War on Waste – John Kupice, Chief Executive Officer of H-Source – How A Virtual Marketplace Is Offering Hospitals and Healthcare Clinics New Opportunities to Decrease Financial Waste and Continue Providing Healthcare To Their Communities

John Kupice, chief executive officer of H-Source (h-source.com), provides an interesting overview of the important work his company is doing to help hospitals and clinics save money so they can do what they do best—provide quality healthcare to their communities.

As Kupice explains, H-Source is a hospital to hospital/ medical facility to medical facility marketplace. As he states, shockingly, the medical marketplace in the United States has a ten billion dollar waste problem, regarding medical supplies and products with an expiration date, and an additional five billion in non-controlled pharmaceuticals. Kupice's company, H-Source, has created a cloud-based marketplace in which hospitals and medical facilities can exchange equipment and products, etc., instead of throwing them out or having them end up in landfills. As Kupice describes, H-Source is sort of an Amazon meets Linked In approach to a forward-thinking marketplace that is changing the industry.

Kupice is the CEO of H-Source and serves on its board of directors as well. Prior to becoming the company's chief executive, Kupice assisted its founder with the capital raise and development of their business model. Kupice has a storied career in business, notably leading many formidable companies in multiple industries. He was VP of Development for TruCare Solutions, Inc. where he played a vital role in the consolidation and analysis of crucial patient outcome data for alternative treatment modalities. Outside of the healthcare industry, Kupice was chief executive officer for a successful entertainment technology company and was instrumental in attaining company goals regarding reseller and supplier relationships, capital acquisition, and merger and acquisition of competitors. Additionally, Kupice put ten years in at Ernst & Young, LLP, most recently as national director of the Lawson Practice where he provided program management and implementation assistance for clients in a myriad of industries, including healthcare. Kupice holds a B.A. in accounting from the University of West Florida.

Kupice discusses the many and various types of products that are regularly thrown out from catheterization laboratories and operating rooms, etc. due to physician preference, supplier demands, and other issues. Through H-Source, hospitals and medical facilities can now recover up to forty cents on the dollar or more for their items, whereas previously they were total write-offs, tossed out at a total loss, donated, or sold off at lower rates, perhaps ten to twenty cents on the dollar or lower. Kupice outlines how hospital margins are narrowing, with rising costs, especially in labor costs, and thus mid-sized to large hospitals are having significant problems staying in business, keeping their doors open. Thin margins are making hospital administrators critically rethink every expenditure, and all waste and H-Source is seeing an influx of new customers regularly.

As many hospitals have been forced to downsize their labor staff, Kupice states that some are actually bringing new staff on board, specifically to utilize H-Source and its tools to find ways to cut other costs and create value. Kupice muses about how the changes are bringing key players together to create a unified healthcare industry that works more efficiently and provides savings for everyone. But beyond the dollars and cents, and the economic metrics, there is another wonderful aspect of H-Source's marketplace, and it pertains to jobs and patient care. As many large hospitals can benefit by selling off items and cutting their financial waste, small community healthcare facilities often become the buyers of these items. Allowing small community facilities an opportunity to buy as they need, and avoid costly large orders, it often makes the difference between keeping a part-time nurse on staff and letting him or her go. Thus, the economics and savings create better financials for small facilities that enable them to keep their staff gainfully employed, which means more quality care for small communities in need.

H-Source's innovative marketplace model is improving the healthcare industry across the board, from the largest city hospitals to the small town community clinics. And Kupice is excited about the future possibilities that will help bring quality healthcare to more people by cutting waste and increasing opportunity.