Healthcare procurement teams should include measurable indicators of supply continuity, supplier recovery capability, capacity flexibility, geographic and sourcing diversity, data transparency, risk governance, service performance, and contractual commitments. The scorecard should be weighted for the clinical criticality of the category so resilience meaningfully influences awards without displacing quality, efficacy, cost, and patient care requirements.

Jesse Schafer, Executive Director of the Healthcare Industry Resilience Collaborative, urged procurement leaders to make resilience a visible sourcing criterion. "If you want resilience in your supply chain, put it in your sourcing process," he said. His point is practical: suppliers are more likely to invest in backup capacity, visibility, and continuity planning when buyers evaluate and reward those capabilities in RFPs and supplier reviews.

A recent event discussion described an industry effort involving 65 healthcare organizations that consolidated resilience assessment into seven domains, 27 sub-domains, and more than 300 diagnostics. The work suggests that a scorecard should be rigorous enough to assess real operational capability, yet focused enough for procurement teams to apply consistently in a sourcing decision.

For strategic sourcing, begin by selecting one high-risk product category and defining a short list of evidence-based criteria. Ask suppliers to document critical site dependencies, alternate source plans, recovery time objectives, inventory and capacity visibility, business continuity testing, communication practices, and relevant contract protections. Then, assign a transparent scoring weight; review results with clinical, operations, finance, and risk stakeholders; and use the findings to strengthen both awards and supplier development plans.

Join LogiMed to learn how healthcare procurement and supply chain leaders are making resilience a measurable part of supplier selection, contracting, and continuity planning.