An Interview with Bill Christie, AVP Support Services

The pandemic tested the supply chain at Virtua Health like no prior stressor. Communication, creativity and teamwork combined to get the system’s supply chain operations through to the other side even more resilient than it was before.

During the early months of the pandemic, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. was the New York Tri-State Area, which includes parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Virtua Health, the largest health system in Southern New Jersey, serves that market and was on the frontlines of the first COVID surge.

Virtua, based in Marlton, N.J., operates over 200 different care sites under its corporate umbrella, including five hospitals, 24 joint ventured ambulatory surgery centers, 10 inpatient and outpatient rehab facilities, eight urgent-care clinics, four health and wellness centers, two post-acute care facilities, a freestanding cancer center and more than 160 employed physician practices.

Bill Christie is Virtua’s assistant vice president for support services and runs the system’s supply chain operations. He oversees 100 FTEs and an annual supply chain spend of more than $700 million, which includes $100 million in capital assets. Christie had a front-row seat during COVID’s first surge.

4sightHealth, on behalf of MedSpeed, Virtua’s logistics partner, spoke with Christie about how the COVID-19 outbreak affected the system’s supply chain, how he and his team overcame those challenges, and lessons learned from that experience that will make Virtua’s supply chain even more resilient in the future.

Read more here: https://www.4sighthealth.com/pandemic-problem-solving-covid-couldnt-defeat-virtuas-supply-chain-it-made-it-stronger/