Advantus Health Partners is a healthcare solutions company that makes the supply chain easier for its clients through streamlined management, organizational purchasing, operations, and cost-savings efficiencies. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Advantus Health Partners president Dan Hurry to learn more.
As president of Advantus Health Partners, Hurry is responsible for the vision, growth, and operational management of Advantus. And Hurry said:
“I am responsible for the strategic growth and direction of Advantus. On a day-to-day basis, I have executive oversight of our essential functions such as finance, clinical transformation, strategic sourcing, pharmacy and lab services, procure to pay, digital and business development. I have an incredible team of leaders who are experts in these key areas, which allows me to oversee operations while focusing on strategic growth, the vision, and the future of the company.”
Favorite Memory
What has been Hurry’s favorite memory working for Advantus Health Partners so far? Hurry shared:
“Launching and leading a supply chain company during a global pandemic is incredibly significant to me and my team, especially what I’ve learned and reflected on from that pivotal time in the history of health care and supply chain. What I am most proud of is that none of our hospitals or providers ever went without life-saving PPE and other essential medical equipment because we worked tirelessly to make sure critical supplies were not an issue.”
Economic Effects
Has the current macroeconomic climate affected the company? Hurry acknowledged:
“Absolutely. The financial pressures on health care impact everything we do, and we see it as our responsibility to bring innovation to our supply chain solutions to ensure we are reducing those pressures while maintaining the highest quality patient outcomes and the best resources and strategic partnerships for our clients. With the supply chain function overseeing a significant portion of a hospital’s or health system’s spend, often as much as 40 percent of total costs, we have to continually look for ways to bring value and solutions in this economic scenario and long after it has passed.”
Core Products
What are Advantus Health Partners’ core products and features? Hurry explained:
“We are an end-to-end supply chain company with a Group Purchasing Organization (GPO). Not the other way around. That is central to who we are at Advantus. Our core services include strategic sourcing and supply chain optimization, clinical transformation, operations, finance, pharmacy services, strategy and business development consulting, and purchased services for clinical engineering and hospitality.”
Evolution Of Advantus Health Partners’ Technology
How has Advantus Health Partners’ technology evolved over time? Hurry noted:
“We leverage technology and data as key tools in addressing the rising costs and resource constraints in health care. Our advanced analytics provide meaningful, actionable data that our clients can use to impact supply chain variability, costs, and breakdowns. We also leverage data and technology to help clients shift to value-based care models and to help our clients utilize their ERP to understand where opportunities for tech-enabled optimization—including through automation—exist. Digitizing the supply chain in another key use for technology at Advantus. This helps to provide the right product to the right patient at the right time.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of Advantus Health Partners’ most significant milestones? Hurry cited:
“I think I would have to begin with launching the company during a global pandemic. We were in the planning stages for launching Advantus and as the pandemic took hold and the world’s largest supplier of masks and gloves was located at the epicenter of the pandemic, we knew we had to accelerate our launch to meet the pressing needs in healthcare because we knew our distinct set of solutions could make a difference at such a critical time in the industry.”
Customer Success Stories
Upon asking Hurry about customer success stories, he commented:
“For one of our new clients in the implant space, we are reaching savings as high as 25-30%. We’re also proud of the value savings we’re bringing through our GPO member-purchased services contracts with industry leaders GE Healthcare (healthcare technology management) and HHS (hospitality services). Our current members have obtained 15-20% in purchased services savings. Through our strategic partnership with Medline, our clients have also achieved up to 7% in conversion savings. Through our pharmacy consulting engagement, we anticipated finding $3M in savings in pharmacy spend for a large IDN and found $14 million in savings.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates Advantus Health Partners from its competition? Hurry pointed out:
“We are different from other health care supply chain companies. We’re a supply chain consulting and solutions company that happens to have a GPO within our offerings. Another key differentiator about Advantus is that we are health care operators. We actually do the work. It’s not an academic exercise for us. We provide our services to the health care industry, and we are the supply chain function for a major regional health system.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of Advantus Health Partners’ future company goals? Hurry concluded:
We will continue to build out and enhance our strategic partnerships to strengthen and diversify our distinct offerings. Although we are early in the life-cycle of our business (we were founded in 2021), our goal is to become one of the largest and most successful supply chain and healthcare solutions companies in the industry. We believe that our distinct model positions us for this level of growth and success because we deliver cost savings, patient and clinician satisfaction, and improved supply chain reliability.
“As we look to the start of 2024, Advantus will be the first and largest customer of Emerge Manufacturing, which is a new PPE sourcing and manufacturing facility that is based in Cincinnati, Ohio. We are honored and proud to be their healthcare supply chain partner and customer. Currently, our physician-led clinical transformation team at Advantus is collaborating with Emerge on the quality and design of the face masks, surgical masks, N95 masks and other PPE products that will be made at Emerge. This investment in domestic production of PPE allows for a more resilient supply chain solution, and it reduces our carbon footprint.”
