1. Suppliers need to be chosen and evaluated on many attributes, not just costs. Read this report and develop a scorecard that you think might meet their needs. Justify the categories and weighting system.

Healthcare transportation is an often overlooked area in the healthcare supply chain project priority list.

Transportation is often viewed as a small component of spend that can be readily sourced to any number of capable suppliers, based on low cost alone. Hopefully, this report has made a case to dissuade supply management executives from adopting this view.

In fact, transportation has a major impact on hospital operations, total cost, and patient care, and is viewed as highly important by many stakeholders in the organization, including physicians, administrators, and the c-Suite.

Sourcing managers may adopt a different view, and question how much risk and cost is currently being left on the table within their own network.

A thorough assessment of providers (as well as current in-house relationships) can reveal important opportunities to re-focus resources on core capabilities that are critical to your IDN, and ensure that outsourced services are transitioned with a capable and dependable third party. We believe that this opportunity is in a nascent stage in healthcare, and look forward to your comments and feedback.

2. Should TSU outsource student housing? Be sure to carefully state the analysis process, the relevant issues, and make realistic COST and PRICE assumptions.