Procurement Strategies For 2025 and Beyond: Building Resilience in an Unstable Supply Chain

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5/15/2025

An Uncertain Future

Medical supply shortages are nothing new, but they have become increasingly difficult to predict and manage. What was once considered an occasional disruption is now a persistent reality for many medical practices.

71% of healthcare executives report distribution delays in their supply chain.¹
In a recent survey, 69% of healthcare supply chain leaders expect challenges to persist or worsen, with 36% citing supply chain disruptions as their primary issue.²
39% of healthcare providers report having to reschedule a procedure at least once a quarter due to product shortages.³
For a mid-sized health system, supply shortages increase health care costs by $3.5 million per year.³

For independent clinics and providers, the disruption is especially challenging. They wait longer for core items, spend more to get replacements, and adjust workflows based on unpredictable inventory gaps. While geopolitical headlines make the news, much of the underlying risk stems from structural procurement issues that have not evolved fast enough.

Historically, just-in-time ordering and long-standing supplier relationships helped practices manage costs and reduce inventory. But today, flexibility and redundancy have become more and more valuable than efficiency alone.

The full planning breakdown and operational roadmap are included in the free downloadable PDF resource.

Planning for Tomorrow, Today

Without the volume leverage of a hospital system, independent practices are often left exposed to shortages, price fluctuations, and supplier prioritizations that favor larger accounts. These disruptions put pressure on both clinical delivery and financial stability.

Forward-thinking executives are responding with a fundamental shift in perspective, treating procurement not as a background task, but as an area of operational risk. They are asking:

"What is our backup if our primary source falls through?"
“How quickly can we pivot?”
"Are our current vendors built for flexibility or just fulfillment?"
"What happens if that supplier cannot deliver?"

These questions prompt a broader evolution in how clinics approach procurement — leading them to rethink what flexibility in procurement looks like — and laying the groundwork for modern supply chains that are built to adapt.

Strategies to Remain Ahead of the Curve

Many of the tactics shaping the future of procurement are already in play in the industry. While each procurement team adapts differently, here are five common strategies that make a measurable impact:

1. Substitution Protocols
Identify viable products that are clinically equivalent to your principal product. Ensure that these alternatives are an effective and quality substitution that requires little or no retraining.

2. Diversified Sourcing
Rely on a supplier that sources from various geographic regions and with access to many manufacturers per product category to improve your supply chain resilience.

3. Proactive Inventory Planning
When continued availability is no longer guaranteed, have a buffer of items that are critical to continuing to serve patients.

4. Scenario Planning
When specific items are unavailable, make plans to reduce the chaos of last-minute sourcing from elsewhere.

5. Tech-Enabled Procurement
Look for a procurement partner that leverages the latest technology to streamline the purchasing process.

(More details on each of these strategies are included in the free resource PDF.)

Turnkey Procurement Systems

Even when the need for a more flexible procurement model is clear, implementing it from scratch is not always feasible for many independent practices. Limited staff time, fragmented systems, and supplier variability often make building an in-house model too difficult an undertaking.

Seek out a sourcing partner that has already done the work to gain access to a diverse supplier base, product equivalency support, and inventory guidance without the additional overhead.

Planning for what is next

Clinics that are preparing for an uncertain future are asking smart questions and making even smarter moves. They are not trying to replicate hospital systems, but rather build procurement strategies that are leaner and more tailored to the size of the clinic.

The New Supply Standard - Medical Innovations

To support the transition, we created a comprehensive resource:

The New Supply Standard: A Framework for Smarter Clinic Procurement

This free guide includes:

Self-assessment to identify procurement vulnerabilities
A simple framework for strategic inventory and replacement planning
Common oversights that lead to out-of-stocks or overspending

The guide was developed for independent practices that want more control over purchasing without expanding their internal operations.

➢ Download the full guide for access to checklists, planning frameworks, and practical tools designed to help outpatient clinics build smarter supply strategies without expanding staff or infrastructure.

About Medical Innovations (medinnov.com):

Medical Innovations, Inc. is a medical supply sourcing partner focused on supporting independent clinics and outpatient facilities with flexible supply options, streamlined procurement, and operational continuity solutions. Our model combines supply chain expertise with tech-leveraged implementation to simplify cost-effective sourcing without compromising patient care.