Outside of healthcare many organizations in multiple industries recognize and respect the value that effective and efficient supply chain management contributes to the top and bottom lines. Among healthcare providers, momentum for such recognition and support builds slowly from the top post in the executive suite.

That’s why Healthcare Purchasing News launched its yearly search for "supply chain focused CEOs seven years ago. We wanted to locate forward-thinking men and women to share their insights with you. Since 2005, you’ve helped us do that. To date, we’ve profiled of 20 of them since the inception of the award. To read their stories, visit HPN Online’s Hall of Fame.

We’re issuing an open call to nominate noteworthy hospital presidents/CEOs for HPN’s 8th Annual "S.U.R.E. Award for Supply Chain Focused CEOs" award. We’re looking to recognize chief executives who support, understand, recognize and empower the materials management department to do what needs to be done to achieve bottom-line savings and top-line revenue.

We ask you, our dedicated and loyal readers, to recommend worthy candidates for recognition in our January 2012 edition by e-mailing us reasons how and why your CEO deserves the spotlight – no more than a couple of paragraphs are needed for each of the four S.U.R.E. categories listed above that comprise the "SURE" acronym. Please describe how and why he or she supports, how and why he or she understands, how and why he or she recognizes and how and why he or she empowers the materials management department and its top executive.

For your nomination to qualify, please be sure to comply with the following rules:

1. Any nomination must be original and exclusive to HPN and not have been submitted – either original or edited – to any other publication or online media outlet currently or within the previous year.

2. GPO and distributor support is commendable, but we’re looking for internally driven details beyond GPO- and distributor-driven contributions, including outsourcing operations to a GPO or distributor.

3. Any nominated executive (or nominator) must be willing to share relevant basic financial details with our readers – specifically annual revenues, annual expenses and annual purchasing volume.

4. Only administrators/CEOs are eligible for consideration – not COOs or executive/senior vice presidents.

Help us share the stories of these remarkable CEOs in our January 2012 edition so that the industry may learn from them and be inspired.