SC Short Story
In recognition of Healthcare Supply Chain Week, Inspirity Health Partners is highlighting the people whose expertise and collaboration help healthcare organizations strengthen their supply chains and support patient care.
For Olivia, a senior manager on Mayo Clinic’s Clinical Quality Value Analysis (CQVA) team, healthcare supply chain is about much more than products and contracts. It is about connecting clinical needs with supply chain decisions to help ensure the right product is available for the right patient at the right time.
With 28 years of nursing experience, much of it in the operating room, Olivia brings a clinical perspective to supply chain management. Today, she helps Mayo Clinic and Inspirity Health Partners members strengthen the connection between clinicians and supply chain teams.
Bridging clinical care and supply chain
Mayo Clinic’s CQVA team supports activities ranging from value analysis and new product reviews to product management, recalls, vendor relations and contracting. Central to that work is serving as a liaison between the clinical practice and supply chain.
“CQVA works hand in hand with the clinical practice to ensure the right product is used at the right time on the right patient,” Olivia says. “Working closely with the clinical practice builds a clinically integrated supply chain that enables clinicians to provide patient care with standardized products and quality outcomes.”
Olivia brings that same approach to her work with Inspirity members, providing clinical knowledge, analytics and guidance to help organizations make informed product and supplier decisions.
For members building their own clinical value analysis capabilities, the work also involves developing people and processes that can be sustained over time. Olivia helps CQVA professionals become effective links between clinicians and supply chain, supporting everything from product reviews and trials to recalls and conversions.
“It’s more about training and co-developing processes that will support the member to manage this work in the future,” Olivia says. “Ultimately, it becomes the new norm.”
Creating value through collaboration
Olivia sees one of healthcare’s greatest opportunities at the intersection of clinical excellence and fiscal stewardship.
Mayo Clinic’s CQVA approach considers value through the optimization of quality, safety, service and outcomes relative to cost. Inspirity helps members apply those principles to product and contract decisions, bringing clinical evaluation and supply chain expertise together.
That collaboration can support greater standardization and efficiency while maintaining a focus on quality, safety and patient outcomes.
Putting the approach into practice
Olivia saw the impact firsthand with a newly onboarded Inspirity member seeking greater standardization and contract alignment across several product categories.
She worked with clinical leaders to identify products requiring hands-on evaluation, then brought supply chain leaders and key clinical stakeholders together for an in-person assessment.
During a single session, the group reviewed 42 incumbent products and proposed contracted alternatives across 13 product categories.
More than half were approved for conversion during the meeting. One category moved to a clinical trial, while the remaining products underwent additional review before ultimately being approved for conversion.
The collaborative approach accelerated decision-making, supported contract alignment and reduced product variation. It also demonstrated the value of involving clinical expertise early in the supply chain process.
For Olivia, that connection is at the heart of a clinically integrated supply chain: bringing together the people selecting products and the clinicians using them to care for patients.
A small-world connection
Olivia has also discovered that healthcare can be a surprisingly small world.
During an onsite assessment with a potential Inspirity member, she learned that she and the organization’s chief medical officer came from the same hometown in Iowa. Even more surprising, Olivia’s mother and the CMO’s father had graduated from high school together, shared every homeroom class — and were driver’s education partners.
“It’s a very small world!” Olivia says.
It’s an unexpected connection that reflects something central to Olivia’s work: the relationships behind healthcare supply chain and the value that can be created when people come together.