Gartner, Inc. has released its 15th annual Gartner Healthcare Supply Chain Top 25 ranking, which recognizes U.S. health systems that demonstrate leadership in supply chain.

This year, Cleveland Clinic takes the top spot with leadership in opinion scores and the highest score possible for environmental, social and governance (ESG). Corewell Health, AdventHealth, Stanford Health Care and Advocate Health round out the top five (see Table 1). Henry Ford Health debuts on the ranking, and Johns Hopkins returns this year. Key areas of focus identified by leaders are: Advancing digital initiatives, developing intentional talent strategies and building antifragile capabilities.

“2023 was another challenging financial year for healthcare supply chains,” said Eric O’Daffer, Vice President Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice. “Despite a difficult climate that included responding to inflation, leaders were able to look to the future with investments in improved technology, talent development and risk management. There was a focus as well on clinical alignment and innovation.”

In its sixth year, the Healthcare Supply Chain Top 25 Masters recognizes sustained supply chain leadership at health systems. This recognition is awarded only to supply chains that have achieved a top-five score at least seven times in the past 10 years. This year, Mayo Clinic and Intermountain Health achieved Masters status for the sixth consecutive year.

Table 1: The Healthcare Supply Chain Top 25 for 2023

_{¹ Bond Rating: All ratings were mapped to the S&P rating system using an industry-standard mapping system.
² Quality of Patient Care: Based on score in the PINC AI (formerly the Merative and IBM Watson Health) 2023 15 Top Health Systems Study.
³ Peer Opinion and Gartner Opinion: Based on each group’s forced-rank ordering of performance to Gartner’s Healthcare Supply Chain Capabilities Model.
⁴ ESG Metric: Based on engagement level with the Healthcare Anchor Network and Practice Greenhealth as outlined in our Methodology Section.
⁵ Composite Score: (Peer Opinion × 27.5%) + (Gartner Opinion × 27.5%) + (Bond Rating × 15%) + (Quality of Patient Care × 20%) + (ESG x 10%)
All raw data normalized to a 10-point scale prior to composite score calculation.
Composite scores rounded to two decimal places. Rank order based on detailed scoring.}

The top three themes for 2023 include:

Building Digital Supply Chains

Leading health systems are increasingly focused on advancing the digital supply chain. Technology is primarily being used by these organizations to automate tasks, update core supply chain systems and build analytics capabilities for specific use cases to tackle backorder issues and to build demand planning.

“Our research points to supply chain leaders at health systems prioritizing investment in data analytics/digital supply chain initiatives in the next three to five years, followed by automation as the second priority,” said O’Daffer. “With cost cutting and driving efficiency being a focus for leaders, we’re seeing digitalization trends shift from providing transactional to strategic value to organizations.”

Attracting and Retaining Talent

Attracting, developing and retaining talent is increasingly challenging across all levels, but most significantly, on the front lines of the healthcare supply chain. With the impact being felt on daily services, many leading organizations are supplementing their workforce with automation solutions for their warehouse operations and logistics roles at hospitals.

Challenges also exist among the leadership ranks with nearly half of healthcare supply chain leaders having less than three years tenure in their roles, according to Gartner research. This is driving many leading health systems to reorganize and elevate leaders to the Chief Supply Chain Officer (CSCO) role. Supply chain leaders with a CSCO title have better retention than their non-CSCO peers. They are less likely to have tenures under three years and more likely to have tenures over seven years. 

Developing An Antifragile Supply Chain

Health system supply chains are moving past risk and resiliency towards broader development of an antifragile supply chain. To achieve antifragility, health system supply chain leaders need to establish clear definitions for fragile, resilient or antifragile. Using these definitions to diagnose their current state and anticipate the likely impact of uncertainties, supply chain leaders can then prioritize initiatives to drive antifragility.

“In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, most health systems placed a new emphasis on building resiliency in their supply chains,” said O’Daffer. “Expanding on these efforts, we expect more organizations to focus on achieving antifragility. This involves assessing risk beyond global manufacturing to cybersecurity for capital equipment and financial viability of commercial partners.”

Gartner clients can read more in The Healthcare Supply Chain Top 25 for 2023.

More detailed analysis is available in the report The Gartner Healthcare Supply Chain Top 25. Additional analysis on the Healthcare Supply Chain Top 25 is also available in the complimentary Gartner webinar.

About the Healthcare Supply Chain Top 25 Methodology
The Healthcare Supply Chain Top 25 ranking is derived from two main analyses: quantitative measures and opinion components. Quantitative measures provide a view into how companies have performed in the past and establish proxy connections between financial health, quality of patient care, ESG and supply chain excellence. The opinion components offer a qualitative assessment of value chain leadership and demonstrated supply chain performance — crucial characteristics of our Top 25. The qualitative and quantitative components are combined into a total composite score.

About the Gartner Supply Chain Practice
The Gartner Supply Chain Practice provides actionable, objective insights for supply chain leaders and their teams, so they can respond to disruption and innovate for the future through leading-edge supply chain management practices. Additional information is available at https://www.gartner.com/en/supply-chain. Follow news and updates from the Gartner Supply Chain Practice on LinkedIn and X using #GartnerSC. Visit the Supply Chain Newsroom for more information and insights.