January 2007

Fast Forward

Why the ends can justify the means

To an authentic journalist and newshound the number 30 connotes the conclusion of a story – the culmination of his or her efforts to report the truth as told to him or her. Readers rarely see the 30 because it’s only used as part of the inner machinations of producing content in print, on the airwaves or online. It signifies the end.

For Healthcare Purchasing News, the number 30 signifies a new beginning – a rebirth of sorts – of the magazine you’ve known for the past three decades and the magazine you’re going to meet again, hopefully for the next three decades.

If you read my “Guidelines” column in HPN’s “2007 Industry Guide” that was published two months ago you have an idea of where this new look-new feel HPN is headed. We’re going to highlight and spotlight best practices and processes, offering fresh perspectives, winning ideas and activist influence to propel healthcare supply chain management to the successful executive position it deserves – just as it’s respected outside of healthcare.

What we’ve done with HPN is more than slap a fresh coat of paint on an old friend. We’re reinvigorating a long-standing franchise that recognizes the value of healthcare supply chain leadership and management (in that order), but most importantly, that recognizes each one of you, our faithful and loyal readers. That’s why we changed our tagline to read “People, places, processes and products that influence the supply chain.” Who you are, what you do, where you do it, how you do it, what you use, how you use it and the all-encompassing why and what it means to the profession and to healthcare as a whole represents our mantra.

Some will criticize us for being too product-focused or for liberally quoting vendors in editorial, seemingly granting them real estate to offer “sales pitches” that should be confined to the advertisements. As the market leader, HPN expects this and would be disappointed by its absence because being perched on top makes you an easy target for those hopefuls striving to supplant you. We feel that while advertisements are for selling products, brands and images, editorial is about selling concepts and ideas. Sometimes those concepts and ideas involve products. We think HPN readers, who are responsible for influencing and making product and process decisions, are intelligent enough to recognize the difference, yet spot a sales pitch and be discerning.

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that our readers rely on a variety of sources for industry intelligence that supplement their monthly diet of HPN. Chief among those are their vendor sales representatives and company executives who offer market insights and industry perspectives beyond the healthcare facility’s four walls. Hence, we tap into that resource, as well as rely on our readers’ expertise. Anything short of that would be a disservice to our readers. That’s why HPN continues to thrive after 30 years.

Since the early 1990s, we’ve expanded our regular coverage to include surgical services and infection control-related topics as our initial and primary readers expanded their reach. As the delineation between clinical, financial and operational boundaries blurs, HPN has been there every step of the way, chronicling the developments and the progression. Just as market conditions have “encouraged” clinicians to be more business-oriented and financially motivated, supply chain management professionals have needed to become more clinically knowledgeable. This has led to multidisciplinary task forces and teams to make product decisions that will improve the quality of patient care.

While that progression may complicate identifying the actual decision makers, HPN never succumbed to title envy, pursuing a variety of professionals like a whirling dervish until something sticks. We’ve merely focused on the function and fundamentals of supply chain management – one of the most important contributors to an organization’s fiscal and operational health, regardless of industry. That’s why any healthcare professional involved in influencing supply chain matters can feel comfortable reading our words.

So starting this year make a commitment to read HPN with reckless abandon and keep demanding more. Over the years a handful of other media properties has emerged or changed directions to copy or try to one-up this magazine. HPN welcomes the competition only if it ultimately succeeds in disrupting the status quo and improving the profession in the trenches as well as within the C-suite. HPN’s mission and vision involves our moving forward, regardless of the marketing noise and promotional rhetoric around us, lighting and leading the way for our readers.

Celebrate success, readers.