The Most Critical Link in the Supply Chain? The People Who Make It Possible.

The term “supply chain” tends to call to mind images of forklifts, trucks, or container ships at sea – but there is another, arguably more accurate, representation. Think of a supply chain as thousands of points across a line. Consider the example of buying a product online: the supply chain is the series of connections that make it possible for the new shirt, shoes, or cell phone you’ve purchased to make the sometimes long, complex journey between ‘click to buy’ and a package that shows up on your doorstep.

The risks, and the consequences, of a break in that chain grow exponentially when the added element of patient care is factored into the equation. The vast infrastructure that is the healthcare supply chain is the conveyor belt that hospitals and health systems largely depend on to supply the tens of thousands of products clinicians need to care for patients—everything from a syringe a nurse uses to draw blood at a patient’s bedside to the specially designed gloves a surgeon wears when making an incision. But the healthcare supply chain is also the lifeblood of the healthcare system, and its ability to continue beating is vital to ensuring that America’s estimated 6,000+ hospitals, outpatient care centers, and physician’s offices can care for the people who walk through their doors.

The most important variable in connecting supply chain links that stretch from the point of manufacturing to the point of care is also perhaps the most easily overlooked. While both technology and process play vital supporting roles, the human touch is required to direct, predict, respond to, and solve the numerous logistical challenges inherent in a system with this much scope and complexity, and with so much riding on its success. In short, without the people who make it all work, there is no healthcare supply chain.

Michael Darling

VP of Supply Chain
Saint Luke’s Health System
Kansas City

Michael Darling, VP of Supply Chain at Saint Luke’s Health System in Kansas City, is one such person who has developed a knack for simultaneously seeing the big picture without losing sight of the details that could impact the delivery of patient care. For him, this ability is informed by his experience working on both the clinical and supply chain sides of healthcare. Darling’s journey started in high school, when he worked at a community hospital in Atlanta in the 1970s. Later, he became a registered nurse and ultimately transitioned into a supply chain role in the 1980s. For the past four decades, Darling has navigated multiple public health crises that have strained the healthcare industry – from Ebola to COVID-19. But the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and 1990s is what really sparked Darling’s knack for building strong connections across the supply chain.

“My transition into the supply chain side of the world really came from a passion to match clinical outcomes and clinical needs with ensuring we get the right product, the right services and the right cost. When we can manage utilization, we can really control our destiny of how to deliver care to the community,” notes Darling.

Darling recalls that during the onset of the AIDS epidemic, people wanted information and answers, but there was little available. Yet despite the uncertainties, hospitals and clinicians knew that an influx of sick patients would mean the need for more supplies like personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect the health and safety of their staff. Darling’s expertise, judgment and a personal willingness to go above and beyond to prepare for more patients led him to quickly shift his team’s approach to care for these patients and continue operations across service lines.

Ironically, for the people who support the healthcare supply chain, the best measure of success is when products appear to show up effortlessly at the point of care—leaving clinicians and patients unaware of the carefully calibrated journey something as simple as a bandage might take so that it’s on hand in the emergency room or the exam room just when it’s needed.

For Darling, the role of supply chain in healthcare is more apparent than ever given the impact the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have on the industry, and the world. “When people think supply chain, they don’t necessarily see the scope,” he says. “Our health system now has a deeper understanding of how my team touches every single service, every single location, and every single product used in our clinical network.”

Darling believes the more that health systems, distributors, manufacturers, and suppliers all speak a common language of driving positive clinical outcomes, the better the supply chain can help patients receive the care they need. But speaking starts with listening. “My job is 90 percent listening and 10 percent taking action, but taking action is based upon good knowledge and data,” he says. “Listening is more than just hearing. Listening is about what you are reading and seeing, including data inputs, from a worldwide and regional perspective.”