What You Should Know:
A new survey from symplr®, a provider of enterprise healthcare operations software, reveals the escalating challenges and shifting priorities facing U.S. hospitals and health systems in their supply chains. The 2025 State of Healthcare Supply Chain Survey, which polled nearly 100 healthcare supply chain leaders, highlights a landscape where disruptions have surpassed cost concerns, patient outcomes are a top priority, and a skills gap is hindering progress.
Healthcare Supply Chain Key Challenges and Shifting Priorities
Supply chain leaders are facing a multitude of challenges, with supply chain disruptions identified as the most significant concern, surpassing traditional cost-saving pressures. 36% of supply chain leaders ranked disruptions as their top challenge in 2024, a notable shift from previous years when cost savings dominated. This reflects the increasing impact of global events, geopolitical conflicts, natural disasters, and other disruptions on healthcare supply chains.
While cost savings remain a crucial priority, healthcare supply chain leaders are now placing equal importance on improving patient outcomes and standardizing processes. 22% of supply chain leaders cited improving patient outcomes as their top priority for 2025, tying with process standardization. This shift signals a growing recognition of the supply chain’s direct impact on clinical care quality.
Skills Gap and Strategic Role
A significant challenge identified in the survey is a skills gap within the supply chain workforce. Only 28% of respondents feel confident that supply chain professionals have the necessary skills to address rising complexities. This highlights a critical need for talent development to ensure that supply chain teams can effectively navigate the evolving landscape.
While 56% of respondents see the supply chain gaining influence, it is still often bogged down with tactical tasks. Only 34% consider it a highly strategic function within their organization.
Technology as a Solution
The survey emphasizes the role of technology in addressing these challenges. 85% of healthcare supply chain leaders stated that technology has helped improve supply chain operational efficiency.
Navigating the New Era of Healthcare Supply Chain
To navigate these challenges and prioritize strategic work, healthcare supply chain leaders are focusing on:
- Strategic Elevation of Supply Chain’s Role: Positioning the supply chain as a strategic driver of both financial and clinical outcomes, moving beyond traditional procurement to become true business partners.
- Laser Focus on Outcomes: Prioritizing outcomes through strong cross-functional partnerships, collaboration with quality departments, incorporating outcomes data, and integrating unbiased clinical evidence into the value analysis process.
- Investment in Processes, Data, and Technology: Recognizing the critical role of technology and data analytics in overcoming supply chain challenges, while also prioritizing process optimization to achieve goals and improve resiliency.
