Healthcare stakeholders said that increasing procurement efficiency is the top priority for the industry this year.
More than one-third of healthcare respondents plan on making more than 50% of purchases online in 2021, according to an Amazon Business report released Monday morning.
The Seattle-based tech giant’s e-commerce survey was created to better understand the transformation of business-to-business e-procurement because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nearly one-third of respondents said that "accessing suppliers that meet the needs of their business" was the top pain point of 2020.
According to the study’s authors, e-procurement is evolving to better meet the needs of the healthcare industry by providing access to a "much broader range of suppliers" compared to traditional procurement methods.
"Diversification of supply is the focus now and is a huge priority. We are slowly watching the tide rise," Petra Schindler-Carter, general manager and director for Amazon Business, said in the report. "Now we are in a position where healthcare customers care most about whether we have the products that meet their specifications, which can be a matter of life or death."
As part of the study findings, more than half (52%) of the healthcare industry respondents said that increasing procurement efficiency is the top priority for the healthcare industry for 2021.
Other top procurement priorities for the healthcare industry in 2021 include:
- Supporting remote work for their employees
- Improving sustainability
- Reducing costs
- Increasing supply chain diversification
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Melanie Blackman is a contributing editor for strategy, marketing, and human resources at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.
Photo credit: Palo Alto, CA, USA - Feb 18, 2020: Closeup of the Amazon logo at Amazon campus in Palo Alto, California. The Palo Alto location hosts A9 Search, Amazon Web Services, and Amazon Game Studios teams. / Editorial credit: Tada Images / Shutterstock.com