About AHRMM

Howard Mann

Provider Candidate

Howard Mann
Senior Director, Materials Management
Saint Luke's Health System
10918 Elm Avenue, Suite 102
Kansas City, MO 64134
(816) 932-5663
hmann@saint-lukes.org

Background

Member of AHRMM for 22 years
29 years of experience in the resource and materials management field

Current Position and Responsibilities

Type of Organization: Integrated Delivery Network (IDN)
10 years in current position

Responsible for: non-labor expenses within 11 hospitals, integrated delivery network, including contract management, purchasing, receiving, distribution, mail, laundry, equipment management, CIP, resource management, printing, document management, courier management, operations team of Consolidate Service Center.

Service to Local Chapter

Formerly Certified Senior, AHRMM, currently CHE, engaged in VHA Leadership over the past 10 years, served on VHA Leadership Awards Judging panel for past four years, served as chair of Novation Information Council in 2005-6; attended KAHRMM meetings; member of Coalition of e-Health Standards. Ran for president of Florida chapter of AHRMM in 1987.

Service to AHRMM National

Speaker at AHRMM 1989 Annual Conference

AHRMM Annual Conferences and Leadership
Training Conferences

Attend VHA Leadership annually, Council of Supply Chain Executives, VHA Affinity Groups.

Other Professional Associations and/or Community Service

Vice Chair, Board of Directors, Hospital Linen Services – 2007- present
President, Kansas City Civil War Roundtable

Why you are seeking this position?

I believe that healthcare materials management is at a crossroads for change. My involvement with VHA as a participant, speaker, panel judge, affinity group member, and co-founder of Mid America Service Solutions (MSS) CSC, leads me to believe that our profession needs to adopt new strategies to meet the continued challenge of shrinking reimbursement, healthcare reform as change, higher cost of technology and it’s continued integration with information systems, and the shortage of qualified, knowledgeable new talent in the field of healthcare materials management.

How can you advance AHRMM's mission to advance healthcare through supply chain excellence?

By continuing the excellent work AHRMM has undertaken to inform, educate, and strategize a newer workforce to the future structure of healthcare materials management, acknowledging new models of supply chain delivery, extension out into the functions of usage, and reaching back to close the loop on production management by manufacturers.

Identify 3 - 5 strategic priorities you think AHRMM should undertake and your reasons for identifying them as important.

1. Re-design education to meet changing Supply Chain model needs while continuing to support current model.

2. Continue to inform using traditional models while expanding information to social media.

3. Continue to support education and certification among membership, but foster higher education models, internships, in college, junior college, graduate studies, and in public education for supply chain and healthcare supply chain as a viable career.

Identify your personal and professional qualities that will be valuable in the position for which you are being considered.

1. Experience in successively different roles in Healthcare Materials Management over 29 years, including small single hospitals, integrated delivery networks, consolidated service centers, ambulatory surgery and physician practices, and six years in information technology.

2. Engagement in organizations at a high level, whether GPO, IT, or personal.

How will you use these qualities to benefit AHRMM, the Board, and the members?

Whether selected or not, I continue to support AHRMM by encouraging Materials Managers and other reports to be engaged with AHRMM, and I have promised to become more involved, personally.

What do you expect to be your single, greatest contribution to AHRMM as a Board member?

Taking my combined experiences, desire to influence change, and my approach to translate strategy into positive action and apply it to any relationship I have with AHRMM, would, hopefully, impact both AHRMM and myself as a member.

Describe one transformational experience in your professional life you have been involved with and what you have learned from this experience.

In 2002, my current organization, Saint Luke’s Health System struggled with a long-term desire to achieve Malcom-Baldrige status, with particular difficulties in adapting the Baldrige process to Process Management with Suppliers and Partners, centering around Materials Management. By following the PI process, flow-charting our processes, identifying our customers and partners and their requirements and the measurements that support those requirements, Materials Management adapted our approach to supply chain management by transforming the approach we take to our responsibility of managing non-labor spend. Subsequently, Saint Luke’s did achieve Baldrige status in 2003, and we haven’t been the same since – literally!