Senior Buyer

Material Management Full Time AM Shift 7:30am-4:00pm Lexington Health is a comprehensive network of care that includes six community medical and urgent care centers, nearly 80 physician practices, more than 9,000 health care professionals and Lexington Medical Center, a 607-bed teaching hospital in West Columbia, South Carolina. It was selected by Modern Healthcare as one of the Best Places to Work in Healthcare and was first in the state to achieve Magnet with Distinction status for excellence in nursing care.

Consistently ranked as best in the Columbia Metro area by U.S. News & World Report, Lexington Health delivers more than 4,000 babies each year, performs more than 34,000 surgeries annually and is the region's third largest employer.

Lexington Health also includes an accredited Cancer Center of Excellence, the state's first HeartCARE Center, the largest skilled nursing facility in the Carolinas, and an Alzheimer's care center. Its postgraduate medical education programs include family medicine and transitional year residencies, as well as an informatics fellowship.

The senior buyer will act as an agent for the health district committing it to capital, goods and services. Will also be responsible for interfacing with hospital leadership on supply chain issues. The Senior Buyer will analyze purchase history and cost trends to recommend and negotiate new contracts that reduce overall supply chain expense. Will oversee the duties of buyers as assigned by the Purchasing Manager.

• Minimum Education:
  
  High School Diploma or Equivalent
• Minimum Years of
  
  Experience:
  
  3 Years of experience in healthcare purchasing.
• Substitutable
  
  Education & Experience:
  
  None.
• Required Certifications/Licensure:
  None.
• Required Training:
  Knowledge of a hospital environment essential to implementing cost reduction initiatives;
• Demonstrates portfolio of significant healthcare product/category cost savings that have been successfully implemented.

• Ability to evaluate requisitions and department requests using judgment and prudent purchasing concepts to procure supplies for using departments in a timely basis.
• Evaluate purchase history and cost variances to understand changes in usage history or technology to explain variances in departmental supply expenses.
• Utilizes data to develop contracts or utilize group-purchasing agreements.
• Solicits vendor community for capital equipment working in concert with Information Services, Biomedical, Engineering, and requesting departments to meet health district needs.
• Communicates within the health district and vendor community in a timely and professional manner exhibiting the values of the health district in all they do.
• Maintains electronic catalogs, price lists, and product literature to assist using departments in making supply decisions.
• Handles returns from user departments and/or employees on a timely basis.
• Meets with sales representatives to discuss purchasing policies and/or to discuss new products and contract development.
• Reviews any invoice discrepancy from Accounting and makes determination on how to resolve discrepancy, i.e. vendor needs to credit amount or our price needs to be increased/decreased and why.
• Expedites orders that have not been filled by their expected delivery dates as necessary.
• Research contracts and warranties to determine who is responsible for repair or replacement of equipment, i.e. surgical instruments, copiers, major medical equipment.
• Protects the hospital against unnecessary billing, i.e. verifying freight charges, restocking fees, etc.

• Authorizes purchase/replacement/repair of equipment. Investigates benefits of replacement costs vs. repair costs to hospital.
• Assists with the orientation of new employees to the policies, procedures, and systems of the Materials Management area.
• Provide People Soft training to new requisitioners within the District.
• Assists with troubleshooting issues that may arise with the software system. Helps with testing and validation on upgrades.
• Maintain Excel spreadsheet database on all Capital purchases.
• Annually identifies 2-4 or more product categories that offer significant cost reduction potential. Once approved, demonstrates success achieving estimated reductions/savings.
• Acts as buyer for the Warehouse, ensuring that LMC maintains on hand metrics in benchmark database.
• Liaison with Directors and V.P.s on construction and renovation projects to ensure equipment needs are met. Attends…