Supply Chain Archives - Healthcare Value Analysis and Utilization Management Magazine

Building a Resilient Supply Chain Model Through Partnership with Reliable Secondary Suppliers

October 28, 2025 Robert Yokl Comments Off

Supply Chain Challenges Beginning with the global COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, health systems have faced recurring supply chain disruptions that put pressure on both operations and patient care. These included: Frequent backorders and limited […]

One Multi-Site Health System’s Transformative Journey to Optimize Their Inventory with Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL)

October 28, 2025 Robert Yokl Comments Off

Hospitals today typically contain hundreds of storage rooms and thousands of supply bins across multiple, geographically dispersed facilities in their health system. This translates to hundreds of thousands of paper labels that need to be […]

The Hidden Costs of Choosing a Cheaper Disinfectant Wipe: Why Quality Matters in Healthcare Environments

June 10, 2025 Robert Yokl Comments Off

Infection prevention is one of the most important responsibilities in healthcare today. From exam spaces and operating rooms to waiting areas, surface cleanliness plays a direct role in patient outcomes across the entire healthcare facility. […]

Maximizing VALUE in Healthcare Contract Renewals: A Practical Guide for Strategic Sourcing Professionals

June 10, 2025 Robert Yokl Comments Off

Introduction Healthcare supply chain managers regularly encounter contract renewals under significant pressure — facing tight timelines and demanding expectations to achieve substantial improvements in cost, quality, and operational efficiencies. Often, these negotiations lead to incremental […]

Developing Value in Third-Party Suppliers

February 15, 2025 Robert Yokl Comments Off

Third-party suppliers are here to stay in healthcare. They not only help you fill the holes in procurement but can also bring significant savings with equal or even the same products that you normally buy. […]

Do Hospital Supply Chains Turn to Subs Too Early Without First Checking for Original OEM Products?

November 13, 2024 Robert Yokl Comments Off

Hospital supply chains often turn to substitute medical products too quickly, primarily due to various pressures and system limitations. Below is an expanded discussion of why this happens, with real-world examples, expert opinions, and references. […]

Who is Pulling the Levers Behind the Curtain?

November 13, 2024 Robert Yokl Comments Off

I have worked with several GPOs, attended their conferences, presented, and participated in new technology committees, helping create guidelines and policies for regional and national purchasing groups. I have met some interesting people, and they […]

Hospital Supply Chain Professionals: Keep the Faith!

July 10, 2024 Robert Yokl Comments Off

“These are just a few ideas for when you and your team are feeling the pinch of the everyday pressures of the hospital supply chain/value analysis world.” Avoiding the Grind of the Supply/Value Chain World […]

OmniChannel Health: Solving Sourcing Problems and Saving Big

July 9, 2024 Robert Yokl Comments Off

At last month’s Ohio AHRMM conference, I had the pleasure of speaking right after a representative from Henry Schein Medical. I noticed striking similarities between myself and the founder, Henry Schein: Both of us come […]

The Value Curve: Cost vs. Value and Risk Assessment in Supply Chain Management

July 9, 2024 Robert Yokl Comments Off

We’ve all seen the four Value/Cost and Risk graph quadrants. They are used in decision-making to measure the source of truth within Supply Chain Management. Imagine a graph where the x-axis represents the cost, and […]

Is PPI Standardization the Answer to More Savings?

September 21, 2023 Robert Yokl Comments Off

I just read an article in one of our industry’s leading supply chain publications touting the benefits of the standardization of physician preference items (PPI) as the next level of supply chain savings performance. This […]

Clinical Supply Integration: Do You Know What It Means?

April 27, 2023 Robert Yokl Comments Off

As a discipline, we have been talking about clinical supply integration (CSI) for a number of years now, but do we really know what this term means? Based on my readings in our industry publications, […]

If Supply Chain Excellence is Your Top Priority: You Need to Know Where You Stand

January 30, 2023 Robert Yokl Comments Off

We often assume that our supply chain division, department, or unit is performing at the highest performance levels, but are we really sure? From our experience, we can only be absolutely sure by employing key […]