen well-funded, well intentioned change efforts stall out not because the plan was wrong but because accountability disappeared the moment the kickoff energy wore off.

Organizations that actually close the gap between policy and practice do one thing differently. They stay uncomfortable long after launch. They keep asking questions. They keep showing up on the floor. They reward honest results over polished updates.

That is not a resources problem. That is a leadership decision.

The hardest part of change in healthcare is not designing it. It is refusing to look away once it gets difficult to execute.

What do you think is the real reason change stalls in your organization?

I have seen this more times than I can count.
The policy gets approved. Training is completed. Communication goes out. The project launches and compliance is expected.

Then a few months later, you walk the floor and nothing has really changed.

Workarounds are still happening. Old habits are still in place. Accountability is unclear and adoption looks different in every department.

The policy existed. The practice never changed.

That is the real gap. And it is not a policy problem. It is a what happens after the policy is published problem.

No ownership. No reinforcement. No measurement. No visibility. No accountability. That is how good intentions stall out between approval and ex*****on.

High performing organizations do not stop at launch. They round regularly, measure adoption, share results, address barriers, and hold teams accountable long after the kickoff meeting is over.

Writing the policy is the beginning. Operationalizing it is the work.

That is exactly what the Certification in Healthcare Supply Chain Change Management and Culture Development was built to address. It gives healthcare professionals the practical framework to lead change that actually sticks, build accountability structures that outlast the launch meeting, and create a culture where good policy translates into consistent floor ex*****on.

Not just theory. The real work of making change happen in healthcare environments.

If you want to learn more, comment “CHANGE” below and I will send you the details directly.

After nearly 30 years in healthcare supply chain, here’s something I’ve learned:

You don’t truly know who your strategic partners are when everything is going according to plan.

You find out when something goes wrong.

Yesterday, I was reminded of that lesson.

For nearly a year, we’ve been planning a significant project.

Capital planning.
Construction planning.
Scheduling.
Contractor coordination.
Equipment planning.

Hundreds of moving pieces.

Months of preparation.

Then one unexpected vendor issue threatened to delay the project by several weeks.

The explanation?

Staffing shortages.

Now, I understand that challenges happen.

Every organization faces them.

What matters is how those challenges are communicated and managed.

Because when equipment is already down, patients are being rescheduled, construction timelines are coordinated, and teams are depending on commitments, the impact extends far beyond a delivery date.

It affects operations.

It affects caregivers.

It affects patients.

Over the years, I’ve learned that vendor performance is not measured when everything goes according to plan.

Vendor performance is measured by:

1. Communication
2. Accountability
3. Problem-solving

Anyone can deliver good service when conditions are perfect.

Strategic partners step up when conditions are not.

The strongest supplier relationships I’ve experienced were never defined by the absence of problems.

They were defined by transparency, ownership, and a shared commitment to finding solutions.

Because trust is built over years.

But it can be tested in a single conversation.

Healthcare leaders:

What quality do you value most in a strategic supplier relationship?

One of the largest operational risks in healthcare today isn't what most leaders are tracking.

It's reactivity.

A lot of healthcare systems are running inside environments that look like this:

➤ Constant escalation
➤ Competing priorities
➤ Governance fatigue
➤ Operational drift
➤ Decisions made under pressure, not intention

And after a while, organizations stop building the structures that create stability they just start working around the pressure. It becomes the default.

That only works for so long. And a lot of systems are closer to that wall than they realize.

The Hub Weekly is where I break down what's actually shifting in healthcare operations and leadership the things worth paying attention to now, not after they've already forced your hand.

If you're in healthcare and you care about staying ahead of what's coming, it's worth a read.

👉 Subscribe now. Link in comment!

Honored to have my article, "Supplier Fragmentation Is Quietly Destroying Healthcare Operations," featured in this issue. (page 17)

Healthcare organizations face increasing pressure to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and maintain exceptional patient care. Yet one of the most overlooked challenges remains supplier fragmentation and the hidden operational burdens it creates across the healthcare ecosystem.

I'm grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this important conversation and to be featured alongside so many respected healthcare, supply chain, and VA leaders. Thank you to Robert W Yokl and the entire team for creating a platform that elevates meaningful industry discussions.

If you're involved in healthcare operations, supply chain, procurement, or vendor management, I'd love to hear your perspective on how supplier consolidation and strategic partnerships are shaping the future of healthcare.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/just-released-june-2026-issue-healthcare-value-analysis-w-yokl-azxwe/

Just Released - June 2026 Issue of Healthcare Value Analysis & Utilization Management Magazine This issue is out! View the Digital Version Here View All the Issues Here

After nearly 30 years in healthcare supply chain, here’s something I’ve learned:

Experience gets people in the room.

Thinking gets them hired.

I’m currently interviewing candidates for a leadership role in Decision Support and Informatics.

One thing that has stood out to me is the amount of incredible talent available right now.

There are many highly qualified professionals navigating organizational changes, restructuring efforts, and reductions in force.

I’ve met people with impressive resumes.

Strong technical skills.

Relevant experience.

But as I’ve listened to candidates, I’ve found myself paying attention to something else.

How they think.

Can they connect data to decisions?

Can they see beyond today’s problem?

Can they prioritize competing demands?

Can they communicate complex ideas in a way leaders can act on?

Early in my career, I thought success was largely about having the right answers.

Today, I believe leadership is often about asking the right questions.

The strongest leaders I’ve worked with don’t just solve problems.

They anticipate them.

They don’t just report information.

They create insight.

And they don’t just execute the work.

They help shape where the work is going.

When hiring leaders, I look for three things:

1. Strategic thinking
2. Intellectual curiosity
3. The ability to translate information into action

Technical skills can be developed.

Systems can be learned.

But the ability to think critically and strategically is what creates long-term impact.

Healthcare leaders:

When you’re hiring for leadership positions, what quality matters most beyond experience and technical expertise?

The uncomfortable truth?

Organizations don't drift into dysfunction overnight. It happens one small decision at a time.

Nobody sets out to build workarounds. Nobody plans for manual processes, poor data, or inconsistent ex*****on. Nobody wakes up and decides to let compliance slide.

It starts with one shortcut. One exception. One conversation that got delayed. One process nobody wanted to challenge.

And then one day leadership launches a new initiative to fix the problem, not realizing the problem was never the strategy.

It was what people had quietly learned to tolerate.

That's the difference between organizations that execute and organizations that just plan. The strongest ones aren't obsessed with better strategies.

They're obsessed with better behaviors.

Because strategy doesn't live in a PowerPoint deck.

It lives in what people actually do every day.

🤔 What's one habit you've seen quietly undermine a good strategy?

📬 I share insights like this every Thursday in The Hub Weekly. Comment NEWSLETTER and I'll send you the link.