As Amazon continues to explore entering the hospital supply chain, a recent survey from Reaction Data released this week suggests most hospitals would be open to having Amazon as a supplier.
The Reaction Data’s survey found 62% of decision makers at hospitals said they support Amazon’s entrance into the market. More than half (59%) said they are at least familiar with Amazon’s plans to become a hospital supplier.
The survey’s Executive summary noted that a natural starting point would be to start with hospital outpatient facilities. Amazon’s model would follow a marketplace concept instead of traditional supply chain contracting methods.
Comments included concerns about pricing such as, “Unless Amazon is going to honor GPO contracts that dominate the healthcare landscape; I don’t see this being a good option for GPO compliant facilities such as ours”.
Most hospital executives also told researchers that they believe Amazon will have a positive impact on the healthcare market overall, while only 10% said they predict that impact will be a negative one. Seventy-five percent of respondents said felt that Amazon will be successful in this initiative.
When it comes to what supplies the platform would provide to hospitals, nearly half said they hope to see commodities sold on Amazon; fewer than 10% said the platform should focus on surgical supply sales, pharmaceuticals, or IV solutions, reports said.
