Bellwether League, Inc.Stanley J. Costello (1916-1976)

Stanley Costello

 

Status: Deceased
Career span: 22 years (in healthcare supply chain); 4 years (outside healthcare)
Last title: Director of Central Purchasing Services, Presentation Health System, Aberdeen, SD

 

Innovative, leading-edge, pioneering accomplishments befitting a Hall of Fame career:

In June 1950, Stan Costello and his wife Kathleen left Decatur, IL, and moved to Aberdeen, SD, where he opened a branch office for the National Cash Register Co. But that transition merely represented the preamble to what would become Stan Costello’s career and legacy in healthcare supply chain management. In May 1954, the Presentation Sisters of Aberdeen recruited Costello to serve as Director of Central Purchasing Services where he purchased all supplies for the organization’s four owned hospitals – St. Luke’s in Aberdeen; McKennan in Sioux Falls; St. Joseph’s in Mitchell and Holy Rosary in Miles City, MT. He also provided purchasing services to Mother Joseph Manor in Aberdeen and Brady Memorial in Mitchell, and a children’s home in Sioux Falls.

By the time of his death in 1976, Costello was leading central purchasing for 31 member hospitals and numerous non-acute care facilities that were part of what became known as Presentation Health System, which served as the foundation for Presentation Shared Health Services Inc. and it’s familiar regional group name “Presentation Affiliated Cooperative Effort (PACE).

Costello spent his entire healthcare supply chain career at one organization, leading central purchasing services, and helping it expand to 31 acute care hospitals across several states from four acute care hospitals and several non-acute care facilities.

At a time during the 1950s when you could count the number of privately held cooperative buying ventures on one hand, Costello brought and developed the concept of “group purchasing” to the upper Great Plains/Midwest region. He also expanded the reach of central purchasing and group purchasing beyond hospitals and into non-acute care facilities, and the scope of healthcare purchasing beyond hospital supplies. Costello purchased machinery for building improvements and vehicles for the organization, researched and subscribed to all insurance programs and supported the newly established Presentation College, which expanded to an accredited four-year program from a two-year program.

Focus on mentoring, education, and/or advocacy to advance other supply chain professionals and executives, and the profession as a whole: 

Costello represented the Presentation Sisters and Presentation Healthcare at all relevant conferences and conventions, preparing and presenting papers covering all areas of central and group purchasing services. He also was active in a variety of hospital association workshops throughout the nation.

Costello was well-connected and well-respected within the healthcare C-suite, supply chain and group purchasing areas, as well as in local and state political and charitable organizations.

Demonstrations of leadership:

Costello served as president of the South Dakota Hospital Association, was a charter member of the Upper Midwest Hospital Association and the National Catholic Hospital Association. At the UMHA and NCHA, he wrote and presented papers on the advantages of group purchasing, demonstrated by Presentation’s tremendous growth.

He was elected to the inaugural Board of Directors of the Group Purchasing Group, a trade association that advocated for and represented the growing industry segment of group purchasing organizations, the successors to the original cooperative buying companies of yore. He was the first recipient of the annual award GPG named in his honor for being an advocate and ambassador for group purchasing.

Costello also served on the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Advisory Board in South Dakota, as well as in other industry and local and state political agencies.

Innovation in practice:

Back in the 1950s, central, cooperative and group purchasing operations were novel among a handful of organizations, a profession some 40 years in the making. Costello brought group purchasing into the upper Great Plains/Midwest, uniting supply chain operations first between four acute care facilities and several non-acute care facilities and later growing that to more than 30 acute care facilities and nearly 200 other facilities as part of the regional shared services group PACE.

Costello pushed through any artificial boundaries that may have confined him to his basement office in the purchasing department of Presentation Sisters, extending his expertise and helping hands to those who needed them on a daily basis.

Nearly 70 years ago, purchasing wasn’t regarded as a profession, but Costello helped pioneer the drive to make it one.

Managing professional relationships and services:

Several testimonials give clear indication of his character as well as the admiration and respect of his colleagues and peers. Noted Don Bierle, General Counsel, Presentation Health System, “Stan was a wonderful Irish Democrat who was a great friend of mine. We used to drive the circuit together – from Aberdeen to Miles City to Mitchell to Sioux Falls – and we usually had a trunk-full of supplies to deliver to one hospital or another. Sometimes our headlights pointed straight up.”

Commitment to ethical and moral standards and integrity:

At the time of Costello’s passing in 1976, GPG established a memorial award in his name. The Stan Costello Memorial Achievement Award represented the highest honor bestowed annually by GPG to the member who accomplished the most to achieve recognition of the overall benefits of group purchasing. Costello was the first recipient that year.

During the succeeding years, many prominent healthcare supply chain leaders – including several Bellwethers – earned the annual Costello Award, including the following:

Donald Siegle, Hospital Council of Western Pennsylvania (Bellwether Class of 2008) in 1979; Carter Blake, Sisters of Charity, Houston, TX (Bellwether Class of 2010) in 1983; Robert “Bud” Bowen, Haricomp, Providence, RI (Bellwether Class of 2014) in 1984; Franklin Marshall (Bellwether Class of 2010) and Derwood Dunbar Jr. (Bellwether Class of 2011).

The Stan Costello Award recognized someone who promoted the concept and added to the integrity of group purchasing in the healthcare industry, according to Alan Schuhmacher, Chairman, GPG’s Award Committee, in late October 1978. Schuhmacher, also a GPG Board Member, described Costello as “a very cooperative person who enjoyed sharing a good golf story as much as he shared helpful information about group purchasing.” He had a “quiet and soft” demeanor, possessing “those Midwestern characteristics of being fair, hard-working and honest.”

In 1981, Presentation Sisters dedicated its purchasing department to Costello, affixing a memorial plaque on its door. During the plaque’s dedication, Don Bierle, General Counsel for Presentation Health System, described Costello as representing “the very essence of loyalty…a true person who believed in his cause…who believed in God…who believed in and supported the Presentation Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary…and who fought hard for his friends. …He was the spark in the sometime otherwise unchallenged environment of the South Dakota Hospital Association…He was the glue and the rubber band which held together the Hospital Sisters in South Dakota during many anxious moments…and he was the one always on hand and at beckon call of the Sisters…he was the pioneer of lay people working with women in the religious life…oftentimes sacrificing family time in that service.”

Costello earned the admiration and respect of three South Dakota governors, the Aberdeen mayor, a federal judge (the Honorable Charles Kornmann) and a prominent United States senator (Tom Daschle). Gov. Joe Foss appointed Costello to the Public Health Advisory Committee in 1957; Gov. Ralph Herseth reappointed him in 1959; Gov. Ralph Herseth appointed Costello to the State Health Board; Gov. Richard Kneip appointed him to the South Dakota State Planning Committee in 1971 and to the Education and Cultural Affairs Board in 1973 and in 1975. In 1969, Aberdeen Mayor Bill Hauck appointed Costello to the Housing Authority Board of the new Housing and Redevelopment Commission for the city of Aberdeen where he served as Vice President and Treasurer. This organization established low-income housing for both the elderly and for families.

Costello served as Brown County Chairman and State Treasurer of the Democratic Party and served as a delegate to the Democratic Convention. He also was a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Cosmopolitan Service Club, the Elks Lodge, the Knights of Columbus and the wildlife club of Ducks Unlimited.

IN THE WORDS OF HIS DAUGHTER PAULA BRAUN…

What are your impressions about Bellwether League Inc.’s mission and philosophy, and how do you feel about your father becoming an Honoree?

We, as the family of the Honoree, Stan Costello, [being inducted] into the Bellwether League Hall of Fame are proud to have our father recognized for his belief and philosophy behind the concept of healthcare supply chain management. The mission of Bellwether League represents all of the goals and ideas [to which] he dedicated his life and career.

What do you think attracted and motivated your father to get involved in the healthcare supply chain management field when he did?

He recognized a new and novel approach to healthcare supply chain management soon after he began working as Director of Central Purchasing for the Presentation Sisters. And that became his mission.

For what one contribution do you think he would he like to be most remembered?

He strongly believed in the value of Group Purchasing. He wrote and presented papers based on the growth and success of the Presentation Health System and built it from a group of four hospitals to 31 member hospitals.

If your father were to encourage someone – either outside of healthcare or just out of school – to enter healthcare supply chain management and strive to be a future Bellwether League Honoree, what do you think he would have told him or her?

He would have told them that healthcare group purchasing is a well-respected and honorable career, one that would bring personal and professional satisfaction through serving the needs of others.

We, as the family of the Honoree, Stan Costello, [being inducted] into the Bellwether League Hall of Fame are proud to have our father recognized for his belief and philosophy behind the concept of healthcare supply chain management. The mission of Bellwether League represents all of the goals and ideas [to which] he dedicated his life and career.

What do you think attracted and motivated your father to get involved in the healthcare supply chain management field when he did?

He recognized a new and novel approach to healthcare supply chain management soon after he began working as Director of Central Purchasing for the Presentation Sisters. And that became his mission.

For what one contribution do you think he would he like to be most remembered?

He strongly believed in the value of Group Purchasing. He wrote and presented papers based on the growth and success of the Presentation Health System and built it from a group of four hospitals to 31 member hospitals.

If your father were to encourage someone – either outside of healthcare or just out of school – to enter healthcare supply chain management and strive to be a future Bellwether League Honoree, what do you think he would have told him or her?

He would have told them that healthcare group purchasing is a well-respected and honorable career, one that would bring personal and professional satisfaction through serving the needs of others.