Once a rapport with category managers is established, the supply chain and anchor mission teams must then shift their focus to developing tools to create and manage a pipeline of local and diverse suppliers and create a process that allows them to seamlessly bid for a contract or complete a purchase order to do business with the institution.

Having an assessment of what contracts are coming down the pipeline is an essential function when seeking to shift spend from an existing vendor to a local one. In most hospital settings, there are often few categories that are directly controlled by strategic sourcing rather than a Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) and the pool of available local and diverse businesses need to be sourced and cultivated over time.

For this reason, it is helpful to have ongoing internal bid opportunity reviews with the supply chain team and the anchor mission teams to determine any upcoming opportunities that may be worth exploring in case it could result in shifting spend to a local supplier. A bid calendar is a useful tool and helps to outline upcoming contract renewals and any RFP timelines that could be shared with business service organizations to source eligible businesses for bid opportunities.

If contract opportunities are sparse, departmental purchasing also provides an opportunity for shifting spend by using contracts that are managed by departmental leaders without having to complete a formal bid process. These opportunities are budgeted for by departments and are under a certain dollar amount threshold (usually under $100,000). Many departments outsource part of their annually procured goods and services (usually in professional services) to small firms that can deliver quickly and efficiently. Common categories for these engagements include printing, marketing, promotional items, and one-off information technology contracts to create internal platforms for a specific purpose.

Departmental purchasing may be an ideal place to start for some institutions looking to shift spend locally. Having a clear and easy-to-understand purchase order process is helpful for both prospective suppliers and internal employees looking to purchase goods and services for their departments. Rush attempted to employ a departmental purchasing strategy just before the pandemic, and the process involved choosing select departments to pilot a local purchasing program. Rush selected its marketing and IT departments to varying degrees of success. Finding space in existing departmental budgets proved to be difficult, and departments usually did not have knowledge of local anchor mission vendors that could supply their needs. This experience taught the anchor mission team at Rush that engaging vendors and cultivating relationships with them before opportunities become available is a key strategy that should be implemented beforehand and consistently applied throughout the year.

At Rush, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) drive employee engagement in support of diversity initiatives. An ERG is a voluntary group of employees who align behind a common characteristic, interest, or identity and then convene regularly to drive professional development opportunities and create a more inclusive employee culture through events, activities, and resource sharing. Partnerships between anchor mission leads and ERGs facilitate connection with employees on topics of diversity. For example, at Rush, the Disabilities Employee Resource Group focuses its activities on building an inclusive culture that welcomes and provides appropriate accommodations to prospective applicants and existing employees with disabilities, which supports local hiring efforts.

Rush also created a West Side Anchor Mission Resource Group to specifically engage and support employees who reside in Rush’s focus geography and other allies. The group focuses on connecting employees to existing initiatives located in the West Side by hosting events with community-based organizations. The group also focuses on advocating for the advancement and development of anchor mission employees and regularly meets with HR and the community health equity departments to seek opportunities for collaboration. Whether operating in the HR or DEI departments, ERGs provide an opportunity to connect the larger anchor mission to current employees and engage them in activities that support anchor mission goals.

The anchor mission team partners with the community health benefit department in its annual Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) and Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP). In this collaboration, the CHIP includes local hiring, local purchasing, and impact investing as markers of community health. Anchor mission data from local hiring, purchasing, and impact investing also contributes to annual community benefit reporting. For the Community Benefit Report, Rush reports on anchor mission-related workforce development results, such as the percentage of locally-hired employees and participants in its many career pathway programs. For the CHIP report, Rush reports on its anchor mission-related workforce development, local purchasing, impact investing, and employee volunteer metrics.

The anchor mission team also partnered with the sustainability department to conduct a webinar on environmental justice and how pollution disproportionately affects Rush’s anchor mission communities, which brought into perspective the way environmental determinants of health impact underserved communities. The anchor mission team also partnered with sustainability to create a local restaurant and retail business list for Rush employees. The list details local sustainable vendors that employees can patronize in Rush’s anchor mission area. The sustainability and anchor mission departments also collaborate often on local purchasing, as Rush’s supply chain department is directly tasked with prioritizing sustainability in products sourced as part of the larger supply chain strategy and HAN’s Impact Purchasing Commitment.

Resulted in an upended job market, with mass layoffs and voluntary turnover over a period of two years that came to be known as The Great Resignation. For hospitals, that meant increased turnover and difficulty in hiring candidates for high-need roles. Decreased budgets meant less discretionary spending for staff development beyond the resources included in the benefits packages of institutions. Also, the inability to meet in person interrupted the delivery of career pathways programming for many community members and students seeking to advance through additional training.

Rush’s supply chain team experienced tighter budgets, Rush decreased annual spend targets for local procurement by 50% because of smaller organizational budgets. To support local businesses, Rush participated in a number of city-wide collaborative efforts to support local food businesses and continued to assess its annual spend data to determine opportunities to shift spend. Nevertheless, virtual work environments posed barriers when connecting with new vendors, which in turn created challenges in shifting spend locally. Additionally, the pandemic saw many small businesses in certain categories pivot to e-commerce, develop new lines of business, or cease operations entirely.

Rush’s treasury department saw an increased need for capital to be disbursed to entrepreneurs through Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) partners. Many small businesses sought to pivot in a new environment and needed additional debt financing to pursue e-commerce, launch new products and services, and increase their online presence.

In-person volunteer work was halted, while at the same time the need for resources, particularly access to COVID-19 vaccines for West Side residents, increased. Rush created the Community Command Center, which was a monthly cross-departmental meeting, to communicate about COVID-19-related needs in the community during this time.