PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: How to Use This Blog Site

Introduction

Welcome to the Think Outside-In Supply Chain blog! I am glad you are here. My name is Tim Hagler, I have been in the Healthcare Supply Chain field for about 30 years. In that time, I have had the fortune to work with great, mission-driven people, and worked with many high-value initiatives that have reduced costs, increased the quality of care, and made great progress in shoring up avenues that improve access to care for poor and vulnerable patients.

Who I write this blog for

My continued mission with this blog, is to reach out to all of my healthcare and life sciences finance and supply chain colleagues and our clinical partners, by bringing state-of-the-industry healthcare-related initiatives and ideas, but also to find the best ideas circulating in the supply chain functions from other industries as a way to build some new value-added roads to better operations and ultimately reduce the cost of healthcare.

Reading the blog posts

Inside each post there is a table of contents to assist you to get right to the content that interests you quickly and accurately.

At the bottom of each blog post are helpful links to premium FREE content that will guide you quickly to high-value initiatives that you can engage with right away. Also, there are links to purchase content such as the Expense Reduction Idea Logbook for sale on Amazon. More about these items in a minute.

Site Navigation

With more than 100 blog posts on the site, finding the exact content you are looking for can be a challenge. So, the site has a ‘search’ function on the home page, as well as some high-level categories across the top of page nav bar. If you have an interest in how supply chain can address global disruptions and make a more reliable supply chain a reality, then there is a section for that, with a depth of content to start you on your way. And if you want to drill down further or even talk it out a bit, please comment on a post or send me an email at tim@thinkoutsideinsupplychain.com

The blog posts have been categorized as: Accounts Payable, Clinical Engagement, Supply Chain Disruption and Resilience, Environmental Stewardship, Expense Reductions, Leadership, Logistics and Warehousing, Procurement Strategies, Supply Chain Data and Systems Solutions, and Supply Chain Operations Strategies.

Free High-Value eGuides

At the end of each blog post and in the side nav bar there is links and forms to subscribe to the email newsletter that will alert you to new content, and a link to four downloadable eGuides that are deep-dives into specific value-delivering content that you can put to work in your organization right away.

Free eGuide #1: 5 Outstanding Value Drivers

“5 Outstanding Value Drivers” walks through how to make key decisions on what to insource, outsource, and the best hybrid labor sourcing models – great starting advice when doing departmental design master planning or when the organization is driven to review the new overhead cost to service level operating models.

Free eGuide #2: Create Maximum Expense Management Impact from Low Effort

In the guidebook “Create Maximum Expense Management Impact from Low Effort,” we will consider a “MILE” approach to leading expense reduction. MILE is an acronym for Maximum Impact – Lowest Effort. These tactics will allow us to implement cost reductions nimbly inside our organization’s management comfort level. In short, MILE initiatives work well because they stay safely inside a set of initiatives that challenge performance without asking the organization to conduct massive change or bravely challenge the status quo.

MILE initiatives are great when you and your colleagues need to make a great amount of positive change, in a short amount of time. As if the momentum, great results, and limited effort aren’t enough to make these initiatives worthwhile, they often do not require a great amount of change management.

Free eGuide #3: 5 High Value Reasons to Align AP and Supply Chain

In “5 High Value Reasons to Align AP and Supply Chain” we focus on how AP and Supply Chain share a stake in oversight of payment to contract terms and how together this shared oversight can drive substantial value.

Free eGuide #4: 6 Ways Supply Chain Influences Cost Reduction in Healthcare

“6 Ways Supply Chain Influences Cost Reduction in Healthcare” is a look at how we as Supply Chain and Finance leaders in healthcare continually frame and elevate the discourse on expense management. From taking on the most simplex moratorium on a single cost driver to highly complex and high impact disease state value analysis models to make a biggest impact on costs, you will have to take several bites, and this eGuide shows you how you can lead through the highest levels of expense management collaboration.

Aside from the links in the blog posts, you can get started with these eGuides now by following >>> THIS LINK<<<  to the page to sign up for the email list and you will get access to these high value eGuides right away.

Expense Reduction Idea Log

Also, in the blog posts you will find a link to Amazon.com to review and purchase a hardcopy book: ‘Expense Reduction Idea Log for Healthcare Supply Chain Professionals.’ This book is designed just to help keep an informal set of notes ready as comparative functional equivalent ideas come their way.

On the left side of the page is a place to quickly note the demographics of an item, descriptions, identifiers, cost, usage, and stakeholders.

On the right side page is an area for open-form notes.

At the front of the log is a simple list of the ideas contained, so the user can more easily find them when thumbing through.

Also, the back matter of the log, are 120+ typical expense reduction ideas to help inspire you – or use them as a free roadmap to expense reduction… This section is designed as a place to ‘get a jump start’ when you need to churn new ideas on the spot.

The link to this book on Amazon are included in most blog posts, but again, you can get started by ordering your copy (or copies) now at >>> THIS LINK TO THE LOG BOOK ON AMAZON <<< as well.

Conclusion

This is a robust blog site with content packed into over 100 posts, and each blog post is presented with a high-level overview of a topic to inspire any supply chain leader to imagine fleshing our the concept in their organization, all the way to sufficient detail to take action on the next steps to deep review or move to outright implementation.  

Please don’t feel like you should consume it all immediately, you are welcome back as often as you feel the need… AND if you need to talk about something to flesh it out a bit, please send me an email at tim@thinkoutsideinsupplychain.com – I am always happy to be a sounding board for great developing ideas, or to add a little ‘spice of advice’ when needed.

As always, I know how hard y’all work, and I appreciate all you do.