Page 9 - Impression May 2020

Working as One to Keep Our Supply Chain Intact

Supply chain crises are in the national news headlines every day: PPE, masks, face shields, cleaning
materials. All of these items are critical to keep our staff and patients safe. By early March, Director of
Supply Chain Management Joe Johnson knew that careful management of inventory was key to
meeting the needs of patients and staff alike.
By March 16, these leaders extended their work days to lead by example, as supply chain management
ramped up to a 24 x 7 operation in linen and supplies, followed by extended hours in the mailroom and
the loading dock. All four areas had experienced a huge spike in requests, including laundering an
additional 500 sets of scrubs per day.

Director Joe Johnson says, “At any time, we can reach out to the warehouse to replenish. We were
impacted initially by a global run on supplies, but since production has increased, we feel like we have
planned well and are able to consistently manage and forecast.”

Johns Hopkins Bayview is part of a centralized organization run from the consolidated service center
(CSC) in east Baltimore. As staff in the storeroom fill supply requests from the clinical units, they track
and report inventory levels twice daily. Those reports are used by Johnson to request replenishments
from the CSC, which monitors global supply levels to purchase products for the entire health system.
Says Johnson, “My wish for my team is that they know how valued and appreciated they are by their
campus, by the health system at large and by our customers. Our brand new hires were still in
orientation when the pandemic hit, and they instantly jumped in to handle operations like our other
seasoned pros. This group is calm, poised, focused and efficient while gracefully providing excellent
customer service.”

We thank this group of extraordinary problem-solvers for their dedication to the needs of our campus.