Page 3 - Monthly Archives: June 2026

The question

A step-by-step guide to ordering medical supplies for a new practice, from building your first supply list and choosing vendors to setting par levels and budgeting.

The most expensive mistake a new practice makes with its first supply order is not overspending. It is ordering everything at once, in quantities guessed rather than calculated, from whichever vendor showed up first. Six weeks later the practice has a storeroom full of expiring stock it does not use and is out of the three things it needs

The four ways to buy medical supplies, national distributors, online marketplaces, direct from manufacturers, and GPOs, compared on price, speed, and reliability.

A solo practitioner ordering exam gloves and a 200-bed hospital ordering the same gloves are buying through completely different channels, at completely different prices, for reasons that have nothing to do with the gloves. The medical supply market is not one marketplace; it is four distinct channels, each optimized for a different kind

A 10-point checklist for vetting refurbished medical equipment suppliers, covering certification, testing, warranty, parts, and the red flags that signal a bad dealer.

Two suppliers can sell the same refurbished infusion pump for nearly the same price, and one of them will cost you three times as much over the following year. The pump that arrives without a service history, fails calibration in month two, and has no available replacement board is not a bargain; it is a liability with a low sticker