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within their surgery center space and

Fall 2020 New building leased . Space was originally used for COVID testing .

Jan 2021 Space requirements established .

not have been as optimized for supply chain efficiencies .” In addition , UW Health was able to arrange a 3PL agreement with Medline to hold additional UW Health stock , since Medline already has a warehouse management system . The benefit is that this is part of Medline ’ s core capabilities — warehouse operations and logistics — as opposed to how UW Health might have to manage that process , which is outside of its core commitments in healthcare . In the past , UW Health had to pay others to hold stock , as they did not have the necessary space . Now they have this arrangement , space , storage and more opportunities to do bulk buys and stockpiling .

Ultimate goals for the CSC ( Consolidated Service Center ) and beyond

Efficiency and standardization Part of any good early healthcare partnership with larger systems is to find not only where efficiencies could be uncovered on the main campuses but also across the whole system . Often , so much energy is spent on the largest piece of the pie for most major IDNs , that little energy is left for the broader continuum . This is where understanding of all the players — acute and post-acute settings alike — is helpful from a larger distribution and supply chain efficiency stance .

One of these areas of efficiency can be found in the process of standardization . In 2021 , Medline worked with UW Health to convert to Medline branded items . This had to make sense from a cost perspective and across quality and clinical expectations . As many products were still so difficult to come by due to larger supply chain disruptions , the process of standardization and conversion helped with overall efficiencies in ordering , pricing , and availability of product . UW Health is now looking at standardization not only in the main hospital system , but also specialty clinics .

Aug 2021 Construction starts .

Supply chain staffing According to Ernst and Young , which conducted research from 200 seniorlevel supply chain executives in late 2020 and 2022 , 61 % of respondents said that along with their goals to “ retrain and reskill their [ supply chain ] workforce in the next year , there will be efforts to

help workers use digital technologies , adapt to changing company strategies and ways of working like increased virtual collaboration , and assist people in operating equipment with health and safety in mind .” 1

April 2022 Construction completed , and Medline starts filling the building .

January 2023 John Walls Support Services Center goes live .

This is an area close to Webb-Hapgood ’ s heart . At UW Health , part of her commitment is grooming the next generation of supply chain leaders and staff . She believes they , like other university health systems , have a unique opportunity to collaborate with the undergrad and graduate programs at University of Wisconsin . She reached out to Marc Phillips , Senior Vice President of Corporate Sales , at Medline about the chance to develop an internship with UW Health and Medline — a three-way relationship with the university . Medline was thrilled to partner on this opportunity . Phillips , Zach Malingowski , Senior Director of Supply Chain Optimization , and Webb-Hapgood put the plan on paper and went back to the programs at the university to get buyin . It was an immediate “ yes ” from every player . This is completely different for a university or college to focus on both undergrad and graduate programs .

Within eight months of putting plan to paper , the University of Wisconsin , Madison , has established two internship programs for the undergrad program between sophomore / junior and junior / senior years . The recruitment started in

“ Regardless of the size of your organization or supply chain , we are all trying to find resiliency and learn to be more agile and nimble within our organizations . Since we don ’ t have a crystal ball to tell us what is going to happen next , it is important to focus on future supply chain generations and defining processes of preparedness for the next obstacle or challenge .”

— Judy Webb-Hapgood , System Vice President of Supply Chain and Support Services , UW Health

the fall of 2022 for 2023 summer interns . For the graduate program , there is now an internship between the first and second years of the master ’ s program . The internship could first take place in Chicago at Medline , with the second happening at Madison within their system . With the second internship , supply chain leaders would help instruct on areas such as planning and budgeting . Additional details include :

• Specialized projects yearly for the graduate students in areas such as analytics , operations or logistics either with Medline or at UW Health .

• Focus on innovations in crisis : For example , during COVID , not everything went according to “ textbook ” and sometimes they needed to do a 3D printing of a widget they might need for something in order to do what they needed to continue to do — take care of patients . It is critical to teach students how to be creative and agile . COVID proved how integral supply chain is to healthcare and brought more attention

medline

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