Purchasing Teams

• The hospital purchasing team may consist of a committee of doctors, executive leaders, department heads, and administrators.
• According to Intelemark, the Chief Experience Officer (CXO) is responsible for providing tools and resources that help medical staff to deliver positive patient experiences.
• Administrators are "responsible for the day-to-day operation of a hospital". They may manage departments such as accounting, establish hospital policies, and also oversee budgeting and finance.
•  Directors/Department Heads coordinate with the executive and administrators to oversee specific departments.
• Healthcare facilities may also have a purchasing agent. The role of a hospital purchase agent is to deliver "high-quality goods and solutions at the best price" by negotiating and soliciting bids.
• After extensive research in healthcare supply industry articles and publications, no information was found on the differences in structure based on the type of healthcare.

Purchasing Decisions

• According to a Google Study, purchasing decisions are triggered when replacing used/outdated technology (71%) or as a result of requests from users (42%).
• According to a 2017 Cardinal Health Hospital Supply Chain Survey, purchasing decisions for medical consumables are majorly influenced by supply chain administrators, "followed by group purchasing organizations"(GPO).
•  Physicians and nurses also have some influence in purchasing decisions.
• According to a LinkedIn report, 97% of hospitals in the United States use GPOs and they account for 75% of all hospital purchases.
• The Google Study found that key decision-makers in hospital purchases are physicians, directors of materials management, directors of surgical services, nursing managers, radiology directors, directors of purchasing, and organizations' directors.

Pain Points/Purchasing Factors

• A key challenge in purchasing medical consumables is the complexity of managing hospital supply chain. According to Verywell Health, "Managing a hospital's supply chain is fraught with opportunities for inefficiency at every step of the process".
• A key purchasing factor for executives is the cost of supplies.

Honeywell

• Honeywell is a top manufacturer of PPE and first aid equipment.
• For more than 100 years, Honeywell has been offering solutions in various areas of technology, such as safety solutions including consumable medical goods, aerospace, building technology, and performance materials.
• Safety us the primary focus of Honeywell's medical supply products, with the website noting products are designed for the protection of front line workers.
• Honeywell's website for medical goods notes several publications, with the "First Aid Product Catalog," which is linked here.
• The first aid products include multiple device batteries, personal protection equipment, CPR products, emergency preparedness, and more.

3M

• 3M is rated among the top rated manufacturers of PPE.
• 3M sells various consumable medical goods geared toward hospitals or similar agencies. Examples include particulate respirator and surgical masks, wound care products, patient monitoring products, and more.
• Ingenuity and science with a focus on patient needs and outcomes are the central focus of 3M.
• 3M's healthcare product website is linked here.

DuPont

• DuPont is ranked as one of the top PPE manufacturers.
• Products offered by DuPont include adhesives, silicons, pharmaceutical solutions, and PPE. Surgical devices and wearable devices and their components are offered as well.
• DuPont has industry partners across the globe, working to develop reliable solutions using transformational science.
• DuPont's medical supply website is linked here.

Ansell

• Ansell is another manufacturer among the top rated PPE manufacturers.
• Ansell caters to hospitals and other healthcare facilities by offering surgical and specialty gloves, surgical supplies and sterilization solutions, safety kits, and other similar options.
• For 125 years, Ansell has been developing products and technology to assist the medical field. The company prides itself on the ability to keep up with changing needs while reducing costs and increasing efficiency.
• Ansell's healthcare website is linked here.

LogiPharma Conference

• The LogiPharma Conference is one of the top rated US conferences for medical supplies.

• LogiPharma brings together suppliers and consumers to connect and promote medical supplies and technology. The conference website also features the company blog, research reports, and summaries from past years' presentations.

• The conference website is linked here.

• The next conference event is scheduled for September 15-20, 2020.

ACC Conference

• ACC is the top rated US conference for medical devices.

• The ACC conference partners with World Congress of Cardiology. Sponsors include the American College of Cardiology and the World Heart Federation.

• This conference attracts international attendees, showcases new technology and current products, and discusses research in cardiology.

• The conference website is linked here.

• The 2020 conference was held virtually in March, and the 2021 conference is scheduled for Atlanta, GA March 20-22, 2021.

Research Strategy

Purchasing Medical Products Outside China

• One trend in the consumable medical product purchasing industry in the United States is that there has been a shift in purchasing products from China to purchasing of products outside China.
• The United States medical product purchasing industry used to buy a big percentage of its consumable products like gloves, gowns, and masks from China. For example, the United States imported 48% of personal protective equipment from China in 2018, and this made up 45% of the protective garments imported by the United States.
• The Financial Times also states that the United States imports nearly half its personal protective medical equipment, such as gloves and masks from China.
• However, the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the supply chain. According to data from Chinese customs, exports of personal protective equipment, such as masks from China to the United States, fell by 19% in the first few months of 2020.
• The purchasing industry has had to make a change and buy products from other countries, such as Honduras and South Korea. Surgical gowns are now being imported from Honduras, and medical gloves are being purchased from South Korea.

What is Driving the Trend

• Since the coronavirus infected thousands, killed over 3,000, and disrupted ports in China, many medical supply factories that provided the consumable medical products to the United States were shut. This led to shortages and disrupted the supply chain. Due to the outbreak of the coronavirus in China, demand for consumable medical products also increased, and meant that fewer products would be left for export.
• China also allowed companies to break contracts with foreign suppliers by issuing them with “force majeure” certificates so they could cater to local needs. The consumable medical product purchasing industry in the United States has been forced to look for products in other countries, such as South Korea and Honduras.
• Although China has recently started getting back to some normalcy and started re-opening factories, the priority for Chinese medical supply factories is local hospitals. The trend looks like it could continue for a while until the production of consumable medical products in China goes back to the pre-coronavirus crisis figures.

Demand for U.S. Made Products

• In the last few months, there has been an increased demand for consumable medical products made in the United States. With a shortage of supplies from other countries, some consumable medical product purchasers have turned to local suppliers.
• For example, the federal government signed a contract with 3M based in Minnesota for the supply of N95 masks worth $4.8 million that was to be delivered at the end of April. According to the CEO of 3M, Mike Roman, the company used its Aberdeen plant in South Dakota to produce millions of N95 masks each month.
• The Washington Post also states that purchasers of medical goods like masks in the United States government are buying an increased amount of products from domestic sources, such as Prestige Ameritech, in order to meet the increased demand. The company is a large manufacturer of domestic surgical masks and has produced 600,000 masks per day.
• According to the executive vice president of Prestige Ameritech, Mike Bowen, the company has received many orders for medical products from the purchasing industry.

What is Driving the Trend

• China normally provides a big percentage of essential protective gear like gowns and masks to the United States medical product purchasing industry. Major manufacturers of these products even have factories in China. As the coronavirus pandemic worsened, authorities in China increased the domestic manufacturing lines, reduced their exports, and prioritized their own orders.
• China also used more of the protective gear that it manufactured and left little for the rest of the world to share. Moreover, the supply chain was further complicated and strained by U.S.-China trade tensions. As hospitals in the United States started to run out of consumable medical products, they turned to products made in the U.S.
• The gap created by the Chinese consumable medical product suppliers has led to an increase in the demand for the U.S. made products.