COMMUNITY REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER-FRESNO

1. Policy Statement

Supplier Diversity Policy Statement

As a locally owned and operated healthcare network, Community Health System respects and celebrates the Central Valley’s rich and diverse heritage. Our commitment to diversity and inclusion is a cornerstone of our patient care and work culture. All are welcome as valued members of our community whether patient, employee, physician, student or visitor. Creating a truly diverse workplace includes prioritizing diverse suppliers of goods and services. Our high standards of service excellence are supported by obtaining the best value, seeking local vendors when possible, maintaining the highest ethical principles and facilitating the inclusion of diverse suppliers.

2. Goals and Timetables

Please describe your hospital's short-term goals and timetables, but not quotas, for increasing procurement from women, minority, LGBT, and disabled veteran business enterprises

Our hospital's short-term goals and timetables for increasing procurement from women, minority, LGBT, and disabled veteran business enterprises includes: effectively tracking current spend, engaging with a number of minority owned enterprises we currently utilize, and identifying opportunities to expand utilization. We are currently developing a more real-time dashboard that will assist in our monitoring efforts.

Please describe your hospital's long-term goals and timetables, but not quotas, for increasing procurement from women, minority, LGBT, and disabled veteran business enterprises

Our hospital's long-term goals and timetables for increasing procurement from women, minority, LGBT, and disabled veteran business enterprises includes: determining our historical KPI's (minority spend, count of minority business enterprises, product availability versus demand, etc.) and reviewing goals annually with the intent to expand utilization for contract supply categories set to expire in the upcoming years. Additionally, partnering with our current minority owned enterprises to identify opportunities to expand their footprint within our Healthcare System.

3. Outreach and Communication

Please describe the methods in which the hospital encourages and seeks out both prime and subcontract suppliers from women, minority, LGBT, and disabled veteran business enterprises to become potential suppliers

Community Health System's (CHS) commitment is to make supplier diversity an integral part of our Supply Chain Management (SCM) strategy, first through supplier identification utilizing available resources (GPO, Local Partners and Government Websites) and then identifying Supplier opportunities for implementation.

Please describe the methods in which the hospital encourages its employees involved in procurement to seek out women, minority, LGBT, and disabled veteran business enterprises to become potential suppliers

CHS provides multiple venues for our employees to impact our procurement efforts in service to our customers. We employ a committee approach to our clinical care and supply selection. These include, but are not limited to, the Value Analysis Committee, the Technology Assessment Committee, the Wound Product Committee, etc. that review the introduction of new vendors and products. These committees work in conjunction with multiple teams like vendors, clinical departments and supply chain to assess the implementation of new vendors that further enhance our current clinical practices. This is done while ensuring the financial health of the hospital and pursuing the goal of expanding our partnerships with women, minority, LGBT and disabled veteran enterprises. During the process, in which we have a supply contract expiring we have set the expectation for the contracting team to explore all vendors (suppliers) that can support our requirements, this includes identifying Diverse Suppliers. We have updated our RFP process to include questions that allow us to identify Diverse Suppliers in our effort to expand utilization and explore opportunities. Additionally, we actively engage with our GPO (Premier) & direct vendors on subcontracting with diverse suppliers.

Please describe the methods in which the hospital conducts outreach and communication to women, minority, LGBT, and disabled veteran business enterprises

CHS is committed to receiving feedback and learning from the experiences of diverse populations within our community. When conducting the triennial Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA), CHS seeks input from women, minority, LGBTQ+ and veteran organizations and individuals through personalized outreach for participation in public surveys, key informant interviews and focus groups. The 2023 CHNA included 8 key informant interviews and 37 focus groups specifically gathering input from these populations. Additionally, CHS sends out a Request for Funding Application to a diverse group of local non-profits annually, including organizations primarily serving underserved members of our community. In FY24, some organizations receiving funding included: Marjaree Mason Center, The Fresno Center, Vision y Compromiso and the BLACK Wellness and Prosperity Center. CHS prides itself on being a diverse healthcare provider. This is reflected in our workforce with 40% of clinical and non-clinical staff identifying as Latino, 23% are Asian staff members and 4% are Black or African American staff members. 72% of our workforce represent diverse ethnic backgrounds and 75% of our workforce identifies as female. 58% of our leadership team are women and 31% of our leaders represent diverse ethnic backgrounds.

4. Support and Supplier Resolutions

Please describe the methods in which your hospital supports, partners with, or interacts with organizations and other entities in the procurement ecosystem that promote, certify, or contract with women, minority, LGBT, and disabled veteran business enterprises

Our hospital works in conjunction with Premier, our Group Purchasing Organization, in identifying and activating supply agreements with minority owned enterprises. We have regular meetings to review current categories and agreements as well as forecast categories that will require partnership with vendors to fulfill our hospital's needs. We use this opportunity to identify minority owned enterprises we can do business with. Outside of working with Premier, we communicate with many local, minority-owned enterprises to create business relationships.

Please describe the methods in which your hospital resolves any issues that may limit or impede an enterprise from becoming a supplier

When an issue presents that limits or impedes an enterprise from becoming a supplier, we will partner with them directly to identify the source of issue and then work collaboratively to develop a viable solution. For example, if an enterprise is unable to provide the required supply volume, we will partner with them and a secondary vendor to ensure the Healthcare System has the required volume to ensure patient care is not impacted. We partner with enterprises to develop creative solutions that are beneficial to both entities, while ensuring that Patient care is not impacted.

5. Diversity Commission Recommendations and Planned Implementations

Please describe the past implementation of relevant recommendations made by the Hospital Supplier Diversity Commission

On our journey to increase Supplier Diversity, we have reviewed the Hospital Supplier Diversity Commission's recommendations and implemented many of them, while developing a road map for others. Our first action was the implementation of the supplier diversity statement as this sets course and direction, followed by the implementation of an outreach program, webpage, the requirement for diverse suppliers to obtain certification through authorized body, and informing our prime distributors and suppliers to report on spend with diverse suppliers. Additionally, we have enhanced our SCM RFP process to include a diverse supplier identification process and modified our vendor intake process to include a data field that captures diverse certification.

Please describe the planned implementation of relevant recommendations made by the Hospital Supplier Diversity Commission

As we continue to move forward to enhance our supplier diversity program, we are working on developing and strengthening our processes so they are sustainable. To do this we are reviewing and updating our standard operating procedures to include processes aimed at enhancing our supplier diversity spend. Additionally, to strengthen the standardized processes we are identifying where new policies can be developed: i.e. inclusion policy. Regarding metrics, KPIs and tracking, we are developing new dashboards that will allow leaders to see information in more real-time, allowing strategic decisions surrounding supplier diversity spend and achievable annual targets. Additionally, we are leveraging our current ERP Transformation Project to ensure the database is developed to allow for better overall reporting of supplier spend, including supplier diversity spend.

6. Procurement Process and Certification

Please describe your hospital's procurement process

Community Health System works in conjunction with Premier, our Group Purchasing Organization, in identifying and activating supply agreements with minority owned enterprises. For supply categories where Premier does not have agreements we utilize our RFP process to develop supplier direct contracts ensuring the Healthcare system receives the best product, at the right quantity and right price. Our goal is to ensure the clinicians and physicians have the supplies required to ensure the best possible care.

Website Link(s)

https://www.communitymedical.org/about-us/diversity-inclusion

Do you require suppliers to be certified?

Yes

Do you accept self-certification

No

7. Diverse Supplier Spending

Diverse Procurement Spending by Minority

For the reporting period, enter the dollar amounts procured by your hospital from those business enterprises that employ the majority of their workforce in California.

Diverse Procurement Spending by Other

For the reporting period, enter the dollar amounts procured by your hospital from those business enterprises that employ the majority of their workforce in California.

What is your hospital's total procurement (including diverse and non-diverse suppliers)?

$329,344,336

Procurement means the purchase or lease of supplies, services, equipment, and capital expenditures related to buildings and fixed equipment during the previous calendar year. Procurement does not include items such as employee salaries and wages, fixed asset depreciation, amortization, or taxes.

8. Supplier Point of Contact

Enter the contact information for the individual that business enterprises who are interested in contracting with your facility can reach out to.

Name: Nicholas Mehas

Enter the contact information for the individual of the diverse business outreach liaison of your hospital.

Name: Edith Zazueta Garcia

Hospital Contacts for Diverse Business Enterprises are available upon request. Please send request via email to supplier.diversity@hcai.ca.gov

9. Third Party Procurement

Third Party Procurement

• Premier Inc.
• https://premierinc.com/

10. Other Relevant Information

We are developing on improving our data structure that will improve our overall reporting.

Looking for Related Reports?

• Hospital Profile
• Hospital Fair Billing Policies