On this episode we talk with Steve Kiewiet, Vice president, supply chain operations and interim co-chief supply chain officer with BJC HealthCare.

This episode is sponsored by Vantage Point Logistics.  Learn more at www.VantagePointLogistics.com

Steve started his healthcare career in high school, when he served as a member of the volunteer ambulance crew in his hometown. He spent 10 years as a hospital corpsman in the U.S. Navy, after which he worked as a paramedic while finishing his college education. After college, he was a pharmaceutical sales rep before moving to distribution, logistics and operations with a large national distributor serving the physician office market. He then moved into a business development role with a company that manufactures automated external defibrillators. After that, he joined Cardinal Health, where he had three different roles in Lean Six Sigma process improvement, product/category management and distribution operations. He landed in his current role at BJC HealthCare in December 2012.

His primary responsibility at BJC is supply chain operations, distribution/logistics, inventory planning/management along with centralized purchasing and the corporate travel/purchasing card program management. His team consists of the supply chain professionals working in BJC’s 15 hospitals, who partner everyday with the clinical and hospital operations leaders to ensure they have the supplies that are needed to support their mission in the delivery of care. Kiewiet recently assumed a co-leadership role with a peer as the chief supply chain officer for BJC HealthCare. Together they lead an organization of over 300 people, including sourcing, utilization management, analytics and process improvement professionals.