Associate Reflection | Supply Chain Team Members Serving Our Families in the NICU

By Cole Johnson

Every day our supply chain teams across the country go to work providing the right supplies, to the right place, at the right time, to support patient care. From bandages and gauze to heart valves and frozen tissue, our teams move thousands of items from delivery trucks to warehouses and out into our nursing units and procedural areas, ultimately reaching the hands of clinical caregivers providing healthcare at the bedside. It is a great source of pride for many of us to be a part of this chain that keeps a hospital running. Our goal is to be so effective that our clinical customers can focus their time on patient care, because they consistently have the items they need without delay. What our teams overcome to accomplish this mission daily is nothing short of amazing. The Resource Group team members, as well as many other hospital support departments, are the silent stewards in the heart of the hospital making sure that the supplies and equipment needed for patient care are circulating the building every hour of the day, with many of our facilities being supported year round, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
As people, we all come to work for a variety of reasons. Often, those reasons are multiple and layered. Aside from the source of pride and accomplishment we might feel, we have great days and we have difficult days, both at work and at home. Approaching ten years with The Resource Group, I have learned that one defining characteristic of working in healthcare is that many people come to work to make a difference and to be helpers, myself included. I’ve seen the eyes of co-workers light up when being called on to solve a problem for patient care. I’ve felt the calling in my own heart when responding to the needs of our team and our hospitals. This creates a unique bond among our teams, knowing that their actions directly impact the lives of others as they work. They feel a connection to the heartbeat of the hospitals they work in and they know that their role contributes to a larger mission. This gives many of us at The Resource Group a spark of determination to overcome adversity on those difficult days and support each other through the challenges of our work and personal lives. Our mission is to care for those who need it most, our patients who are experiencing a vulnerable time in their life by being at the hospital needing medical care. 
Sometimes, the most difficult days in our lives are those when we ourselves become the patient, or a family member becomes the patient. When this happens, we are quickly reminded how important our work is and how anxiety producing it can be to need care at a hospital, especially when we or our family need emergent or critical care. As helpers and servant leaders, we are also reminded that we too, are not immune to needing help, care, and love when we find ourselves vulnerable and scared. 
This was my story in 2022, when our twins were born early and needed NICU care after birth. My wife, Morgan, gave birth to Gatlin (4lbs. 9oz.) and Ellie (5lbs. 4oz.) and within a few hours, Gatlin needed NICU care. Shortly after, Ellie followed him to the NICU as well. We were receiving care at our St. Vincent Carmel Hospital where they stayed for almost ten days after birth. Admittedly, I had never felt so vulnerable or scared.   Morgan was severely sick from some of the medication she had received, Gatlin could not maintain blood sugar and was losing weight, Ellie was not interested in eating.   This was all happening overnight and became a low point for us. 
However, little things took place that started to make a difference for us. We often say in our work that “small things matter big”. I felt the truth of that in these moments. Ellie had not wanted to eat, until she was reunited with her brother in the NICU. We did not realize that she stopped showing interest in eating after they had separated. Within an hour of being with him in the NICU, Ellie was more alert and taking every feed. The Labor and Delivery nurses and NICU nurses were some of the most caring and amazing people we had ever met. Morgan still maintains contact with one of her nurses to this day. They walked us through that first night and the rest of the week with kindness and compassion.

The morning after being admitted to NICU, I remember being surprised to see a smiling and familiar face at the door. One of our Resource Group supply chain team members from St. Vincent Carmel, whom I have worked with for many years, greeted me with a warm “good morning”. It was a moment of relief for me to see a face I knew and trusted. His name is Mark and he stocked the supplies for the Carmel NICU. He had heard through some team updates that the babies had been born and that we were now patients in the NICU. He wanted to come and “check on me” and see if we “needed anything”. Calls, texts, and visits flooded in from other members of our Resource Group team in Indiana. I’ve never felt so cared for by co-workers anywhere else I have worked. It made such a difference in a difficult time.

Mark has since retired from our team and is enjoying much deserved time traveling with his wife and family. While I hope he isn’t thinking about his days at work, I will surely remember the days he came and checked on us and what that meant to me. As I held Gatlin and looked around the NICU room I was reminded of all of the supplies, tubing, monitors, medication, and a significant amount of diapers that were readily available and supporting my children. Our supply chain team’s work, and Mark’s work in that specific unit, made patient care possible for me and my family. Each day, thousands of other families across Ascension experience the same care because of Inventory Coordinators like Mark, because of our Resource Group leaders who steward our teams and because each person, at every level, showed up to be a part of something bigger. Great day or difficult day, our teams show up, for our patients and for each other. That truth holds a special place in my heart and anchors me to the work that we do.

As memorable an experience it was to spend time as a family in the NICU, nothing can replace the feeling of being discharged and going home. As they say, “home is the nicest word there is”. As we left the NICU that day, I was reminded that our work continues and is never done, never to be forgotten. Many little ones had been in the NICU for weeks and  months, a journey much longer than ours. A reminder that while we have accomplished so much in terms of improving our supply chain and patient care, there will always be more good work to do. This is why it is an honor to be a part
of The Resource Group, St. Vincent Health, and Ascension. We share a mission with people at the center and serve those in their most vulnerable state. We are connected by a restless pursuit to make things better for those around us, knowing tomorrow it could be our family receiving care. This pursuit connects us to the original mission of the Daughters of Charity, that being treated as people is central to the heart of who we are. 

Today, Gatlin and Ellie are thriving and well. They enjoy chasing their older sister, Quinlyn, around the house, dancing, laughing and enjoying life. This is thanks to their amazing mom and to the many caring hands of nurses, physicians, specialists, and therapists who stood ready to care for us. This is possible also because of team members in our hospitals, seen and unseen, that keep our facilities prepared to provide care when it is needed most. Our Resource Group team members stand consistently at the ready to do what is needed for patient care, and our healthcare system is better because of each of them and their dedication to our work.

“We have a mission, a reason for being here. To keep health care human for patients, human for families, human for doctors and human for all associates. The poor will come and the rich will come, if they know they are going to be treated as people.”  

-Daughters of Charity, 1881