As health systems expand care beyond the hospital, outpatient clinics, physician practices, urgent care centers, ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) and other alternate care sites are becoming a larger and more strategic part of the care delivery network. Whether developed organically, acquired or brought into the system through new partnerships, these facilities extend an organization’s reach while creating new considerations for how purchasing is managed across the enterprise.
For supply chain leaders, that expanding footprint can introduce significant complexity. Alternate care sites may operate with different suppliers, contracts, purchasing processes, pricing structures and clinical preferences, particularly when facilities are acquired or have historically operated with greater autonomy. Bringing those sites into a systemwide supply chain strategy creates an opportunity to improve visibility, reduce unnecessary variation and better leverage the health system’s purchasing power across all care settings.
Expansion Exposes Purchasing Fragmentation
For health system supply chain leaders, the challenge of establishing new non-acute sites or integrating existing facilities goes beyond managing a larger footprint. Leaders now must create a coordinated approach across acute and non-acute settings that helps identify variation, maintain visibility and ensure purchasing decisions align with broader organizational goals.
“As we work with providers on their non-acute expansions, they realize just how critical having a system-wide view of purchasing is,” says Jeff Easterling, CEO of AdvantageTrust, a division of HealthTrust Performance Group. “The goal is to simplify organizational and purchasing complexity so leaders can make faster, more confident decisions across all inpatient and outpatient facilities.”
When health systems acquire ambulatory clinics, physician practices, surgery centers and other alternate care sites, they often inherit different suppliers, contracts, pricing structures, physician preferences and purchasing processes. Without a coordinated approach, variation can increase administrative burden, limit visibility and reduce the ability to capture enterprise-wide value.
Rather than treating alternate-site purchasing as a separate category of spend, health systems should integrate it into their broader supply chain strategy, balancing standardization with the flexibility needed to support clinical and operational requirements.
Visibility Drives Smarter Decisions
Reducing variation and streamlining operations starts with creating visibility into what each location purchases and under which supplier agreements. Without a clear view across sites, health systems may struggle to identify pricing differences, off-contract purchases and opportunities to standardize products and processes. Using data to create greater transparency allows supply chain teams to evaluate purchasing activity across categories such as pharmacy, laboratory and medical-surgical products and pinpoint areas where variation may create unnecessary costs or inefficiencies.
Rather than pursuing organization-wide change all at once, many successful efforts begin by prioritizing areas with lower operational sensitivity and a clear path to measurable impact, such as standardizing formularies or high-volume medical-surgical product categories. These early wins can build stakeholder confidence and create momentum for more complex initiatives.
Engagement Accelerates Adoption
While data is critical for identifying supply chain alignment and standardization opportunities with new non-acute care sites, true success depends on the stakeholders.
Early engagement from stakeholders across facilities is critical – including with clinicians, practice managers and operational leaders who understand how purchasing decisions affect care delivery and daily workflows. Because these stakeholders evaluate change through different lenses, the rationale for systemwide alignment must extend beyond cost savings to consider what matters most for each leader involved.
“Lasting change to establish a coordinated approach requires broad buy-in,” Easterling says. “The most successful enterprise alignment efforts connect standardization and purchasing decisions to care delivery, operational efficiencies and the people responsible for delivering that care.”
This is particularly important in physician practice and specialty care settings, where product preferences are often tied to established workflows and clinical experiences, making collaboration and engagement essential to successful standardization efforts.
Governance Prevents Returning Variation
Standardizing a category or integrating a new facility is only the beginning. Without ongoing oversight, purchasing practices can gradually return to their previous state.
Clear processes for approving products, selecting suppliers, monitoring contract utilization and managing exceptions create accountability. They also help organizations distinguish between unnecessary variation and differences justified by clinical or operational needs.
This structure helps newly added sites align purchasing expectations, supplier relationships and decision-making authority from the start, supporting smoother integration across expanding care networks.
Governance should span system supply chain, operations, finance and clinical leadership as well as facility leaders. Regular reviews of utilization, compliance and exceptions will help sustain the established practices.
Alignment Strengthens System-Wide Performance
As care expands into more settings, alternate-site purchasing can no longer be treated separately from an enterprise strategy. Health systems that align purchasing decisions across their care footprint can strengthen contract performance, reduce variation and improve visibility.
Through purchasing scale, pre-negotiated contracts and dedicated support, AdvantageTrust helps organizations bring non-acute purchasing into a more coordinated, systemwide approach that advances their mission. When purchasing decisions are aligned across care settings, health systems can deliver a more reliable and consistent patient experience.
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