2021 Advisory Board Provider Seat Candidate: Pamela L. Bryant, BS, MBA

Pamela L. Bryant, BS, MBA

Senior Vice President / Chief Supply Chain Officer
Parkland Health & Hospital System
Dallas, TX

Describe why you are a good candidate for this leadership role.

I have been with the Parkland Health & Hospital System 2.5 years; in that time, I have strived to improve communications and the influence of supply chain to drive cost improvements and efficiencies throughout the organization via the following:

Standardization of the contracting process for more transparency with the Budget and Finance Committee and Board of Directors’;
Relaunched the Value Analysis program to support clinical initiatives for product change and introduction;
Restructured supply chain informatics to enhance support of software and systems owned by supply chain
Resolved outstanding Internal Audits issues dating back to FY2015 related to supply chain
Restructured supply chain operations at the hospital to better align with the needs of the facility, including
- Dedicated assignment of staff to key units
- Scheduled communication between supply chain leadership with key stakeholders
- Developed inventory protocols to increase inventory management requirements
- Incorporated Community Outpatient Patient Clinics (COPCs) inventory into supply chain
- Finalized transition to new distribution supplier
- Resolved outstanding Office of Talent Management (OTM) actions within the department
- Established DME monitoring process to improve contract performance
Served as supply chain liaison in the command center during the COVID-19 response
Acquired and managed PPE supplies for COVID-19 response during numerous clinical protocol changes impacting PPE supplies daily
Managed PPE supply for all locations including all COPCs and correctional health
Transitioned disaster management inventory into the supply chain
Managed all donations from suppliers, businesses and the community from receipt to distribution
Coordinated and facilitated the National Stockpile inventory for Dallas County
Provided coordination to support the COVID-19 drive thru and walk up testing locations to include PPE supplies, food delivery, security and equipment.
Coordinated and managed the drive thru food drives for Parkland employees
Tracked Parkland Foundation funding in support of the COVID-19 response including purchases and receipts
Developed justification for new warehouse to support COVID-19 response
Reduced error rate in physical inventory from 17% to 3% achieving below 5% target for the first time
Transitioned Inclusion & Supplier Diversity into Supply Chain
Developed SOP for Fleet Management Program to address an internal audit finding on the lack of controls for Parkland Owned Vehicles
Managed the FY20 Celebrate Us initiative in collaboration with OTM.

Describe where you see health care evolving, and what you see supply chain’s role being in those future models

I believe healthcare will evolve in several ways to include finally move from a fee structure to an outcome structure, partnerships between health systems and insurers, remote patient monitoring, home based medicine solutions and technology implementations that work foundationally in other industries.Supply Chain will play an important role in any future model, however we will need to transform processes and enhance bench talent to be prepared for the anticipated change.

Fee Structure to Outcome Structure:

Pay for Performance, I believe will become a part of the new healthcare model. It will be important for Supply Chain to understand what exactly that means. The cost of the service will need to be detailed and standardized in several ways to ensure the health system can track and support the cost of providing service at a high level with proven outcomes. The supply chain system such as the ERP will be a tool used to connect with an EMR to provide such tracking of all products needed and used for a service/case.

Partnerships between Health Systems and Insurers:

We continue to learn as an industry that having the health system and insurer at odds is not productive. I believe we will see strategic partnerships between health systems and healthcare providers with insurers to provide overall better care to the patient. Supply Chain’s role will be to drive standardization and consider out of the box solutions to improve access to key products/services that will give the partnership a clear understanding of what it takes to provide the service inclusive of all cost, this will be our support of total cost of care (TCOC).

Remote Patient Monitoring:

As the pandemic has proven, remote patient monitoring is possible and can manage some basic medical conditions. As the population ages we will need to ensure that we can manage a disease state without having patients be in doctor’s office or in a senior living facility which a large population cannot afford. Supply Chain’s role will be to work with physicians/clinician on new technology that supports this service. It will be important for us to be a conduit for enhancing access to the care and work with new sources to create/develop cost efficient system in collaboration with our Information System colleagues.

Home Based Medicine Solutions/Technology:

The role of Supply Chain will be to embrace emerging markets and become a part of the transition of current technology that works in other retail industries. Trial and error may be the best approach so we can really develop a solution that will give patients a safe solution.

How will your leadership and vision strengthen AHRMM? Share your thoughts, making sure to touch upon the following: AHRMM’s mission, strategy map, the future of health care supply chain, and the CQO movement.

I believe my leadership will strengthen AHRMM through my drive for excellence in the supply chain and the continuous learning vision I have. The healthcare supply chain serves a key purpose in advancing the health care industry overall. As it has been shown through the COVID-19 pandemic solutions start and end with supply chain from identifying key safety products to ensuring they are available when needed.

I am an advocate for Supply Chain at all levels. As I worked with the county and state during the pandemic,I stressed the importance of having national collaborative organizations that could bring together a large contingency of Supply Chain professionals to drive improvement throughout the Supply Chain. I believe Supply Chain should be engaged in local and national forums to influence policy and ensure that safe, effective patients care remains the goal.

As an advisory board member, I would want to get engaged as a representative of AHRMM to improve the reach. I think an area I would be interested in is to support local chapters that are on the brink of discontinuing the chapter due to low funding and/or participation. AHRMM has a great platform currently and moving the organization forward by working with the local chapters to enhance their reach and sustainability will be important as we all know healthcare is local.

I would want to support AHRMM to identify funding opportunities specific to Supply Chain development and training. I have an attitude of continuous learning and I am always open to mentoring and sharing the opportunity for growth of our new and young Supply Chain teams.The future of the healthcare Supply Chain will require speed to implementation of new models to keep up with the changes in how patients receive their healthcare services.

As we continue the CQO journey, it will be important that the work that AHRMM has done in this area can be introduced into a larger footprint of health systems with the support of Supply Chain professionals on the ground. The concepts are solid and proven by those larger health systems who have taken on the initiative. I look forward to getting this great work closer to the Supply Chain professionals at the medium and small health systems.

Background

Active member of AHRMM for 15year(s) (Total number of years as AHRMM member 10)

Years in healthcare: 20+

Years worked in the healthcare supply chain profession:20+

Years worked in current position:2.5

Number of direct reports:8

Number of employees in your department: 235

Describe your current position and responsibilities:

I lead a team of over 200 personnel and I’m responsible for all aspects of the supply chain, including procurement, strategic sourcing, informatics, value analysis, supplier diversity, logistics, distribution, customer service, mailroom services, vendor management and equipment/asset management.

Service

List service to local chapter and to AHRMM national, including all committee/task force involvement, and whether you served as a member or as chair, within the past 5 years.

NTAHRMM President; Philanthropy Committee Chair
NTAHRMM Past President Board Committee Member
AHRMM Member

List Annual Conferences, Leadership Training Conferences, and Thought Leader Summits attended, including dates and locations, within the past 5 years:

WBENC National Meeting—June 25-June 27, 2019-Baltimore Maryland
ANAE Summit –July 11-July 12, 2019 –Dallas, TX
Women’s Business Council –July 18-July 19, 2019 –Austin, TX
Women’s Business Council Harvesting Partnerships –September 5 –Grapevine, TX
Fall IDN Summit –September9-September 11,2019-Phoenix, AZ
Vizient Connections Education Summit –September 16-September 19, 2019 –Las Vegas, NV
Gartner Supply Chain Fall Peer Forum –October 14-16, 2019—Fort Lauderdale, FL
Annual Health Care & Supply Chain Summit –January 26-January 28, 2020 –New Orleans, LA
Logimed –March 12-March13, 2020 –San Diego, CA
Spring IDN Summit (Virtual)-April 12, 2021
Vizient’s 2021 Clinical Supply Leaders Fireside Chat-April 21, 2021
Scott Becker Podcast Series-May 10, 2021
Becker’s Annual Meeting-May 11-May 26, 2021

Service to professional associations or community organizations to which you belong, including all committees, whether you served as a member or as chair, the year(s) of service, any elected offices held and the year(s) held:

AHRMM Member
NTAHRMM President, Philanthropy committee chair
Women’s Business Council Southwest Board of Director Chair, Finance Committee, Nominating Committee, Executive Board Committee
Vizient Supply Chain Committee
Southwestern Medical TIF District Board of Director’s Chair