Getting Oriented — Tell Us Who You Are

• Who are we speaking with today and what role do you play in supply chain decisions? Options: VP Supply Chain, Materials Management Director, CFO/Finance Leader, Clinical Operations Lead, Procurement Manager, Other
• Which part of your enterprise should we consider in this conversation (single hospital, regional network, system-wide)? Options: Single hospital/clinic, Regional network (2–10 sites), Large health system (11+ sites), Academic medical center, Other
• Approximately how much does your organization spend on supplies and implants annually? Options: <$10M, $10M–$50M, $50M–$200M, $200M–$500M, >$500M
• Who else on your team should be part of this discovery conversation (names/titles)?
• What recent initiative or event prompted you to explore improvements now? Options: Rising costs, Stockouts or safety event, Executive cost-reduction mandate, Failed prior project, GPO contract audit, Other
• How would you prefer we run discovery with your team (workshop, series of interviews, data review first)? Options: One workshop, Multiple short interviews, Data-first review then discussion, Hybrid

If Nothing Changes, What Breaks First?

• What would you tell your CFO will happen to costs and working capital if current procurement behaviors continue for 12 months? Options: Costs accelerate, Working capital tied up in inventory, Unchanged, Unsure
• How often do stockouts of critical items occur, and when they happen, who carries the burden? Options: Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Rarely, Never
• Where does most contract leakage occur—clinician preference, OR supplies, high-dollar implants, or decentralized purchasing? Options: Clinician preference items, Operating room consumables, High-dollar implants, Departmental petty purchasing, Other
• How does it feel when a department buys off-contract or a surgeon requests an out-of-formulary implant?
• Tell a specific example of a recent purchasing failure, what it cost (financial or operational), and how it was resolved.
• Which consequence worries you most emotionally—lost margin, patient safety risk, clinician dissatisfaction, or executive scrutiny? Options: Lost margin, Patient safety risk, Clinician dissatisfaction, Executive scrutiny, All of the above

Who Really Decides — The Invisible Power Structure

• Who holds final approval authority for supply contracts and major procurement changes—and how often do clinicians override procurement decisions? Options: CFO/Finance, VP Supply Chain, Clinical Chairs/Surgeons, Materials Management, Shared approval
• Which stakeholders are most likely to block change, and what do they typically say in those moments?
• Are there executive sponsors who will actively defend this work, and if so, what motivates them (cost, quality, regulatory, reputation)? Options: Cost reduction, Clinical quality, Regulatory compliance, Reputation/market position, Not identified
• Describe a recent decision where financing, clinical preference, and supply operations were misaligned—what slowed the decision and why?
• What approval thresholds or governance gates must we plan for (dollar amounts, committees, contracting timelines)? Options: < $50K, $50K–$250K, $250K–$1M, >$1M, Committee review required
• How comfortable are the different stakeholder groups with data-driven recommendations vs. relationship-based vendor choices? Options: Prefer data-driven, Prefer relationships, Mixed—depends on category, Unsure

What Does 'Good' Actually Look Like for Each Team?

• If finance reviewed results six months after launch, what three measurable outcomes would make them call this a success? Options: % savings, Working capital reduction, Budget adherence, ROI within 12 months, Other
• From a clinical quality perspective, what guardrails must never be violated (acceptable device variation, inventory availability, patient outcome metrics)?
• Supply leadership—what operational KPIs do you need to improve to be seen as successful (inventory turns, par compliance, stockout rate)? Options: Inventory turns, Par compliance, Stockout rate, Expiry rate, Case-level cost visibility
• Pick the single most important metric for this initiative to move the needle on executive dashboards. Options: Cost-per-case, InventoryTurns, ContractLeakage%, Stockouts per month, Days of Inventory
• What target or stretch goal would you set for that metric over 6–12 months (please quantify if possible)?
• What are non-negotiables (clinical acceptance criteria, training requirements, reporting cadence) that must be met before you’ll approve deployment?

Where the Process Breaks — Let’s Map the Ugly Truth

• Which part of the end-to-end process causes the most error: order capture, contracting, receiving, storage/rotation, or charge capture? Options: Order capture, Contracting, Receiving, Storage/rotation, Charge capture, Other
• How reliable is your contract price enforcement today—automated, partially enforced, manual, or not enforced at all? Options: Automated enforcement, Partially enforced, Manual spot checks, Not enforced
• Where do you see the most inventory waste—expired product, overstocking, or obsolete lines—and how long has that been a problem? Options: Expired product, Overstocking, Obsolete lines, Returns and credits, Other
• Tell us about a recent failure mode (leakage, stockout, EHR mapping error)—what was the root cause and who scrambled to fix it?
• Which vendors or product categories create the most friction during procurement or reconciliation?
• How often do you reconcile case-level usage back to inventory and charge data, and what gets lost in translation? Options: Real-time, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Rarely/Never

The Politics of Change — Who Will Push Back (And Why)?

• Why might a surgeon or clinical leader resist standardization efforts even if they lower costs?
• Which incentives or fears drive clinician buying behavior—efficacy, habit, vendor relationships, or personal preference? Options: Efficacy/outcomes, Habit and convenience, Vendor relationships, Personal preference, Other
• Who are potential internal champions for adoption, and what credibility do they hold across clinicians and operations?
• Have past attempts to change clinician behavior worked? If so, what made them stick; if not, why did they fail?
• If a surgeon objects to a recommended implant choice, what escalation path would you expect to resolve it? Options: Executive escalation, Peer review/committee, Clinical chair decision, Temporary exception with review
• How important is clinician satisfaction relative to financial savings when measuring project success? Options: Clinician satisfaction is paramount, Equally important, Slightly less important than savings, Savings are primary

Data: Is It the Truth or Just Noise?

• How confident are you in your master product data (SKUs, GTINs, contract mappings) to produce accurate case-level cost reporting? Options: Very confident, Somewhat confident, Low confidence, Not confident
• Which systems must be integrated for value—EHR, ERP, GPO feed, A/R—and what’s the current connectivity status for each? Options: EHR integrated, ERP integrated, GPO feed integrated, A/R/charge systems integrated, None integrated
• How frequently is transactional data available for analytics (real-time, nightly, weekly, ad-hoc extracts)? Options: Real-time, Nightly, Weekly, Ad-hoc extracts, Never
• Who owns data stewardship for product master and contract price integrity, and how responsive are they to remediation requests?
• Describe one instance where poor data quality directly led to a clinical or financial problem.
• What reporting cadence and visibility do executives expect—dashboard, weekly report, monthly deep-dive? Options: Real-time dashboard, Weekly summary, Monthly deep-dive, Quarterly only

Small Tests, Big Conviction — What Would a Pilot Need to Prove?

• If you agreed to a pilot, which use case would convince you fastest—OR implant standardization, inventory par automation, contract price enforcement, or case-cost analytics? Options: Implant standardization, Par automation, Contract enforcement, Case-cost analytics, Other
• What sample size or timeframe would make pilot results credible (number of procedures, months, sites)?
• Which teams must be committed to a pilot’s day-to-day execution (materials, clinicians, IT, finance)? Options: Materials/MDs, Clinicians/OR staff, IT/EHR team, Finance/Billing, All of the above
• What are non-negotiable success criteria for a pilot to proceed to broader rollout? Options: % cost reduction, No increase in stockouts, Clinician acceptance rate, Accurate case-level reporting
• What would make this pilot feel low-risk to your executive sponsors? Options: Short timeline, Minimal upfront cost, Limited scope, Clear go/no-go gates, Vendor references from peers
• Who needs to sign off after a successful pilot to trigger deployment planning?

Commitment & Next Steps — Who, When, and How

• Realistically, when would your leadership be ready to start a pilot or discovery workshop? Options: Immediately, In 1–2 months, In 3–6 months, Later this year, Undecided
• What artifacts or access will we need to move forward (contract feeds, product master, sample case data, EHR/ERP credentials)? Options: Contract feeds, Product master, Case-level utilization, EHR/ERP access, Other
• Who are the four people we must engage in the next 2 weeks to keep momentum?
• If we deliver an initial findings deck, what level of detail would your team expect (executive summary, recommended roadmap, quantified savings, technical appendix)? Options: Executive summary + roadmap, Quantified savings and roadmap, Full technical appendix included, High-level only
• What would make you say 'no' to progressing after discovery—what are the deal-breakers? Options: Insufficient savings, Too disruptive to clinicians, Unclear ROI, Data gaps, Other
• What’s the single most important thing we should understand about your organization before we present recommendations?

Tell Me About a Day When Supplies Go Right

• Pick a recent week where supply operations felt manageable—how often did inventory or procurement issues interrupt care? Options: None, Once, A few times, Daily
• Who on your team notices a supply problem first—materials, nursing, OR administrators, procurement, or finance? Options: Materials/Inventory, Nursing/Clinical, OR administration, Procurement, Finance, Other
• Roughly what portion of annual supply spend do you feel is well-controlled versus out of sight? Options: >80% controlled, 60–80% controlled, 40–60% controlled, <40% controlled, Unsure
• Tell me about one small operational change that recently reduced friction—what was it and why did it work?
• If you could freeze one current supply process and keep it forever, which would it be and why?

If We Followed a Supply From Order to Bedside, Where Does It Break?

• Walk me through your current procurement flow—from clinician request or standing par through order, receiving, stocking, and charge capture—what are the handoffs?
• Where along that flow do exceptions or manual work arise most often (e.g., price overrides, split orders, manual receiving)? Options: Price overrides, Split/partial shipments, Manual receiving, Incorrect master data, Ad hoc orders, Other
• Who is ultimately accountable for each step—ordering, receiving, inventory counts, and charge reconciliation? Options: Materials management, Procurement/Purchasing, Clinical/Charge nurse, Finance/Billing, Supply chain VP, Shared/responsibility matrix
• How do you currently track a missed or misplaced item that leads to a stockout or delayed case? Give a recent example and outcome.
• Which systems do you rely on in the flow (EHR, ERP, inventory system, GPO portal, spreadsheets)? Select all that apply and note primary use. Options: EHR (e.g., Epic/ Cerner) - clinical usage, ERP (e.g., Lawson/Oracle/SAP) - finance/payables, Inventory/WMS - par & receipts, GPO portal - contract pricing, Spreadsheets - ad hoc tracking, Other

Where Is Contract Value Getting Lost?

• If 10–20% of your contracted savings evaporated overnight, where would you expect to see the impact first? Options: OR implant spend, High-volume consumables, Pharmacy/meds, Capital/large equipment, Multiple areas, Unsure
• How do you monitor contract compliance today—automated price matching, monthly audits, manual spot-checks, or not at all? Options: Automated price verification, Daily/weekly audit reports, Periodic manual spot-checks, Reactive on exceptions, No formal monitoring
• What percentage of purchase events do you estimate are off-contract or bypass GPO agreements? Choose the closest range. Options: <5%, 5–10%, 10–20%, 20–35%, >35%, Don't know
• When clinicians or departments buy off-contract, what are the typical reasons (clinical necessity, surgeon choice, speed, price confusion, vendor relationships)? Options: Clinical necessity, Surgeon preference, Urgency/speed, Lack of pricing visibility, Vendor reps/relationships, Other
• Describe a recent case where a contract price failed to apply—what happened, how was it discovered, who fixed it, and what was the financial impact?

What’s Lurking in Your Shelves—And What Does It Cost You?

• How often do you run physical counts vs. relying on perpetual inventory, and how closely do those numbers match? Options: Daily counts, Weekly cycle counts, Monthly counts, Quarterly/annual counts, Perpetual only (no physical)
• Be specific: what percent of on-hand inventory is expired, near-expiry, or slow-moving today? Options: <2%, 2–5%, 5–10%, 10–20%, >20%, Unknown
• What processes do you use for expiry management and redistribution across sites? How well do they work?
• How frequently do stockouts occur for critical items, and what’s the usual cause (ordering lag, inaccurate par, supply shortage, vendor lead time)? Options: Never, Rarely (<1/month), Occasionally (1–4/month), Weekly, Daily
• Share a concrete example where inventory inaccuracies directly affected patient care or case scheduling—what was the fallout?

Why Do Surgeons Choose Different Implants for the Same Procedure?

• When two clinicians perform the same case with different implants or supplies, how do you capture and act on that variation today? Options: Standardization committee reviews, Periodic reports only, No formal capture, EHR-coded preference cards, Other
• How are physician preference items (PPIs) governed—committee, formulary, director sign-off, or informal agreements? Options: Formal committee & governance, Ad hoc committee, Single champion/physician-led, No governance process
• What tangible dollars or outcomes do you associate with PPI variation—implant pricing delta, case cost variance, or OR throughput impact? Options: Implant price variance, Per-case cost delta, Inventory carrying cost, OR scheduling delays, Clinical quality impact, Other
• Have you tried clinician engagement or gainshare programs to standardize PPIs? What worked or failed and why?
• If you had accurate, case-level cost-per-case reporting tied to surgeons and implants, how would that change conversations or decisions?

What Would Happen If Your Systems Stopped Talking Tomorrow?

• Which integrations are mission-critical today (EHR orders/use, ERP PO/payables, GPO price feed, inventory system), and which are missing? Options: EHR ↔ inventory/usage, ERP ↔ procurement/payables, GPO pricing feeds, Inventory/WMS sync, EDI with vendors, None of the above
• How timely and reliable are data feeds—near real-time, hourly, daily batch, or manual exports? Options: Near real-time, Hourly, Daily batch, Weekly/periodic, Manual exports
• Describe a recent data disconnect (e.g., wrong charge code, mismatched catalog item) and the downstream fixing effort required.
• Who owns data quality (master data, catalog, pricing) and what governance or SLAs exist for fixes? Options: IT/Data team, Materials/Inventory, Procurement, Clinical informatics, Shared ownership, No formal owner
• If integration development had to be prioritized, which single connection would deliver the biggest immediate value? Options: EHR usage → inventory, Inventory → ERP financials, GPO price feed → procurement, Vendor EDI → receiving, Master data sync (catalog), Other

When Things Go Wrong, Who Gets Blamed—and How Bad Is It?

• In failure moments (stockouts, pricing errors, expired inventory), who typically escalates the issue and what are their top concerns? Options: Clinical leadership (safety/care), OR managers (scheduling), Finance (costs), Materials (operations), Executive leadership
• What are the measurable consequences your team tracks after a failure—canceled cases, overtime, replacement costs, patient outcomes, or regulatory exposure? Options: Canceled cases, Staff overtime, Rush shipping costs, Charge/revenue leakage, Patient safety incidents, Regulatory/non-compliance risk
• Tell me about the last time a supply failure reached the C-suite—what was the sequence, decision, and fix?
• How much of failure response is firefighting vs. root-cause correction (percent estimate)? Options: Mostly firefighting (75–100%), More firefighting than fixes (50–75%), Balanced (~50/50), More fixes than firefighting, Mostly proactive fixes
• If you could eliminate one recurring supply failure in the next 90 days, which would it be and why?

Imagine We Fixed This — What Would It Actually Change?

• If contract compliance improved by 10–20% and stockouts dropped by half, what would that mean financially and operationally for your system?
• Which metrics would prove success to you—cost-per-case, inventory turns, leakage percentage, days of inventory, or clinician satisfaction? Options: Cost-per-case, Inventory turns, Leakage %, Days of inventory, Clinician satisfaction, Other
• Who needs to sign off on any proposed changes—list titles and what each cares about most (finance wants ROI, clinicians want reliability, supply chain wants process control).
• What would be an acceptable timeline to see measurable improvement—30, 90, 180 days, or longer—and why? Options: 30 days, 60–90 days, 90–180 days, 6+ months, Depends on scope
• What risks or objections do you anticipate from stakeholders if we recommended automation + integration changes (e.g., clinician pushback, IT bandwidth, budget)?
• If we proposed a small pilot, what would make it worthwhile—sample size, expected dollar impact, ability to measure case-level outcomes, or executive visibility? Options: Sample size (cases/sites), Expected $ impact, Clear measurement plan, Executive sponsorship, Minimal disruption

Quick Check — Where Are We Right Now?

• Who will be the single point of contact for deployment on your side (name, role, email)?
• Which core systems currently hold your supply and inventory data? Options: Epic (Beacon/Prelude), Cerner, Meditech, Oracle/PeopleSoft ERP, Workday, McKesson Paragon, Other (please specify)
• Which ERP is authoritative for purchase orders, invoicing, and GL codes? Options: Oracle, SAP, Workday, PeopleSoft, Meditech ERP, Other, We don’t use an ERP for this
• Roughly when are you aiming to schedule the deployment kickoff? Options: Within 2 weeks, 2–6 weeks, 6–12 weeks, 3–6 months, TBD
• Tell us about any existing integrations or middleware we should know about (EHR interfaces, ETL tools, MDM, integration platform).

If We Assume Nothing's Connected — What Would Break First?

• If an integration between our platform and your EHR/ERP went down tomorrow, which clinical or financial process would you feel first? Options: Case costing/reporting, Requisition to PO flow, Inventory replenishment/par management, Charge capture and billing, Contract price enforcement, Other
• Which specific interface point do you consider most fragile today (e.g., ADT, order interfaces, catalog sync, invoicing)? Options: Catalog/Product master sync, Real-time usage (procedure) events, Purchase order/invoice exchange, Inventory levels/par adjustments, Master vendor mapping, Other
• How often do integration errors or mismatches surface in your operations? Options: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Rarely, Unknown
• Tell us about the last integration incident: what happened, who noticed it, and what was the operational impact?
• Who currently monitors interfaces and alerts — and how are they notified when something fails? Options: IT integration team, Clinical engineering, Materials management, Vendor/3rd-party, No one / ad-hoc

The Data Truth — Are Your Masters Actually Ready?

• What percentage of your item master SKUs do you believe are clean and consistently mapped across systems today? Options: >90%, 70–90%, 50–70%, <50%, Unsure
• Where do SKU/product mismatches show up most often (surgery catalog, storeroom, purchasing, GPO pricing)? Options: Surgery catalogs (case carts/sterile processing), Storeroom/inventory, Purchasing/POs, GPO price lists, Charge capture/billing, Other
• How do you currently create and maintain product master data (manual spreadsheets, MDM tool, vendor feeds, combination)? Options: Manual spreadsheets, MDM or PIM tool, Vendor/GPO feeds, ERP-driven, Hybrid / person-dependent
• When mappings are wrong, what typically happens operationally and financially? Give a recent concrete example if possible.
• Which fields do you consider must-have for every SKU before go-live (e.g., manufacturer, catalog number, GPO price, UOM, GL code)? Select top required fields. Options: Manufacturer, Manufacturer catalog number, GPO contract price, Unit of measure (UOM), GL/expense code, Clinical description/indication, Default par level

Access, Roles, and Permissions — Who Can Do What (and Should)?

• If every team had exactly the access they needed, what would be different today?
• How are admin/service accounts, API credentials, and keys currently issued and rotated? Options: Central IT vault (e.g., HashiCorp), Manual spreadsheets/notes, Vendor manages keys, No formal process
• Which user groups will need access to the platform at go-live? Options: Materials management / storeroom, Supply chain leadership, Perioperative teams / OR staff, Finance / AP, Clinical procurement teams, GPO/contract managers
• Are there existing role-based access templates we should mirror, or do you want us to propose a least-privilege model? Options: We have templates — please mirror, Please propose least-privilege roles, Hybrid / discuss
• How quickly can you provision or remove access for a user who changes roles (hours, days, weeks)? Options: Within hours, 1 business day, 2–5 business days, Longer / manual

Security, Compliance and Risk Controls — What's Our Safety Net?

• If we could expose one security gap in a single sentence, what would keep you up at night?
• Which compliance requirements must we satisfy before integration (HIPAA, SOC2, HITRUST, GDPR, local contracts)? Options: HIPAA, SOC2 Type II, HITRUST, GDPR, Local/state health regs, Other
• Do you require single sign-on (SAML/OIDC), and do you have existing IdP details ready to share? Options: Yes — SAML, Yes — OIDC, No SSO required, Unsure / need guidance
• Have you completed any security or penetration tests on current integrations in the last 12 months? Options: Yes — full pentest, Yes — limited scan, No, Don’t know
• Who is our security/compliance contact for onboarding questionnaires and risk reviews?

Testing the Reality — How Will We Know It's Working?

• Imagine go-live is tomorrow: what would a failed go-live look like in measurable terms?
• Which acceptance tests must pass before we schedule cutover (select all that apply)? Options: EHR event ingestion (case-level usage), ERP PO and invoice reconciliation, Contract price enforcement, Inventory par sync and adjustments, End-to-end case cost reporting, User role/access validation
• Do you have a UAT/staging environment that mirrors production data closely enough for realistic testing? Options: Yes — mirrors production, Partially — limited data, No UAT environment, Unsure
• Who is authorized to perform final day-zero acceptance and sign off on go/no-go? Options: Supply Chain VP, Materials Management Director, CFO, CMIO/CNO, IT Director, Other
• If a critical test fails during cutover, what is your preferred rollback or mitigation approach? Options: Immediate rollback to previous state, Pause and remediate with vendor support, Partial cutover with manual controls, Other — describe

People and Processes — Will Your Teams Adopt This?

• What is the single biggest behavioral or process change that must happen for deployment to actually deliver value?
• Which groups will need formal training prior to go-live? Options: Materials management / storeroom staff, OR nurses/circulators/techs, Supply chain leadership, Finance/AP, Purchasing agents, Clinical preference item committees
• How do you prefer training to be delivered (select all that apply)? Options: Hands-on workshops, Role-based eLearning, Train-the-trainer, Quick reference guides, On-floor shadowing at go-live
• What adoption metrics matter most to you in the first 90 days (contract compliance %, inventory accuracy %, case-cost visibility %)? Options: Contract compliance %, Inventory accuracy %, Case-level cost visibility %, On-time replenishment %, User adoption/login %
• If adoption is slower than expected, what escalation path or incentives do you have to accelerate change?

Timeline, Dependencies and Decision Rights — Who Decides to Pause or Push?

• If a critical dependency slips by two weeks, will leadership accept a delay or immediately reallocate resources to meet the original date? Options: Accept delay, Reallocate resources, Escalate to execs for decision, Depends on dependency
• What are the must-hit milestones and executive approvals required before we schedule production cutover? Options: Integration validations complete, Data reconciliation sign-off, Security/compliance approval, Training completed, Executive go/no-go
• Are there procurement, financial close, or IT freeze windows that would block deployment activities? Options: Yes — procurement/financial close, Yes — IT change freeze, No blocking windows, Unsure
• Do you rely on GPO or vendor-supplied price catalogs that must be delivered before enforcement can start? Options: Yes — GPO price files required, Yes — vendor catalogs required, No, we can start without them, Unsure
• Who has final authority to call a go/no-go decision for production cutover? Options: Supply Chain VP, CFO, CIO/IT Director, Clinical Exec (CMO/CNO), Joint committee

Let's Make This Concrete — Risks, Owners, and Next Steps

• What are the top three deployment risks you worry about most right now? (select up to 3) Options: Data/mapping errors, Integration downtime, Security/compliance delays, User adoption/resistance, Vendor/GPO data delays, ERP/financial reconciliation issues
• For each risk you selected, who on your team should we assign as the owner and what is their preferred contact?
• What is the next milestone you expect to hit in the deployment timeline (e.g., data freeze, SSO setup, UAT start)? Options: Data freeze, SSO/IdP configured, UAT start, Integration smoke test, Executive readiness review
• When can we schedule a formal Pre-Deployment Readiness review (date range)? Options: This week, Next 2 weeks, Within 1 month, 2+ months, TBD
• Are there any hidden blockers or concerns we haven't asked about that could stall readiness?

Quick Snapshot: Who You Are and What Keeps You Up at Night

• What's your title and primary area of responsibility? Options: VP Supply Chain, Director Materials Management, CFO, Clinical Operations Lead, Other (please specify)
• Roughly how much does your organization spend on supplies and implants annually? Options: <$50M, $50M–$150M, $150M–$500M, >$500M, Unsure
• Which clinical and financial systems do you currently rely on for ordering, inventory, and cost reporting? (select all that apply) Options: Epic/Cadence/OpTime, Cerner, Meditech, SAP/Oracle/Workday ERP, GPO portal(s), In-house legacy system, None/Manual spreadsheets, Other
• If you had to name the single supply-related issue that wakes you up at 2 a.m., what would it be?
• Who on your leadership team feels the day-to-day pain of supply chain issues the most? Options: Materials Management, Finance/CFO, Perioperative Services, Physician Leadership, Procurement, Other

Are You Comfortable Flying Blind?

• If you had a dashboard showing procedure-level supply cost in real time, how would that change decisions today?
• How often do you discover spend or inventory problems only after the month/quarter closes? Options: Almost every month, Several times a year, Occasionally, Rarely
• Can you share a recent example where lack of visibility led to a financial or clinical problem (e.g., stockout, unexpected implant cost, write-off)? Describe briefly.
• Which of these blind spots do you think is most harmful right now? Options: Contract prices not enforced, Procedure-level cost unknown, Expired/overstocked inventory, Surgeon preference variation, Integration gaps (EHR/ERP), Other
• On a scale from 1–10, how confident are you that your current systems capture ‘what was used’ at the case level? Options: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Where Money Disappears Without Anyone Noticing

• What percentage of your supply spend do you estimate is currently off-contract or unmanaged? Options: <5%, 5–10%, 11–20%, 21–35%, >35%, Unsure
• How do you currently detect and remediate contract leakage? Options: Periodic audits, Manual invoice review, ERP price matching, GPO reporting, We don't have a formal process, Other
• Tell us about a time contract price enforcement failed—what happened and what was the downstream impact?
• Which departments or roles tend to purchase off-contract most frequently? Options: OR/Perioperative, Cath Lab, ICU, Clinicians/surgeons independently, Procurement mistakes, Other
• How tolerant is your organization for ongoing leakage or higher-than-expected implant prices? Options: Highly intolerant — must fix immediately, Some tolerance if clinical outcomes justify, Acceptable short-term with longer-term plan, Low priority currently

When Clinical Preference Meets Procurement

• If you had to name one belief about physician preference item (PPI) management that everyone in your organization assumes is true, what is it?
• How much variation in implant or device choice do you see between surgeons for the same procedure? Options: Minimal (<5%), Moderate (5–15%), Significant (16–40%), Extreme (>40%), We don't track this
• What processes do you currently use to align surgeons to contract-preferred items (select all that apply)? Options: Clinical preference committees, Negotiated clinician agreements, Education & value reviews, Financial incentives/scorecards, No formal process, Other
• Share a story of when clinical preference overrode procurement and what the impact was (clinical, financial, or both).
• How open are clinical leaders to data that shows equivalent outcomes at a lower cost? Options: Very open — they request it, Open if peer-reviewed and locally validated, Skeptical unless compelled by leadership, Not open

If We Could Fix One Thing Tomorrow

• If one measurable outcome changed for the better in 90 days, which would feel most meaningful? Options: % contract compliance, Cost per case, Inventory turns, Reduction in expired inventory, Stockout rate, Clinical adherence to preferred items
• What target for savings or efficiency would make this initiative a clear success to your CFO or board? Options: <1% of spend, 1–3% of spend, 3–6% of spend, 6–10% of spend, >10% of spend, Unsure
• What exact metrics does your team currently use to define success for supply chain projects (list 3 highest priority)?
• Who must sign off on acceptance criteria once we demonstrate the outcomes? Options: VP Supply Chain, CFO/Finance, Chief Medical Officer/Clinical Leadership, Materials Management Director, Procurement/GPO, Other
• What would adoption look like at the front line—how quickly should clinicians and materials staff be using the new workflows? Options: Immediate (weeks), Short-term (1–3 months), Medium (3–6 months), Slow (>6 months), Unsure

The Hidden Work That Kills Deployments

• If integrations or master data issues delayed go-live, how would that affect your project appetite?
• Which of these integration/data items are already in place and stable? Options: EHR case/consumption feed, ERP purchase/invoice feed, GPO contract pricing feed, Item master alignment (GTIN/Catalog), None of the above, Other
• Describe the quality of your item master—how many SKUs lack standardized identifiers or mapping to contracts? Options: <5%, 5–15%, 16–35%, 36–60%, >60%, Unsure
• Who will own data cleanup and ongoing master data governance on your side? Options: Materials Management, IT/Analytics, Procurement, Hybrid team, No current owner
• What internal resources can you commit to integration and initial data alignment (FTEs or % of time)?

How Decisions Actually Get Made (and Who Needs to Say Yes)

• What makes you say ‘yes’ to a new supply chain technology—cost avoidance, operational simplicity, clinical acceptance, or something else? Options: Cost avoidance/savings, Improved clinical outcomes, Operational efficiency/time savings, Regulatory/compliance, Executive mandate, Other
• Who are the three people whose approval would be required to move from pilot to enterprise roll-out?
• How do budget timing and procurement cycles affect your ability to start a pilot in the next 90–180 days? Options: No impact — can start anytime, Possible within budget quarter, Must wait for next fiscal cycle, Requires special funding approval
• What are the top contractual concerns your legal or procurement teams raise about new integrations or data sharing? Options: Data ownership, Business associate agreements/HIPAA, Liability for price mismatches, Vendor indemnity, None/We move fast, Other
• How quickly would your executive sponsors expect proof of value before committing to a broader deployment? Options: Within 30 days, 30–90 days, 90–180 days, Longer than 180 days

What Success Looks Like—In The Real World

• Imagine six months after go-live: what are three concrete signs that this program is working?
• What cadence of reporting and governance would keep you comfortable (select all that apply)? Options: Weekly operational reviews, Monthly executive dashboards, Quarterly ROI reviews, Ad-hoc deep dives, Bi-annual clinical review
• What minimum adoption threshold (e.g., % of cases captured, % of departments using system) would you consider a successful launch? Options: >90%, 75–90%, 50–74%, <50%, Unsure
• How important is a formal sustainment plan (runbook, dedicated analyst) versus ad-hoc vendor support? Options: Very important — must have sustainment plan, Somewhat important, Prefer vendor-managed support, Unsure
• What non-financial outcomes (clinician satisfaction, patient safety, staff time saved) matter most to your team? Options: Clinician satisfaction, Patient safety/quality, Staff time savings, Audit/compliance readiness, Other

Next Steps: Small Bets That Build Confidence

• If we designed a small proof-of-value, what scope would you prefer (select one)? Options: Single OR service line, Single implant family, Inventory/par automation pilot, Contract price enforcement pilot, Cross-department pilot
• What data and access would we need to start that pilot quickly (EHR case feed, ERP invoices, item master, contract files)? Options: EHR case/usage feed, ERP purchase/invoice feed, GPO contract files, Item master, User access to clinical workflows, Other
• Who on your team would be the day-to-day contact and who is the executive sponsor for a pilot?
• What is an acceptable timeline to reach a go/no-go decision after pilot initiation? Options: 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 120+ days, Unsure
• What would make you hesitant to run a pilot with us right now? (risk, timing, politics, resources)