Cameron McWade

Today’s #MondayMotivation inspires collaboration.

When speaking with Cameron McWade, a Senior Buyer at Guelph General Hospital, it quickly becomes clear how important collaboration is to him and the entire Materials Management Team.

The Team includes Purchasing and Stores. Keeping the Hospital well supplied with materials and equipment is a complex process. It can range from finding chairs that can withstand being wiped down on a regular basis with disinfectant to thousands of surgical masks to a multi-million-dollar piece of equipment such as an MRI scanner. Staff in Stores are responsible for managing all the Hospital’s inventory and making sure all areas across the Hospital are well stocked.

As with any well-run organization, getting the best bang for the buck when making a purchase or negotiating a contract is never lost during the purchasing process. For that, the Team works with various hospital departments as well as external partners to identify and negotiate significant savings. As always, the savings are realized only if they can be done within the Hospital’s rigid standards for patient safety and care.

A great example of this was an initiative that took place last fiscal that reduced the Hospital’s annual Operating Room (OR) expenses by about $700,000!

By teaming with OR staff, the Team evaluated alternative products across many OR material needs and found more cost-effective options

The first week of October is dedicated to celebrating healthcare supply chain professionals and recognizing the important role they play behind the scenes in supporting the high quality care provided by Guelph General Hospital. So, a big “thank you” to Cameron and to the rest of the Materials Management team.