In its annual ranking of U.S. health systems that demonstrate leadership in supply chain, consulting firm Gartner Inc. has named Cleveland Clinic to the top spot, the company said today.
The rest of the top five featured: Corewell Health, AdventHealth, Stanford Health Care, and Advocate Health., according to Gartner’s 15th annual Healthcare Supply Chain Top 25 ranking.
“2023 was another challenging financial year for healthcare supply chains,” Eric O’Daffer, Vice President Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. “Despite a difficult climate that included responding to inflation, leaders were able to look to the future with investments in improved technology, talent development, and risk management. There was a focus as well on clinical alignment and innovation.”
Gartner also identified three industry themes that top healthcare organizations deployed this year:
- Building Digital Supply Chains. Technology is primarily being used by these organizations to automate tasks, update core supply chain systems, and build analytics capabilities for specific use cases to tackle backorder issues and to build demand planning.
- Attracting and Retaining Talent. Managing talent is increasingly challenging across all levels, but most significantly, on the front lines of the healthcare supply chain. With the impact being felt on daily services, many leading organizations are supplementing their workforce with automation solutions for their warehouse operations and logistics roles at hospitals. Challenges also exist among the leadership ranks, with nearly half of healthcare supply chain leaders having less than three years tenure in their roles, according to Gartner research.
- Developing An Antifragile Supply Chain. Health system supply chains are moving past risk and resiliency towards broader development of an antifragile supply chain. To achieve antifragility, health system supply chain leaders need to establish clear definitions of these terms in order to diagnose their current state, anticipate the likely impact of uncertainties, and prioritize initiatives to drive antifragility.
“In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, most health systems placed a new emphasis on building resiliency in their supply chains,” said O’Daffer. “Expanding on these efforts, we expect more organizations to focus on achieving antifragility. This involves assessing risk beyond global manufacturing to cybersecurity for capital equipment and financial viability of commercial partners.”
