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November 16, 2022 : Intermountain Healthcare is commemorating the tenth anniversary of their Supply Chain Center, which was a pioneer in keeping critical medical medications and tools in stock and accessible to caregivers and patients in the COVID pandemic.
The Intermountain Supply Chain Center started in Fall of 2012 on 24 acres in Midvale City as an excellent distribution and warehouse site. Its central location was inseide 50 miles of 90 percent of Intermountain’s hospitals in Utah and Burley, Idaho.
The Intermountain Supply Chain Center idea began five years before the building was finished.
Intermountain’s purpose for the Supply Chain Center was to lower costs while assuring clinicians and caregivers had the supplies efficiently. It simplified processes by purchasing supplies instantly from the manufacturer and leveraging bulk purchase possibilities.
“Owing to the Intermountain Supply Chain Center, we have achieved many supply chain triumphs over the years with most recently ensuring our frontline caregivers had what they needed during the pandemic,” states Bert Zimmerli, executive vice president, and CFO. “You cannot have a model health system minus a model supply chain community.”
More than 1,400 caregivers operate across Intermountain’s supply chain in multiple states, with the base in Midvale being the central location for logistics and warehouse.
Big warehouses like the Intermountain Supply Chain Center are rare finds in healthcare, but what makes it apart is the logistics aspect which makes day-to-day operations possible, stated Zimmerli.
“At a time the Intermountain Supply Chain Center was created 10 years ago, it was pioneering the way,” added the vice president of Intermountain Healthcare’s Support services and chief supply chain officer, Allison Corry. “It was not common of that healthcare providers were getting distribution services into their own fold.”
The ample space of the Supply Chain Center permits Intermountain to stock up and hold supplies on hand during hard times like the COVID pandemic. This ensures that supplies are on hand and will enable them to stock up when prices are less.
It’s been so thriving Intermountain is expanding the center with a giant project to add 38,000 square feet of pristine warehouse area and 10,000 square feet of pharmacy area. The project is anticipated to be completed in 2024.
Intermountain Supply Chain persists to innovate as they recently collaborated with Zipline to utilize drones to deliver over-the-counter and specialty pharmacy objects to patients in Utah.
These innovations are vital to improving healthcare admission while streamlining solutions and reducing care costs, said Corry.
