Ready for launch

The transition to a new med-surg distribution partner can be a daunting one. A new partner means new product, new processes, and ensuring that everything is synced up. And for a system like Henry Ford Health, which operates one of the largest hospitals in the country, that means ensuring continuity for the thousands of supplies that flow daily into its facilities.

That’s why Candice Pytlik, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Detroit-based Henry Ford Health, set a clear benchmark for success before the first order ever shipped.

“If we do our job correctly, our clinicians should have honestly no idea that we changed distributors,” she said. “That was our goal.”

“This is not my first rodeo when it comes to distributor conversions, and anytime you do that, it’s thousands of transactions every day,” said Bill Moir, SVP of Care Delivery Support Services Operations at Henry Ford. “And when you think about the mechanics of what needs to be done there, it’s making sure not only the SKUs are correct, but we also have the stock, the packaging, the routing for our logistics. And I think holistically, it went very smoothly.”

A well-executed change management plan

Henry Ford went live with Medline as its prime vendor in December 2025. Medline set up its implementation command center, which brings distributor and provider staff into one room, so they can troubleshoot issues and resolve problems together in real time.

And Henry Ford executed a plan to protect frontline caregivers from unnecessary disruption. Pytlik and her team took a deliberate approach: they limited product conversions on day one to only simple, low-complexity swaps and partnered with their internal communications team to inform staff without making them feel like it was a big change.

“We didn’t over-push it,” Pytlik said. “The more you push it, the more stressed people get. We really wanted to keep the change as minimal and transparent as possible.”

Henry Ford assembled dedicated teams across product specialization, distribution operations, and data and systems — and Medline matched them with counterparts in each area. And that was just the start of a daily communication cadence that continues to this day.

“We were committed to making this successful, but commitment is only half the battle,” said Moir. “You have to have the structure in place to execute.”

Building momentum through daily collaboration

The implementation was literally just the beginning for the partnership. For Pytlik, the real story is what happened after the go-live.

“We’ve continuously improved and optimized,” said Pytlik. “And I don’t think we’ve really let up from that. We’re achieving fill rates and on-time delivery percentages—and just quality metrics that we hadn’t seen previously.”

At the center of that continuous improvement is a daily 8 a.m. call between the Henry Ford and Medline teams. Each morning, the teams review deliveries, address immediate concerns, and work through the top open issues together.

“Those calls started out taking a full hour every single day,” Pytlik said. “And today the call was five minutes.”
When early bottlenecks surfaced in the weeks following go-live, Medline deployed on-site process improvement resources to Henry Ford’s facilities. Teams flew in from around the country to physically observe dock deliveries, workflows, and pain points, and then make real-time adjustments.

“If you can’t see it, you can’t fix it,” Pytlik said. “That’s where Medline was very committed. Instead of just waiting for the issues to resolve themselves, they sent resources out to physically see what the problem was. We were able to normalize a lot faster than we would have if we had just waited it out.” Zakiah Morgan, Executive IDN Director at Medline, credits the speed of resolution to both sides staying engaged.

“Even with the challenges—and there are always going to be challenges—Henry Ford was always engaged with us,” said Morgan. “It helped things get resolved much quicker. We really appreciate that partnership.”

Data solutions from day one

Most new distribution customers adopt Medline’s data solutions like Pre-approved AutoSub—which automatically substitutes a comparable, clinically approved product when a primary item is on backorder—months after going live. Henry Ford took a different approach: They activated Pre-approved AutoSub on day one.

“Every time there’s a backorder, it’s incredibly impactful on hundreds and thousands of lines,” Pytlik explains. “The reason AutoSub was important is because we operate in a low-unit-of-measure environment.”

Henry Ford had used a form of auto-substitution with its previous distributor, but Medline’s solution offered something new: full visibility. The program creates unique item numbers for every substitution, allowing Pytlik’s team to track substitution rates and cost impact for the first time.

The results were surprising. The substituted items were actually costing Henry Ford less than the originals, saving them money.

“AutoSub was an unforeseen success,” Pytlik said. “I did not expect that we would be saving money on the items we were substituting.”

Metrics that matter

Within months of going live, Henry Ford’s supply chain KPIs reached levels the system hadn’t seen before. Fill rates climbed above 98% and frequently hit 99%.

“Even in our darkest of days, the fill rates were over 90 percent,” Moir said. “And then we were able to bring that back up to 99 within months. That unto itself speaks volumes for how successful it was, because at the end of the day, we’re in the business of taking care of patients. Our clinicians can’t take care of patients absent all the supplies they need in the right place at the right time.”

Beyond fill rates, the partnership delivered measurable gains in on-time delivery and price assurance, an area where Medline’s proactive approach to working with suppliers stood out.

“Medline tries to resolve pricing issues themselves versus depending on the customer to resolve it,” Pytlik said. “That’s been a win for us.”

The partnership’s resilience was tested again just four months after go-live, when Henry Ford completed a major ERP integration on April 1. The project required setting up entirely new accounts and navigating unit-of-measure adjustments, essentially a second implementation layered on top of the first.

“That actually went even better than the distribution go-live,” Pytlik said.

Looking ahead

With distribution and data solutions running strong, Henry Ford and Medline are turning their attention to the next chapter of the partnership. The system is deploying Medline’s inventory continuity program, which will manage and rotate critical PPE inventory on Henry Ford’s behalf. The team is also exploring customer-owned inventory solutions and preparing to move from to Medline’s Mpower™—digital supply chain control tower—by the end of the year.

Pytlik is the first to acknowledge that Henry Ford set an unusually high bar for Medline from the start.

“We were a hard group to please,” said Pytlik. “We weren’t unhappy in any way, shape, or form with our previous distributor. So the expectations were incredibly high for Medline. And they’ve met most of those expectations.”

Moir echoed Pytlik.

“We’re a hard group to please because we are hyper-focused on our patients and our communities, and we have to make sure that the people we partner with feel the same way. And Medline has shown that.”

From the Medline side, Morgan said Henry Ford’s high expectations are matched by an equally high level of collaboration.

“They have high expectations—and rightly so,” said Morgan. “They’re extremely collaborative and take an active role in partnering with us to work through solutions and identify opportunities to improve operations. They’ve been outstanding partners.”