Taking The Supply Chain Pulse

St. Onge’s Healthcare Hall of Famer and industry icon, Fred Crans, chats with leaders from all areas of healthcare to discuss the issues of today's- threats, challenges and emerging trends and technologies in a lighthearted and engaging manner. ENGINEERING A BETTER HEALTHCARE SYSTEM We provide comprehensive planning and design services to develop world-class facilities and highly effective support services operations. Our capabilities in hospital supply chain consulting include applied industrial engineering, lean methodologies, systems thinking, and operations research to enable improved patient care and staff satisfaction. We are proud to have worked with over 100 hospitals, including 18 of the top 22 in the US, utilizing diverse design strategies, post-construction implementation, and change management.

Taking The Supply Chain Pulse is a business podcast hosted by St. Onge, with 87 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

St. Onge hosts Taking The Supply Chain Pulse, a business show with 87 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Taking The Supply Chain Pulse

  What If Most Care Happens At Home By 2050

  Aug 27, 202640 min

  We talk with Dr. Reuben Pillet, Chief Innovation Officer at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, about why healthcare needs “unreasonable” thinking to make real progress. We also map a future where AI, automation, and patient-led care shift the system from sick care to wellcare. • Dr. Pillet’s roles at UAB and why a multi-hat view helps innovation • What “thinking unreasonably” means and why other industries hold the playbook • The sustainability crisis in healthcare: access, cost, quality, and outcomes • Why the current business and operating model cannot be tweaked at the edges • How AI, digital tech, sensors, biotech, and platforms create a rare window to transform care • The regulation dilemma: protecting patients while enabling innovation • What healthcare could look like by 2050: prosumer care, automation, and on-demand specialist-level guidance • The shift from sick care to wellcare: prevention, longevity, and earlier intervention • How hospitals change: acute intervention sites, command centers, advanced diagnostics, regenerative medicine hubs • The next big thing: responsible AI deployment at scale • Why the Chief AI Officer becomes a core C-suite role and what that leader needs to know don't forget to hit that subscribe button and connect with us online so you'll never miss an episode and can catch up on all the ones you might have missed. Got a topic you're fired up about, or maybe you want to be a guest on the show? Fred would love to hear from you. Just reach out @fcrans@stonge.com Send us Fan Mail

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  Taking The Supply Chain Pulse

  Capital Planning That Actually Works

  Aug 13, 202634 min

  Capital equipment can make a hospital grow or quietly drain millions through rushed buys, weak justification, and devices that end up parked in a hallway. We want fewer surprises, fewer spreadsheets, and a capital process that actually helps clinicians while protecting margins. So we sit down with Tom Derek from Open Markets to talk about the unglamorous but high-impact work of capital asset management and capital equipment planning in healthcare supply chain. We get specific about why so many organizations still run capital like a year-by-year scramble and how to change that without waiting years for a “perfect” redesign. Tom explains the difference between a front door strategy (where every request enters the funding process) and a back-end asset replacement strategy (important, but never enough). We also unpack what standardization really looks like in practice, why formulary management matters especially during mergers and acquisitions, and how buy-in from clinical leaders and administrators determines whether any process sticks. Then we tackle tools and governance: why your ERP is great for cutting POs but not built for early planning, research, or replacement forecasting. We walk through a practical cadence for asset replacement planning with clinical engineering, finance, and supply chain, plus a simple scoring mindset to test ROI, patient safety impact, network needs, and regulatory requirements. You’ll also hear real-world examples, including what Banner Health is doing and how regional aggregation can drive measurable savings. If you care about smarter capital procurement, fewer wasted purchases, and better visibility across teams, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a colleague in finance or clinical engineering, and leave a review so more healthcare supply chain leaders can find the show. Send us Fan Mail

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  Episode #19

  Are We Trading Critical Thinking For Fast Answers

  Jul 30, 202630 minS3

  If your supply chain analytics feel shaky, clinicians are probably sensing it too and that’s where savings go to die. We sit down with Steve Kinsella, owner of Data Leverage Group, to get blunt about the healthcare supply chain data quality problem hiding in plain sight: messy ERP foundations, inconsistent item master data, and downstream systems that amplify every error. Steve explains why the real cost isn’t just bad reporting, it’s the loss of trust that keeps value analysis teams from even getting to the starting line on standardization and cost reduction. From there, we tackle the temptation of “fast data” and why artificial intelligence does not equal artificial infallibility. AI tools can generate instant summaries and confident answers, but Steve walks through the real risks when those answers are built on dirty sources or weak prompts. In healthcare, decisions around products and clinical practice can’t be made on autopilot, so we talk about validation, responsible use, and the guardrails that keep AI helpful rather than harmful. We also get practical about what actually moves decisions forward: a repeatable value analysis workflow that includes clinicians early, runs disciplined trials that don’t turn into black holes, and hands off cleanly to logistics for implementation. The through line is clear: strong process plus clean data protects critical thinking and speeds up the right outcomes. Subscribe for more healthcare supply chain and value analysis insights, share this with a colleague who fights the item master every week, and leave a review so more teams can find the show. What’s the one data issue you’d fix first? Send us Fan Mail

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  Taking The Supply Chain Pulse

  What If Logistics Is The Real Healthcare Breakthrough

  Jul 16, 202631 min

  We step away from the daily hospital storeroom grind and zoom out to the bigger idea of supply chain design with Taylor Wilkerson from Design for Life. We talk about using design thinking to rebuild public health supply chains so more people get the medicines and care they need, even as budgets shrink. • Taylor’s career path from engineering to public sector supply chain work • Why public sector supply chains measure success in impact, not profit • How professional groups build real relationships and career options • Practical alternatives to shallow “networking” and why friendships matter • What design thinking and systems thinking mean in supply chain design • Common structural problems in national healthcare supply chains • Warehouse count, inventory flow, and procurement choices that cut waste • The patient impact of stockouts and the trust cost of failure • Partnerships Design for Life is seeking: funding, technology, volunteers Don't forget to hit that subscribe button and connect with us online so you'll never miss an episode and can catch up on all the ones we might have missed. Got a topic you're fired up about, or maybe you want to be a guest on the show? Fred would love to hear from you. Just reach out at fcrans@stonge.com. Send us Fan Mail

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  Taking The Supply Chain Pulse

  Healthcare Capital Spend Simplified

  Jul 1, 202633 min

  We talk with HonorHealth Strategic Sourcing Program Director Matthew Mitchell about why healthcare capital is uniquely hard to manage and why demand for care creates real pricing pressure. We dig into practical ways to plan, fund, and measure major equipment purchases so capital dollars go further and technology actually gets used. • Matthew’s path from government and healthcare to hospitality and back, and what it taught him about cost control • Inelastic demand in healthcare, explained with simple examples • Why capital management looks different across IDNs and why standards are still rare • Moving from reactive buying to proactive capital planning after acquisitions and infrastructure strain • The growing role of IT and cybersecurity in capital prioritization • Mapping capital to a five to ten year strategic plan while vendors refresh models faster than depreciation • Managing internal customers across finance, clinicians, biomed, IT, construction, and purchasing • How we decide between buying, leasing, and placement deals for fast-changing technology • Using dashboards and utilization lookbacks to validate ROI and adjust operations • Why capital “savings” is often cost avoidance that funds more priorities And don't forget to hit that subscribe button and connect with us online so you'll never miss an episode and can catch up on all the ones you might have missed. Got a topic you're fired up about, or maybe you want to be a guest on the show? Fred would love to hear from you. Just reach out at fcrans@stonge.com Send us Fan Mail

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