The global MedTech industry is ascending to new heights every day. The vigorous growth in the markets, the increasing population, and the growing demand for MedTech products and services are expanding the boundaries of the healthcare sector. In addition to this, the inventions and advancements in medical science are also accelerating the growth of the industry.
Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and other reformative technologies and services are the key aspects of this transformation. In this process, every company is striving to deliver products and services that encompass the potential to change lives.
However, each company needs a visionary leader to embark on the path of success. These leaders not only push their companies to pinnacles of success but also open new horizons of opportunities.
The finest example of such a personality is Erin Tournoux, the Senior Vice President of Operations at PartsSource®, the world’s leading online marketplace for MedTech replacement products and services. Erin has played a vital role in the successful journey of PartsSource. With her futurist mindset, she is helping to lead the company to new innovative heights.
Erin started her journey at PartsSource as a Product Manager and transitioned to Director of Strategic Programs, where she worked on strategic partnerships with independent service organizations and original equipment manufacturers.
She has been working for 12 years with PartsSource. When Phil Settimi, MSE, MD, joined the company as CEO in 2014, he gave Erin the opportunity to establish the PartsSource Client Services team – focused on successful implementations and the integration of supply chain solutions and optimized processes for new PartsSource PRO® clients.
In her time with the company, she has directed supply chain programs in cooperation with original equipment manufacturers and secondary partners. She implemented a Net Promotor Score (NPS) process and active management strategy to execute continuous improvements to the customer experience.
For the last three years, Erin has held the role of Senior Vice President of Operations, with responsibility for all operational aspects of the business. She has a team of 100 people across purchasing, on-demand sourcing, customer care, order management, returns, warehouse operations, and logistics. Erin is driven by continuous improvement and excels in the delivery of customer satisfaction, operational excellence, and employee development.
She has been in the healthcare industry for 17 years, working on both the commercial and operations sides of the business. She made the transition from the education sector into healthcare after speaking with a friend about the industry. What inspired her most about healthcare was the opportunity to work in a growing market and make a difference and impact the quality of patient care for millions of people.
Prior to PartsSource, Erin gained healthcare experience with Tenacore LLC – a healthcare technology company specializing in the manufacturing of medical accessories and depot repair of medical equipment. While at Tenacore, Erin worked in business development, working directly with healthcare organizations, and ultimately supporting the distribution strategies with strategic partners, and that is how she learned about PartsSource.
“I love the healthcare industry, we’re one big family, and I’ve really enjoyed my journey at PartsSource – from the people to the mission, to the incredible growth we are experiencing, we’ve evolved so much as a team and a solution provider over the last several years,” expressed Erin.
Setting Benchmarks
PartsSource provides an integrated suite of cloud software and marketplace technology tools to help hospitals efficiently source on-demand parts and services and empowers vendors to grow their businesses.
Today, PartsSource’s marketplace connects more than 3,500 hospitals and 15,000 clinics, with more than 6,000 MedTech OEMs and 5,000 MedTech repair professionals across the country in a single integrated network.
PartsSource’s cloud solutions help hospitals increase the uptime of mission-critical equipment, improve patient safety, and maximize throughput and profitability. Additionally, its patented PRECISION Procurement® algorithm uses three billion data points to ensure the highest quality options are presented. This technology eliminates uncertainty by using evidence‐based metrics to recommend the highest value and highest quality item.
PartsSource is relentless about advancing innovation to best serve its customers’ changing needs. Over the past 20 years, the company has evolved as its customers’ problems grew in scope and complexity.
PartsSource serves them with the people, process, and technology to deliver a more reliable and resilient medical device supply chain. Over the course of time, the company expanded its services beyond on-demand parts. In 2019, its online marketplace was expanded to include minor equipment – with the goal of helping customers quickly find quality equipment at budget-friendly prices.
Today, PartsSource has more than 2300 items in its minor equipment offering, including the most in-demand, high-quality infusion pumps, telemetry transmitters, patient monitors, modules, ECG, defibrillators, pulse oximeters, scales, and thermometers. In 2020, the company established the industry’s first and largest on-demand service network to support its customers’ on-site repair and maintenance needs with curated and credentialed access to over 5,000 service engineers.
Each day, team PartsSource works to deliver the PartsSource commitment to customer satisfaction and continuous quality improvement. Its customer care team is focused on gaining and addressing customer feedback through NPS surveys and utilizes this customer data to work to continuously improve the customer experience. They read every single customer comment to understand where they can add support and action on each, as an opportunity to create value.
Overcoming the Pandemic
The current pandemic shined a light on the critical nature of a reliable healthcare supply chain and put tremendous pressure on both supply chain and clinical engineering teams. Their need to gain timely access to products and services required to keep mission-critical equipment operational for patient care has never been greater.
PartsSource’s team has risen to this challenge, and they implemented several actions and new processes to ensure that they could effectively meet the increased demand in a remote environment.
Team PartsSource continually focuses on advancing the mission of delivering quality patient care. In addition to this, with the staff working 24×7, they took the following actions to promote supply chain continuity, which remain in place today:
Supplier Engagement: PartsSource has engaged key suppliers of the most frequently purchased products to understand the status and outlook for inventory and will continue to communicate this information to customers.
Operational Performance Monitoring: PartsSource’s teams are equipped with technology and analytics to monitor order status in real-time and ensure operational issues are immediately addressed. They monitor daily supplier performance metrics to ensure that quality standards continue to be met.
Data-Driven Early Warning System: The company leverages intelligent analytics to power an early warning system that alerts the team to signs of potential supply disruption. This system enables PartsSource to proactively engage on the customer’s behalf to ensure continuity of supply.
Continuous Investments: Investment in additional technology to obtain more real-time information from suppliers as well as additional resources to manage exceptions that may take place.
Supplemental Labor Services: PartsSource provides expert third-party clinical engineering resources to support clients navigating labor shortages as well as those who desire to free their in-house teams to focus on higher-value work through the on-demand service network.
During the pandemic, one of the most innovative operational initiatives Erin and her team led, in partnership with the Technology team at PartsSource, is the ‘PartsSource Command Center™.’ This innovative platform offers real-time surveillance of PartsSource Pro members’ critical KPIs from quote request to fulfillment by the PartsSource Rapid Response Team to alert our teams of exceptions, prevent supply chain interruptions and promote resilience. In order to provide proactive communication to clients about their orders and alert them of delays, the Command Center Rapid Response Team proactively:
- Monitors open quotes to ensure items are sourced quickly
- Reviews priority and critical items awaiting manager approval
- Uses expansive supplier data to ensure orders meet suppliers’ requirements and expected delivery dates
- Monitors ship dates to ensure clients are kept up to date
- Reviews all return/exchange requests
Technology Transforming the Healthcare Sector
It is essential for healthcare services companies to align their offerings with evolving technology. At PartsSource, the team is always thinking about how to leverage technology-enabled solutions to evolve the company’s products and services and deliver an improved customer experience.
In recent years, the team has evolved its PartsSource Pro flagship solution adding Visual Analytics to help clients manage quality and control costs. With Visual Analytics, the company’s clients are equipped with comprehensive, accurate, and actionable insights to help guide decisions and consistently uncover opportunities for improvement. The tool enables clinical engineering teams to:
- Access real-time insights to see trends in spending by technician, manufacturer, and product type.
- Identify missed hard cost savings and uncover opportunities to save on depot repair service and minor equipment purchases.
- Measure and improve quality by monitoring return rates and going deeper with dynamic drill-down capabilities and trending location data.
This year the management has also expanded PartsSource Pro with a system-wide Operations Dashboard to give clients real-time insights across the medical device supply chain. The PartsSource Pro Operations Dashboard provides one centralized location to increase efficiency and monitor supply chain approvals, open orders, exchanges, returns, and repairs, providing clients some of the same real-time data we monitor and manage internally via the Command Center.
The dashboard also gives clients access to clinical engineering supply chain activity to support daily planning and monitor team activity with one simple click. Lastly, the service lets clients monitor shipping and deliverability and receive exchange reminders to reduce costs and increase quality across the health system.
“If I had the ability to change one thing, it would be to accelerate technology adoption to deliver high-quality patient care across all health systems. Imagine if every hospital in the world had the technology in place to improve cost, quality, and productivity of capital equipment service – using evidence-based outcome data. This would, in turn, improve the uptime of critical equipment, enhance safety, reduce risk, and maximize throughput and profitability for mission-critical operations across hospitals and clinical sites,” said Erin.
Advice for Budding Healthcare Leaders
When asked for her advice to the budding healthcare leaders aspiring to venture into the MedTech industry, Erin said, “My first piece of advice is that venturing into the healthcare industry requires a specific type of person – you must be nimble, this is an ever-changing and evolving market, change is inevitable, adapting and growing through it is essential. Secondly, focusing on continuous improvement and having an eye on how to continuously evolve yourself, your teams, and your organization is crucial.”
“In any job, but especially in healthcare, it is important to feel connected to the purpose; it links you to the mission in a more meaningful way. I see people have a far greater impact when they feel connected. Lastly, to be a great leader, you have to build a great team. Recruit strong, resilient leaders that bring varying skills to the table and hire where you have gaps. Continuously support your team with their individual growth, and not only will they become more capable leaders in your organization, but it will help continue to build your skills as a leader.”
Voyaging Towards New Horizons
Erin believes that success stems from and starts with the technology and tools that PartsSource provides to both clients and employees, as well as the process of continuing to transform automation. By working as quickly and efficiently as possible, the company has been able to take on significant volume and growth while providing high-quality service to customers.
“Going forward, I see us continuing to evolve and invest in our technology, automation, platform tools, real-time reporting for clients and suppliers, and our most important asset, our employees,” Erin concluded.
