Tremendous provider support for the Healthcare Industry Resilience Collaborative positions its badging program as the new standard in hospital RFP processes

ROCHESTER, MN, UNITED STATES, March 6, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Healthcare Industry Resilience Collaborative (HIRC), a non-profit consortium of healthcare leaders focused on improving the domestic supply chain for medical products, today announced that a groundswell of support among healthcare providers has accelerated adoption of the HIRC Resiliency Badge, positioning it as a new must-adopt initiative for healthcare suppliers looking to foster trust among customers and ease their concerns related to supply chain disruptions. This newly launched badging program is now available to medical product suppliers looking to set themselves apart from competitors through their commitment to resiliency within the healthcare supply chain.

To date, more than four dozen provider organizations—including AdventHealth, BJC HealthCare, Corewell Health, Cleveland Clinic, CommonSpirit, Mayo Clinic, Northwestern Medicine, Stanford Health Care, and others—have signed on as members of HIRC, pledging to prioritize HIRC’s standards for transparency and resiliency within their RFP processes and sourcing criteria. The HIRC Resiliency Badge benefits providers by providing confidence that badged suppliers have the capability to deliver critical products reliably. Providers also enjoy added efficiency by not having to investigate and gather resiliency data independently.

“We believe the resiliency badge will foster meaningful discussion for joint improvement in the end-to-end supply chain,” said Jim Francis, CSCO at Mayo Clinic. “The resiliency badge will play an important and ongoing role in our strategic sourcing criteria for critical products. We will also continue to incorporate the resiliency badge’s expectations and standards in business reviews and performance expectations.”

“Prior to this initiative, the healthcare industry has lacked a transparent and credible way to identify high-reliability suppliers, which has meant no commercial consideration is given to resilience today,” said Bill Selles, SVP Supply Chain at Corewell Health. “Every day healthcare providers are forced to use substitute products on little notice, each time increasing the risk of adverse events. We need to reward highly reliable suppliers with greater market share.”

Bill Moir, Senior Vice President of Supply Chain at Henry Ford Health System, said his organization intends to use the resiliency badge as vendor selection criteria. “Vendors will lose business at our organization if they do not demonstrate effective resiliency efforts; the badge is a great way to show this commitment,” he said. “We need to translate the badge into action.”

The goal of the HIRC Resiliency Badge is to make resiliency a winning strategy in healthcare for suppliers. As a growing number of providers prioritize HIRC standards compliance when selecting their medical product vendors, suppliers that achieve the HIRC Resiliency Badge will establish themselves as valued and reliable partners within the highly competitive healthcare space, while also enabling efficiency by reducing one-off data requests.

“We are firm believers that the commitment to resiliency goes beyond just planning for the next pandemic,” said Geoff Gates, Senior Director, Procurement and Technology at Cleveland Clinic.
“Suppliers that have shown commitment to the resiliency badge are the type of partner we want to have a relationship with. The badge elevates resiliency in sourcing decisions.”

“The badging program helps suppliers and providers alike by proving resiliency in an efficient way for both sides,” said Katie Dean, Chair of HIRC and Business Operations and Transformation Leader at Stanford Health Care. “As a provider, it helps me understand that a supplier has a resilient product line, as assessed by a third-party assessor. This allows me to make informed business decisions. Suppliers will have the ability to prove they are resilient and only have to answer one set of questions.”

The badging program creates a robust scoring rubric to evaluate and enhance supply chain resiliency within the healthcare industry. To conduct this assessment, HIRC employs various tools, including analysis of key performance indicators (KPIs), policies and procedures, survey responses, and interviews. These key data requests provide the foundation to conduct an in-depth diagnostic of an organization’s resiliency.

“The HIRC Resiliency Badge represents tremendous progress, with providers and suppliers coming together and defining the core criteria that translate to a resilient supply channel,” said Eric Morrison, System VP Supply Chain at CommonSpirit Health. “The intent of this program is to reward and celebrate those suppliers that meet these core criteria. Without this program, it's likely that standards would continue to be disconnected, and providers would approach contract negotiations as we have in the past. This is a critical step forward for our industry.”

The HIRC resiliency badge program is unifying the industry by creating a common, trusted definition of resiliency that surpasses any local or individual organization’s criteria. According to Mary Byrne, VP Global Planning at Cardinal Health, the program is driving a transparent and robust healthcare supply chain in a unique and transformational way. “As a global manufacturer and distributor of medical and laboratory products, resiliency in the supply chain is an important effort for Cardinal Health and in transforming healthcare,” Byrne said. “We are honored to join HIRC in forging a new culture of trust across healthcare providers and suppliers with this new, common platform for resiliency.”

"As a leading healthcare manufacturer and distributor, Medline has always prioritized building a resilient supply chain. When HIRC was formed, we saw the opportunity to collaborate with industry partners and join forces in addressing the need to create more supply chain transparency and resiliency for all of healthcare,” said Medline Vice President of Supply Chain Optimization Peter Saviola. “Today, we are proud to be part of the HIRC Resiliency Badge Program and remain committed to investing in distribution, manufacturing, and technology to further strengthen the healthcare supply chain.”

Tom Harvieux, Chief Supply Chain Officer at BJC HealthCare, said that BJC plans to operationalize the badge in the following ways:

● Using the HIRC standard vs. creating the organization’s own unique solution
● Incorporating the standard into contractual language, business reviews, and performance expectations
● Using the resiliency badge findings to foster meaningful discussions on how to improve BJC’s end-to-end supply chain
● Including the badge in internal stakeholder engagement and supplier decision making

“This is the healthcare industry’s opportunity to collectively control its future and build a common, scalable solution,” Harvieux said. “We know there is a deep need for a program like this, and we have the opportunity to influence its shape and prevent the market from fragmenting into dozens of for-profit solutions that create more-complicated and inconsistent expectations as they race to fill the gap. It is in suppliers’ and providers’ best interest to make the HIRC Resiliency Badge successful.”

To learn more about the HIRC Resiliency Badge, check out this video.

About HIRC
HIRC is the pre-eminent consortium for patient-centric healthcare supply chain resiliency standards and best practice. HIRC’s mission is to increase resiliency of critical healthcare supply chains to eliminate supply disruption impact on patient care. HIRC elevates partnership through authentic collaboration. HIRC is non-competitive, non-exclusive, and member driven.

Do you wish to demonstrate your commitment to your customers and differentiate yourself by achieving a nationally recognized badge? Join the growing number of suppliers who are stepping up.

Learn more at www.hircstrong.com.

Lori Luechtefeld
WIT Strategy
+1 310-210-4757
email us here