Company Overview

The Strategic Marketplace Initiative (SMI) is a consortium of executives representing healthcare providers; medical products, pharmaceuticals and supply chain distribution companies; and service businesses united to reengineer and advance the future of the healthcare supply chain for the purpose of improving the overall healthcare marketplace in the United States. Through SMI, members have discovered an open, non-competitive forum for innovative idea-exchange and the development of collaborative process improvement initiatives. SMI’s mission is to establish new standards of supply chain performance for delivering healthcare to patients and their communities throughout the United States. Additionally SMI was formed to act as a change agent for healthcare. SMI provides critical mass representing key industry stakeholders and decision makers within the healthcare supply chain interacting and sharing best practices. Through collaboration, tools and techniques are developed that members can take back to their organizations and customize to meet their unique needs. As SMI is dedicated to improving the entirety of the healthcare supply chain, all such tools / findings / improvements / established best practices are shared free of charge with the healthcare marketplace.

Corporate Structure/Governance

SMI is a not-for-profit, Virginia, non-stock 501 (c)(6) corporation operating to facilitate the activities of executives representing healthcare providers; medical products, pharmaceuticals and supply chain distribution companies; and service businesses united to reengineer and advance the future of the healthcare supply chain for the purpose of improving the overall healthcare marketplace in the United States. SMI is governed by a Board of Directors comprised of 12 persons, equally representing Provider and Industry Partners. No monies by way of consulting fees, honorariums or surplus allocation are provided to the Board of Directors or any member. In the unlikely event that SMI should be dissolved, all remaining funds are to go to charity.

Legal counsel has been retained for ongoing review of structure, policies, etc., and continues to be present at Forums. Initiative activities are continuously reviewed to ensure that focus remains on operational issues and processes, making certain that there are no discussions that could affect the competitive process and that discussions are in no way product or brand specific.

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Membership

SMI membership is open to supply chain executives of transactional trading partners from integrated delivery networks (IDNs) and academic medical centers; manufacturers of medical surgical, diagnostic and pharmaceutical supplies; capital equipment and medical device companies; distributors; service providers; IT companies; and other key suppliers with direct involvement in the healthcare supply chain ultimately impacting patient care delivery. Each must have a corporate structure owned and controlled by a single entity with a centralized operations function that has the capacity to affect operational change throughout the organization. All members pay a membership fee. Industry Partner membership is tiered such that those with national healthcare sales of $500 million and above pay $25,000 annually; those with sales less than $500 million but greater than $200 million pay $15,000; and those with sales of $200 million and below pay $12,500. Provider members currently pay $2,000 annually. Member fees are the only source of revenue for SMI. On an as-needed-basis, some Providers may receive a capped reimbursement for expenses directly associated with travel to SMI Forums.

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Forums

Two Forums are held each year. SMI Forums utilize an interactive meeting process offering a balanced blend of large general sessions, roundtable discussions, and small group work teams designed to educate participants and promote development of meaningful solutions and tools and techniques to enable adoptable improvements for the most important issues facing the healthcare supply chain. No extracurricular entertainment such as golf or spa service is offered. Spouse attendance is not encouraged. Forum expenses are solely funded through membership fees – there are no supplier sponsorships.

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Staff

SMI is staffed by the Executive Director, Tom Hughes who reports to the Board of Directors; and the Administrative Director, Teri Gallagher and the Project Director, Dennis Orthman who report to the Executive Director.

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Current Initiatives

Industry Standards

SMI has joined forces with leaders from across the industry to drive selection and adoption of healthcare supply chain standards - two workgroups have been formed to focus on adoption of GLN and Data Synchronization (GTIN) standards

810 Transactions

Improved efficiencies in payment processes

The Link between Supply Chain and Revenue

Identifying supply chain / materials management as a revenue contributor rather than solely as an expense center

Vendor Managed Inventory

Looking to see what efficiencies might be gleaned from examining this practice