The health market is one of the most delicate and complex in the world. The pandemic changed the configuration of medical services that in many of their procedures required a transition to digitization, including the administrative part.
For just over a year, public and private health institutions have faced a situation in which in addition to requiring all the effort and commitment of human talent, they have required to have the medical supplies that allow them to face the pandemic.
In a press release, Luiz Reis, Director of Growth of Bionexo for Latin America, affirmed that the purchasing sector represents the second cost center in health institutions. This implies an important work of the purchasing areas, which require maintaining the necessary supply to offer efficient and quality service.
Healthcare marketplace growth in a fast-pace
The Bionexo marketplace, with a presence in the main markets of Latin America, reported in the first four months of 2021 a growth in business volume in Mexico of 38%, compared to the same period of the previous year.
Part of the company’s growth in the country is explained by the current need for companies to digitize their processes, to be competitive in the new normal. “The health sector more than before, demands tools that come to professionalize the supply,” says Gustavo Fernández de Loyola, General Director at Grupo Torre Médica.
The director of the consortium that operates two hospitals and four clinics in Mexico City stands out among the three competitive factors that having a digitized purchasing system has given his company:
- Maintain order. When you need to take immediate action, have everything electronic, in the same place, which allows you to react faster.
- Good relationship with suppliers. Create a transactional alliance, which also helps with decision-making and quick reaction.
- Improve prices. This allows it to be competitive and generates savings for the company.
The combination of having a greater supply of suppliers, the possibility of making consolidated purchases, and the administrative order derived from digitization, have allowed Grupo Torre Médica to save more than 5% in the purchase of medical supplies.
Advantages of digitization of healthcare supply chain
For his part, Diego Flores, Purchasing Manager of the same medical consortium, refers that among the advantages of the digitization of purchases, applied in the field of action, is having suppliers available when necessary, win-win relationships with them, and above all the savings that the area can generate for the company.
According to Flores, digitization improves the management of the purchasing team, it means having an assistant who helps us optimize processes, even from remote work, which has also resulted in significant savings for the organization.
Although companies today have sought to professionalize many of their processes through digitization, those related to purchasing areas should not be left behind, in the search to meet the demands of the new normal in business.