What Supply Chain Does
SSM Health is rooted in our mission: “Through our exceptional health care services, we reveal the healing presence of God.” SSM Health Supply Chain supports this mission by engaging end-users to develop product and service solutions necessary to support the delivery of exceptional health care services and effectively stewarding the resources of SSM Health.
We are tasked with managing spend across the entire system, with the goal of developing and implementing system solutions that generate sustained value for the organization and eliminate unnecessary variation. We accomplish this goal while supporting the standards of care our clinical partners have developed by:
- Placing the patient and caregiver at the center of everything we do
- Engaging with end-users through established Solution Groups and Clinical Programs
- Sourcing and negotiating contracts from attributes, not preference, defined in these solution groups
- Establishing and reinforcing purchasing standards throughout the system through initiatives such as “No Contract, No Pay” and “No PO, No Pay”
- Partnering with the Vizient GPO (Group Purchasing Organization)
- Seeking relationships with suppliers who are dedicated to supporting the mission of SSM Health
A Complete Solution to Manage Spend
The SSM Health model concentrates on resource stewardship through the application of thoughtful and uniform deployment of vendor, supply chain and data management strategies with strong end-user engagement underpinnings, significant analytic proficiencies, rapid implementation capabilities and integrated change management structures. These strategies strive to reduce unnecessary variation and support clinical consistency while providing the right products and services that support aligned physicians, clinicians and employees in delivering exceptional health care services for the communities we are blessed to serve.
With talent, detailed processes and change management tenets, focused on intentional connectivity with our aligned physician, clinician and entity leadership, we concentrate on providing excellence within three integral and critical organizational structural components: Vendor Management, Operations Management, and Integrated Change Management and Analytics.
Key functions of the SSM Health Vendor Management Model include: Sourcing and Contract Management; Solution Group Management; and Performance Oversight and Optimization.
Sourcing & Contract Management
Responsible for developing and managing a complete contract portfolio for all supplier spend.
Solution Group Management
Our process begins with engaging our end-users through our Solution Group structure. This structure ensures end-users, such as physicians, clinicians, administrators, and operators, identify the product and service attributes necessary to provide consistent care and safety for our patients, caregivers, and employees. Based on those attributes, our expert team negotiates the best value for the acceptable supplier products and services.
Performance Oversight & Optimization
Actively manage the critical product and purchase services agreements by focusing on quality, productivity, satisfaction, and financial performance. This work includes contract compliance, product standardization, and contract management activities.
Key functions of Supply Chain Operations Management includes all inbound and outbound transportation management, warehousing, materials handling, purchasing, order fulfillment, logistics network design, inventory management, supply/demand planning, supply resiliency, and management of third-party logistics services providers.
Material Handling and Inventory Control
We optimize all inventory and processes to reduce waste and align to the clinically defined standards.
Spending Controls and Purchasing
We have implemented processes and controls to manage requisitioning and buying to ensure alignment with our contracted suppliers.
Data Integrity & Master Data Management
We centrally manage all vendor, item, contract and services data to ensure accuracy, consistency, and availability.