Vance B. Moore

 

Status: Active
Career span: 29 years (in healthcare supply chain); 7 (outside of healthcare)
Current title: President, Business Integration, Mercy, Chesterfield, MO

 

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

As one of the earliest adopters of the CSC model, Vance Moore helped take ROi, the integrated supply chain operation for Mercy, far beyond just a supply warehouse operation. Under Moore’s watch ROi became a commercialized operation to service non-Mercy-owned healthcare providers, too. ROi gradually added pharmaceutical procurement and packaging, custom procedure tray manufacturing, a private label product line, and group purchasing (not just a corporate purchasing operation), gaining the top rating of Gartner and AMR Research for supply chain excellence in 2009 and 2010. The previous CEO of ROi and the co-founder of ROi-CEO of Mercy confirmed this ramp up in scope, partner building, commercialization, performance and savings, has added significant benefit to Mercy since inception.

ROi received the 2006 Innovator of the Year Award from the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals toping other finalist like IBM, P&G, HP, Kellogg, and Dow Chemical, for ROi linking supply chain improved performance with improved patient safety. The Mercy COO stated Moore educated the entire Executive Team of Mercy, about what could be done, how and when, and proceeded to get it done.

Moore launched Regard – ROi’s Private Label program in 2007, making ROi the only provider with a legitimate private-label program.  The program now has over a thousand products and generates more than $40 million in annual revenue.

He was awarded Innovator of the Year by GHX in 2008 (out of 6,000 providers) for innovative use of electronic commerce between trading partners.

He earned SCM World Visionary of the Year in 2015 for driving breakthrough innovations and sharing (for free) ROi’s innovations in an effort to enhance supply chain management performance industry-wide.

Under Moore, ROi became the first healthcare provider-owned and operated consolidated supply and pharmacy service centers to obtain FDA approval and licensing to manufacture and repack pharmaceutical products into unit-dose, bar-coded products.

He helped prepared Livingston Healthcare for sale to UPS and integrated it, resulting in a healthcare logistics service enterprise for UPS Logistics. He managed the US business development function for this business unit to annual growth rate of 40 percent, and a close rate of three times greater than any other year in company history.  

Moore left UPS to help start a new provider-based supply chain organization for Mercy called Resource Optimization & Innovation (ROi).

After his role as ROi’s President and CEO, Moore was also asked to provide corporate oversight for Mercy’s IT organization (Mercy Technical Services).  During his tenure, MTS has been acknowledged and one of the best IT and analytics organization in the nation and through commercialization of several services, MTS now generate over $60 million annually in revenue for Mercy.   

Moore also was asked to redesign and help lead Mercy Research in a dyad relationship with Mercy’s Chief Clinical Officer.  Mercy Research is a comprehensive research organization that conducting clinical trials in four states.

He designed and implemented Mercy’s “Noah’s Ark“ program, which completed a patient care redesign initiative focused on a new model of care that was designed to a new quality standard, a differentiated service level, and to an affordable price point.

He also assumed corporate leadership of Mercy Virtual in a dyad relationship with the President of Clinical Integration.  Mercy Virtual is the largest and most comprehensive virtual care environment in the world. It provides a continuum of comprehensive virtual care services to other providers and populations.

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

Moore served as a dedicated member of the Bellwether League’s Board of Directors from 2010-2015. He demonstrated wisdom, judgment, advanced understanding of BOD operations, healthcare supply chain from the perspectives of provider, supplier, GPO and logistics company, and creative, innovative thinking and problem solving.

Moore’s CEO stated that his experience with governance while serving on boards for other companies outside of Mercy contributed to the successful governance of Mercy. Other Supply Chain leaders typically do not have that background so they cannot make a contribution, especially at that level.

Within Mercy, Moore’s advocacy for supply chain management was accomplished through education and mentoring of his own staff, as well as the entire corporate executive team. He taught them all how supply chain management can positively impact all aspects of Mercy, and showed them how to make it continually better.

Demonstrations of leadership:

Three senior-level Mercy executives for whom Moore has worked shared a variety of examples and observations about his leadership. Here’s what they shared.

“Moore is a great example of getting other people to ‘have it your way,’ through education, enthusiasm, demonstrating his concern for them as individuals, and his easy-going personality. You can’t help but like him and want to work (hard and smart) for him.”

Moore holds people accountable. That includes his staff, peers and those in the C-Suite. His CEO stated he is unaware of any of his peers having a supply chain leader with that characteristic and capability. The people being held accountable prefer it because they know what they need to do and that Moore was not wasting his own or their time when he explained to them what and how to do their work and achieve great performance levels. That prepared them for promotions and greater responsibilities, advancement and job enhancement.

Moore reportedly stays very current on virtually everything that is happening in the industry and the supply chain profession. People respect that dedication to his profession and employer.

Mercy’s CMO stated that Moore did a superb job of engaging physicians when it was time to recruit physicians to help work on physician preference items, in terms of reducing SKUs and unit costs. One physician educated by Moore said that he loves his job playing the game with suppliers … and winning.

Mercy’s CEO stated that Moore maintains the right balance of incisiveness and collaboration. His style is enhanced by his energy; it is infectious. Others just know they could count on what he was telling them, would and does work. He is a great role model. He is a leader who listens to the other person(s) carefully; they know that, appreciate it and respect it. He is rarely satisfied with how good something is working; he always seeks even better ways to do things.

His enhancements of and advocacy for ROi inspired others to pursue their own CSCs. He encouraged tours and shared data and information with the visitors, at no charge.

Moore serves or has served on Boards of Directors for the following: Omnicell, Ascension Ventures, National Evaluation System for Health Technology Coordinating Center Governing Committee and SCM World Future of Healthcare, and Bellwether League Inc.
Moore has received plethora of recognition awards, has authored 17 published articles on supply chain topics and has made dozens of presentations on healthcare supply chain topics at a wide variety of healthcare conferences and special industry events

Innovation in practice:

Moore helped take ROi, the commercialized Integrated Supply Chain operation for Mercy, to the top performer level, earning the top rating by Gartner and AMR Research for supply chain excellence in 2009 and 2010. He received the 2006 Innovator of the Year Award from the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals for ROi linking supply chain improved performance with improved patient safety. He developed one of the first healthcare provider owned and operated consolidated supply and pharmacy service centers to obtain FDA approval and licensing for ROi to manufacture and repack pharmaceutical products into unit-dose, bar-coded products.

Managing professional relationships and services:

Mercy’s CEO (the one who co-founded ROi), Mercy’s COO (the one who succeeded the CEO in running ROi) and Mercy’s CMO all reflected highly of Moore’s ability to manage a wide range of individuals, including superiors, subordinates, customers, etc. Both the CEO and COO preceded Moore into the Hall of Fame in the Bellwether Classes of 2013 and 2015, respectively. They assign Moore 9 key characteristics that serve as roots for business and professional success:

1. He has high energy.
2. He is a great listener.
3. His basis for management, and especially change management, is strong education.
4. He relates to others and sincerely cares about them in ways they can tell he is sincere.
5. He helps others reach their own goals and prepare for advancement.
6. He has a knack for self-deprecating humor.
7. He holds people accountable.
8. He leads by example and inspires others.
9. He has the vision and operations knowledge and experience to make visions real.

Commitment to ethical and moral standards and integrity:

Moore’s ethics, integrity and reputation in the industry and profession remain solid and steadfast as noted by colleagues and competitors alike.

IN HIS OWN WORDS…

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

Bellwether League’s mission to recognize significant contributors in a relatively hidden element of healthcare is both noble and important. Healthcare supply chain is often only recognized when things go wrong. When leaders do their job well, no one ever really knows. In healthcare, supply chain touches everyone, every day, and is one of the few elements of healthcare that can make that claim. All too often, supply chain leaders are quiet heroes that make the trains run on time. By recognizing significant contributors in this space, it helps provide recognition for risk takers, as well as guidance and hope for emerging leaders. Finally, it provides a key point of reflection on the progression of this industry and helps bind us all together in that story. 

What attracted and motivated you to get involved in the healthcare supply chain management field when you did?

I was lucky enough to be introduced to the healthcare supply chain by Baxter Healthcare. I joined Baxter as part of an experimental program of using industrial engineers as a mechanism for process improvement and automation. I was supported well and lucky enough to be introduced into provider operations through Baxter’s Field Directors of Logistics position. That position provided me great exposure to the caregiving process. I fell in love with the pace and passion of caregivers and their selfless approach to doing what was needed and right, but I also got to see the deep needs that could be solved through good supply chain integration. When I realized that caregivers embraced the help I was sold.  

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

Contributing to the creation of ROi – I remember the words of Lynn Britton (Bellwether Class of 2013) when I first met with the three founders of ROi. He said, “if we do this right, we will probably all get fired.” I loved the challenge in his comments. In that time, a bold effort by a provider supply chain group was highly unusual. Our model of a single entity’s total ownership of all products in the supply chain from manufacture-to-patient was not comprehended by many providers or commercial operators at the time. Many expected us to fail, yet we persevered and expanded our services.

Ultimately, our success and approach attracted other providers into our model. I have been lucky to have been involved at all levels of ROi’s evolution from a department, to a division, to a subsidiary, to a spin-off entity that has generated significantly to the financial and cultural success of Mercy and other providers that have joined us or followed our model.

Finally, my involvement with ROi’s evolution has allowed me to be associated with some of the best people anyone would every want to associate – from my leaders that have patiently mentored me and provided the opportunity to succeed to staff that I have hired, developed and evolve to senior positions both inside and out of Mercy; also, friends from our trading partners and other health systems that have advised and helped with our refinement. I am very proud ROi but maybe even more about the relationships and deep friendships that have evolved from the creation and evolution of the model.

If you 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 would you tell him or her?

I would emphasize two things – “essentiality” and “meaningfulness.” The healthcare industry is one of the largest industries in the nation and is one of the four pillars of Community (e.g., Government, Education, Religion and Healthcare). It is essential to the fabric of our country and our communities. Supply chain is also essential within healthcare – we touch everyone, every day. The essential nature of healthcare and supply chain means that opportunities in this space will be significant.

The second element of “meaningfulness” is also key. There are many very good jobs in the world that lack meaning. I think we all seek meaning in our life, and if we are lucky enough to secure a job with true meaning, it can help with individual purpose. Healthcare deals with humanity and need – our efforts can solve someone’s pain and suffering or at least provide a degree of compassion and comfort that few industries can provide.

What is the one industry challenge you would like to see solved during your lifetime?

I still believe that “marketing beats science,” and I would love to see “science beat marketing” through the intelligence we can gain through evaluating real-world evidence. We now have the system and data that can be productively used to help prove what works and what does not work with the products we select, source and use. I think that supply chain teamed with our analytics and care-giving teams can intelligently develop processes and analytical insight that will allow us to make highly objective decisions on the products and protocol we use.

What do you feel are some of the things that the healthcare supply chain does that’s right – for the patient, for the organization and for the profession … and why?

We are the connectors. We facilitate relationships, products and services that have a direct implication clinically, operationally and financially. Through our integrated and objective product selection process, we seek the effectiveness. In our negotiation process we seek value. In our sourcing and logistics process we seek efficiency. Our ability to connect clinically (effectiveness), operationally (efficiency) and financially (value) allows us to do right for our patients, our organization and our profession.

In two sentences or less, what defines healthcare supply chain leadership?

Understanding your customers and anticipating needs before they become issues to manage. Finally, executing your work with a confident, but servant heart helps tie the objective needs with the subjective desires of customers. 

If you traveled back in time to when you started in healthcare what would you tell yourself?

I would keep my mouth shut. I would probably have told myself there was a much easier way to make a living. Healthcare supply chain is not an easy path, but it is sure rewarding when you find needs that are matched with your skills; customers that need and want your help; and friends that understand what is required for success.