Joel Prah

Joel Prah
Vice President, Supply Chain
Mercyhealth
Janesville, Wisconsin, and Rockford, Illinois

About Joel Prah:
Born and raised in the greater Milwaukee area, Prah was always intrigued with how things are made, and he pursued a degree from Milwaukee School of Engineering in manufacturing engineering. He held leadership positions at General Electric and other manufacturers, and obtained his Executive MBA from Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management during the early part of his career.

As director of manufacturing at a telecom equipment company, he fell in love with procurement and the ability to leverage the company’s supply base to advance manufacturing goals for cost, cycle time and inventory reduction. After Y2K, when the telecom industry flattened, he took a position as director of supply chain at an Ascension Health system in Milwaukee. He developed, designed and built consolidated service centers at two health systems in Milwaukee, the more recent one being at Froedtert Health.

Prah joined Mercyhealth in August 2018. He is responsible for logistics, operations, print services, sourcing and purchasing, and other hospital administrative duties. He serves on the Executive Council, reporting directly to Javon R. Bea, president/CEO of Mercyhealth.

About Mercyhealth:
Mercyhealth is a multi-regional health system with more than 850 employed physician partners, seven hospitals and 85 primary and specialty care locations serving 55 northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin communities. Mercyhealth’s over 8,000 employee/partners care for more than 2.4 million patient visits each year.

Most challenging/rewarding project in the past 12-18 months:
“It was imperative for me to take time early on in my new role at Mercyhealth to learn our operations, get to know my teams, and develop relationships with other leaders, and at the same time assess the supply chain organization and determine what our future strategy should be. We were in the middle of a spine implant initiative that had stalled during negotiations. It was rewarding for me to work with my new team, physicians, legal, and the supplier to get this contract ‘over the finish line.’’”

Looking forward to:
“Key projects will center around the integration of our two legacy supply chains. Mercy Health and Rockford Health came together in 2015, but we have been operating with two different ERP systems and two prime distributors. This year we will evaluate ERP systems, partnering with IT and Finance. After we make our decision, we will develop a strong implementation plan. I am also looking forward to selecting one med/surg distributor, freight management company and vendor credentialing supplier. Finally, we will be evaluating the opportunity to design and develop a centralized integrated service center for Mercyhealth.”

How are you better at practicing your profession today than you were 5-10 years ago?
“I have always believed in understanding the ‘how and why’ of everything I am involved in, and typically ask a lot of questions. I continue to learn from everyone around me, including our CEO, vice presidents, physicians, peers and staff. I try to Observe, Listen, and Learn, and use past and present knowledge to guide decision-making.”

What are the challenges or opportunities facing the next generation of supply chain executives?
“This is a great time to be in supply chain. The opportunity to make a significant difference in financial and clinical outcomes in healthcare is embedded in our overall role and responsibilities. Challenges will continue in balancing reduced reimbursement and increasingly expensive technology. The work that can be done with some of the new technologies is outstanding, and we want to do what’s best for our patients. But such technologies often are more expensive. It’s incumbent on supply chain leaders and others to understand what’s driving our costs, and to make sure we keep it in check.

“I would recommend to the next generation of supply chain professionals that they spend time learning what our clinicians do on a daily basis. Get out there and spend time in the OR, cath lab, ED and other areas.

“To be successful, supply chain professionals need to be skilled in many areas, such as finance, negotiations, problem solving, logistics, analytics, leadership, change management, performance improvement and other areas. We all need to be lifelong learners and to collaborate with the many roles within our health systems to drive our profession forward.”

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