FAST FOREW
ARD
EDITORIAL
ARD
Publisher/Executive Editor Kristine Russell
krussell@hpnonline.com
Senior Editor Rick Dana Barlow
rickdanabarlow@hpnonline.com
Managing Editor Jeannie Akridge
The missing link
jakridge@hpnonline.com
(941) 927-9345, ext. 202
Contributing Editors Julie Williamson
jewilliamson@qwest.net
Susan Cantrell
susan_cantrell@bellsouth.net
Separate infection prevention from supply chain at your own peril.
No matter if you’re referring to the people who do it or the process
ADVERTISING SALES
East Coast Blake and Michelle Holton
itself.
(407) 971-6286
Flash backward some 20 years ago and the notion that purchas-
Midwest Donna Boatman-Riley
ing/materials managers and infection control practitioners should
(815) 393-4624
West Coast James A. Russell
be working together, if not in tandem, seemed elusive at best.
(941) 921-0391
Admittedly, it wasn’t such a foreign concept to practicing ICPs in the field, whether on
ADVERTISING & ART PRODUCTION
the front lines in hospital settings or in the more insular consulting world. Nor was it so Ad Contracts Manager Tiffany Coffman
much a pipe dream to progressive purchasing managers who saw it as one of several
(941) 927-9345, ext. 203
Graphic Design Tracy Arendt
ways to elevate the profession to C-level status, or at least have a seat in or an ear in the Art Services Gail Kaiser
boardroom.
MARKETING SERVICES
But to most, ICP-MM partnerships remained a head-scratcher as materials managers
obsessed over keeping shelves filled, clinicians happy and vendor pricing paid under
control. Achieving two of the three was considered successful.
Of course, this was before the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, the Alfred P. Murrah
Federal Building bombing in 1995, 9/11, the SARS outbreak, numerous weather disasters,
F
AST FOREW
Marketing Director Dick Page
MAILING LIST RENTALS
Kristine Russell
(941) 927-9345, ext. 201
CORPORATE
handful CJD threats, avian flu scares and most recently the swine flu not-quite-a-pan-
President Kristine Russell
demic. But this was at the tail end of the HIV/AIDS scare that sucked the latex glove
Healthcare Purchasing News (ISSN: 1098-3716) is published monthly
by KSR Publishing Inc., 2477 Stickney Point Road, Suite 315B,
pipeline dry back in the late 1980s to early 1990s. Sarasota, FL 34231, Phone: (941) 927-9345, Fax: (941) 927-9588,
We also experienced the resurgence of C.diff and MRSA, the former of which is spread-
www.hpnonline.com, Business hours: 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. EST.
ing faster than the latter and both of which are spreading faster than domestic terrorist EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
attacks involving biological weapons that eclipsed our clinical attention.
Niklaus Fincher, vice president, purchased services sales & capital,
VHA Inc., Irving, TX; Michael Rudomin, founder and principal,
At the same time, ICPs had to sound the alarm against antibiotic resistance and hospi-
Michael Rudomin & Associates, Bolton, MA; Jean Sargent, director
tal-acquired infections (HAIs), where they still serve as de facto mothers to us all by urg-
of materials management at University of Kentucky Medical Center,
Lexington, KY; Ray Taurasi, eastern regional director of clinical sales
ing us to wash our hands. To think that highly educated clinicians, regardless of the
and services, Healthmark Industries; John Mateka, FAHRMM, execu-
high-pressure situations they endure, have to be consistently, if not constantly, reminded
tive director of supply chain operations, Greenville (SC) Health Sys-
to wash their hands is absurd. It’s a vicious, needless cycle. Medical errors on the front end
tem; Irwin Baker, president, RPM Healthcare Strategies, Glen Head,
NY; Joe Colonna, vice president, supply chain management, Pied-
may lead to HAIs that clinicians try to control and eliminate (or cover up?) with liberal mont Hospital, Atlanta, GA; Robert Simpson, CMRP, president
use of antibiotics on the back end until the microbes armor up enough to negate the ef-
and CEO, LeeSar Regional Service Center and Cooperative Ser-
vices of Florida, Fort Myers, FL; Bryant Broder, ACSP/product
fects, which bites us on the back end in the long run. manager, Skytron; Melanie Miller, RN, Manager Central Process-
What does this endless struggle have to do with supply chain managers? Simple. In
ing/Supply Chain/Materials Management, Cedars-Sinai Medical
Center, Los Angeles, CA, Dee Donatelli, RN, BSN, MBA,vice
short, supply chain managers have to obtain the products and services needed for infec- president, supply chain services, VHA; Rose Seavey RN, BS, MBA,
tion preventionists (IPs) to do their jobs – that is, to battle the bugs to death. No duh, right?
CNOR, ACSP, Seavey Healthcare Consulting Inc.
What’s more frightening is that there was a time people just didn’t get the connection.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
They missed the motivation behind the link.
U.S.: $72.00 for one year (prepaid orders only)
Canada: $88.00 Single copies: $7.00
The bottom line: Infection preventionists may know what to get but supply chain man-
Foreign: $120.00 Industry Guide: $49.95
agers know how to get it, including where and when.
Special issues and back issues: $11.00 per copy, prepaid.
Certain individuals qualify for free subscriptions.
Both serve on product evaluation and/or value analysis committees, not only influenc-
ing purchasing decisions but ultimately clinical outcomes.
CHANGE OF ADDRESS
Subscribers: For change of address, send your old and new addresses
Two decades ago, Healthcare Purchasing News started to connect the dots and lay the
to Healthcare Purchasing News, 2477 Stickney Point Road, Suite 315B,
groundwork to illuminate and emphasize those linkages to its readers and the industry.
Sarasota, FL 34231. Fax: (941) 927-9588, E-mail: subscriptions@
Such efforts led to dedicated content and editorial within HPN and even spawned a carve-
hpnonline.com. Allow 4 to 6 weeks for correction. All other inquir-
ies, call Tiffany Coffman at (941) 927-9345, ext. 203.
out/niche within healthcare publishing – IPs as product influencers, a radical concept
that emerged periodically in the clinical journals.
So as Washington starts to dissect healthcare reform once again and as IPs and supply
chain managers may walk the exhibit hall of the Association for Professionals in Infection
Control and Epidemiology (APIC) this month in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, remember the mis-
sion. As technology improves while budgets implode, the bugs are clinically and fiscally
neutral. They consume and multiply in an endless game of survival of the fittest. Are you
KSR Publishing, Inc.
prepared?
Printed in U.S.A. Copyright 2009 by KSR Publishing, Inc. All
rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or me-
chanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information
storage-and-retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publisher. Healthcare Purchasing News is a registered trade-
mark used herein under license.
Office of publication: Periodicals Postage Paid at Sarasota, FL
34242 and at additional mailing offices.
Postmaster: Send address changes to: Healthcare Purchasing
News, P.O. Box 182, Osprey, FL 34229.
4 June 2009 • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS
www.hpnonline.com
0906-FastForeward.pmd 4 5/11/2009, 9:37 AM
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