Taking The Supply Chain Pulse

Value analysis can feel like a never-ending queue of new product requests, urgent conversions, and “can’t you just get a better price” demands. But when we treat value analysis as the front end of the healthcare supply chain, it becomes something bigger: a decision system that protects patient care, strengthens standardization, and finds savings that contracting alone can’t touch.

Fred Crans is joined by Bob Yokl for a forward-looking conversation on value analysis in 2026 and beyond. We unpack why health systems are staffing more specialized value analysis roles inside periop, cardiology, and other service lines, and how clinician trust helps drive change when the stakes are high. We also talk about the real work of utilization management: benchmarking supply use with patient volume-centric metrics, comparing hospitals inside the same IDN, and using data to uncover variation that quietly drains budget.

The biggest shift is moving from price-first thinking to “savings beyond price” and revenue integrity. Bob explains why reimbursement assumptions can backfire, why finance needs to be embedded in the workflow with pro formas, and how a few non-reimbursed procedures can turn a promising trial into a costly mistake. We close with practical leadership advice: build a value analysis strategic plan, invest in tools that replace spreadsheets, track ROI with discipline, and design a smarter funnel so the team can focus where it matters most.

If you want a clearer playbook for healthcare value analysis, supply chain strategy, cost reduction, benchmarking, and clinical integration, subscribe, share the episode with a colleague, and leave a review so more leaders can find the show.
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Care is moving farther and faster than most health systems are organized to support and the supply chain is right in the blast zone. We sit down with returning guest Karen Conway to talk through what she’s working on now, why she’s studying improv, and how those lessons translate into better listening, less bias, and smarter problem-solving in a high-stress healthcare environment where burnout is real and shortages still steal time and attention.

From there, we get practical about the biggest healthcare trends reshaping healthcare supply chain management: site-neutral payment policy, reimbursement cuts, and the steady migration of procedures to hospital outpatient departments, ambulatory surgery centers, and hospital at home models. When care spreads across hundreds of sites, logistics and transportation become strategic capabilities, not backroom tasks. We also dig into rural healthcare and what Medicaid cuts and thin margins mean for access, technology investment, and the surprisingly high percentage of rural hospital budgets consumed by supplies.

We close with the operational basics that decide whether any of this works: clean data, item master discipline, and electronic UDI capture. Karen explains why “AI will fix it” is wishful thinking without solid foundations, and how granular utilization data can uncover simple clinical changes that improve outcomes at low cost. Along the way, we explore supplier collaboration, risk management as a path to resilience, and emerging business models like servitization that can reduce waste while keeping organizations financially sustainable. If you found this helpful, subscribe, share the episode with a colleague, and leave a review so more supply chain and healthcare leaders can find the show.
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We sit down with Bellwether League inductee Gail Kovacs to trace her path from biology and the lab into nursing, healthcare supply chain leadership, and hospital administration in Cleveland. We talk about the moments that shaped her leadership style, why reimbursement changes made supply chain strategic, and what it takes to earn trust when the stakes are high. 
• working-class upbringing, Catholic school influences, and early advocates shaping confidence 
• lab work, research funding uncertainty, and the decision to pivot toward a steadier path 
• nursing and infectious disease as a foundation for patient-centered thinking 
• direct caregiving changing how we see complexity, safety, and advocacy 
• entering materials management by bridging clinical and logistics language 
• mentors who open doors and the specific lessons that stick 
• TEFRA and DRGs shifting hospitals from cost plus to evidence-based cost control 
• clinician inclusion in committees to reduce friction and improve adoption 
• leadership advice for women and the long-term cost of losing credibility once 

Don't forget to hit that subscribe button and connect with us online so you'll never miss an episode and can catch up on all the ones you might have missed. 
Got a topic you're fired up about, or maybe you want to be a guest on the show? 
Fred would love to hear from you. Just reach out at fcrans@stonge.com

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We talk with Dr. Rubin Pillay, Chief Innovation Officer at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, about why healthcare needs “unreasonable” thinking to make real progress. We also map a future where AI, automation, and patient-led care shift the system from sick care to wellcare.
• Dr. Pillay’s roles at UAB and why a multi-hat view helps innovation
• What “thinking unreasonably” means and why other industries hold the playbook
• The sustainability crisis in healthcare: access, cost, quality, and outcomes
• Why the current business and operating model cannot be tweaked at the edges
• How AI, digital tech, sensors, biotech, and platforms create a rare window to transform care
• The regulation dilemma: protecting patients while enabling innovation
• What healthcare could look like by 2050: prosumer care, automation, and on-demand specialist-level guidance
• The shift from sick care to wellcare: prevention, longevity, and earlier intervention
• How hospitals change: acute intervention sites, command centers, advanced diagnostics, regenerative medicine hubs
• The next big thing: responsible AI deployment at scale
• Why the Chief AI Officer becomes a core C-suite role and what that leader needs to know
don't forget to hit that subscribe button and connect with us online so you'll never miss an episode and can catch up on all the ones you might have missed.

Got a topic you're fired up about, or maybe you want to be a guest on the show? Fred would love to hear from you. Just reach out @fcrans@stonge.com

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Capital equipment can make a hospital grow or quietly drain millions through rushed buys, weak justification, and devices that end up parked in a hallway. We want fewer surprises, fewer spreadsheets, and a capital process that actually helps clinicians while protecting margins. So we sit down with Tom Derek from Open Markets to talk about the unglamorous but high-impact work of capital asset management and capital equipment planning in healthcare supply chain.

We get specific about why so many organizations still run capital like a year-by-year scramble and how to change that without waiting years for a “perfect” redesign. Tom explains the difference between a front door strategy (where every request enters the funding process) and a back-end asset replacement strategy (important, but never enough). We also unpack what standardization really looks like in practice, why formulary management matters especially during mergers and acquisitions, and how buy-in from clinical leaders and administrators determines whether any process sticks.

Then we tackle tools and governance: why your ERP is great for cutting POs but not built for early planning, research, or replacement forecasting. We walk through a practical cadence for asset replacement planning with clinical engineering, finance, and supply chain, plus a simple scoring mindset to test ROI, patient safety impact, network needs, and regulatory requirements. You’ll also hear real-world examples, including what Banner Health is doing and how regional aggregation can drive measurable savings.

If you care about smarter capital procurement, fewer wasted purchases, and better visibility across teams, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a colleague in finance or clinical engineering, and leave a review so more healthcare supply chain leaders can find the show.
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