Our History
The seeds for ROi were planted in the late 1990s as three Mercy supply chain co-workers at an industry trade show were dissatisfied with the same topics discussed year after year without real change or progress. They skipped a session, pulled out a napkin and began sketching ideas that led to the formation of ROi, and ultimately, one of the most recognized supply chain organizations in health care.
Prior to establishing ROi in 2002, Mercy utilized a traditional supply chain model, which was fragmented, inefficient and duplicative. Like many health care providers, each of Mercy's hospital's supply chains operated independently of each other; third parties handled most of the contracting and all of the distribution activities; and consultants had better relationships with decision-makers than supply chain leaders.
Mercy senior leadership reached out to three visionary supply chain leaders, Lynn Britton, Mike McCurry and Shannon Sock, who founded ROi and later became leaders of Mercy, as the health care system realized that operational, financial and clinical success would require a more integrated and unified approach. ROi was born out of a cultural need for integration and was charged with building a supply chain model through industry expertise and hospital knowledge, and improving the way Mercy managed its resources - specifically, how it purchased, distributed and used supplies and equipment, and how it managed associated work processes.
Working side by side with administrators and clinicians, ROi developed a new innovative business model that allowed Mercy to take greater accountability for the complete supply chain. In fact, Mercy's medication administration process, one of the most significant patient safety initiatives in the industry, was born out of ROi's innovative approach of linking supply chain to improved patient safety.
From inception, ROi developed an industry-wide reputation for innovative, technology-driven, results-oriented approaches to improving supply chain performance. Today, ROi is considered the industry's most advanced integrated supply chain model and has won numerous industry awards, including being ranked in the top three in the Gartner (formerly AMR Research) Health Care Supply Chain Top 25 for the past three years.
View ROi's History Timeline here.