Group Purchasing Organization, Health System, Hospital

Vizient’s Supplier Partnership Strategy Yielding Results

Posted on by John Santilli
Vizient, Inc., the nation’s largest provider-driven healthcare performance improvement company, serves more than 60% of the nation’s acute care providers, which includes 97% of the nation’s academic medical centers, and more than 25% of the non-acute care market.

 

Vizient provides expertise, analytics and advisory services, as well as a contract portfolio that represents more than $130 billion in annual purchasing volume. Vizient’s solutions and services improve the delivery of high-value care by aligning cost, quality and market performance.

 

Vizient was founded in 2015 as the combination of VHA Inc., a national health care network of not-for-profit hospitals; University HealthSystem Consortium, an alliance of the nation’s leading academic medical centers; and Novation, the health care contracting company they jointly owned.

 

During the pandemic, Vizient reinforced its mission to improve healthcare performance through data, access and advocacy. The company’s strategy was to convene deeper, more meaningful relationships between providers and suppliers by drawing on Vizient’s data, technology and subject matter expertise.

 

Since that time, Vizient’s supplier performance strategy with suppliers has expanded and evolved. The company’s supplier partnerships have moved beyond only sourcing contracts to deeper collaborations that leverage data, analytics and market insights to drive a more proactive approach to value positioning.

 

To further its goal, Vizient formed a new supplier performance team to help suppliers access all of Vizient’s capabilities by establishing three specific areas of focus: aligning data, analytics and insights to optimize performance; advancing sustainable partnerships; and providing unique and differentiated connectivity.

 

In late 2022, Vizient consolidated an enterprise-wide Supplier Engagement Model that focuses on four areas to enhance supplier value proposition and generate provider value including advisory services; analytics and technology; market access and value positioning; and market insights and thought leadership. It also involves the centralization of contracting activities to drive consistency and efficiency across all aspects of the process, including the establishment of category and contract managers.

 

Recently, Vizient, Inc. announced its latest roster of new and renewed customers for the first three quarters in 2023, including academic medical centers, integrated delivery networks and non-acute healthcare providers. The new and renewed agreements reflect the value Vizient continues to bring hospitals and healthcare organizations.