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INDUSTRIES · HEALTHCARE
Clinical categories get the scrutiny. The support categories rarely do.
A supply chain function watches medical supply and pharmacy closely, and usually buys them well. The categories that keep the building running are held elsewhere — by facilities, by food service, by finance — and rarely reviewed as a group.
Where we usually start
These are the categories our healthcare work most often turns on. Which of them are worth examining depends on how you are organized and what your purchasing agreement already covers.
Insurance and risk
Professional and general liability, property and workers’ compensation. Coverage has hardened, and renewals in recent years were often accepted rather than tested.
Food and nutrition services
Patient meals, retail dining and catering, whether self-operated or contracted. Judged on quality, which makes it politically difficult to examine — and is why it drifts.
Support services
Environmental services, linen, waste, grounds and security. Frequently outside whatever agreement covers clinical supply.
Telecom and connectivity
Circuits, mobile fleets and data across multiple sites, where plans accumulate as headcount and locations change.
Office and administrative supply
Bought across departments and often across several distributors, rarely with a single view of the whole.
Payroll and HR services
Processing, benefits administration and screening — long-held relationships that are seldom independently compared.
What makes healthcare different
You already have a supply chain function
We are not replacing them. We work the categories they do not have capacity to reach, and the ones outside their remit entirely.
Clinical preference is real
Physician preference items are a clinical decision with a cost attached, not a procurement problem to be solved.
Continuity outranks price
Nothing we do puts clinical supply at risk. Where an incumbent is the right answer, we say so.
Purchasing may sit at system level
If you are part of a system, some categories are contracted centrally and some locally. Establishing which is usually the first thing we do.
WHERE THE WORK GOES
Where our healthcare work concentrates
Relative weight of the support categories our healthcare engagements most often address. The clinical categories are deliberately absent.
Insurance and risk
most
Food and nutrition
Support services
Telecom and connectivity
Office and administrative
Payroll and HR services
Note. Relative weight only, shown without underlying counts. It reflects where engagements have concentrated, not what any organization should prioritise. Which categories matter at yours depends on your operating model and your current terms.
WHAT THE WIDER RESEARCH REPORTS
Healthcare has more published benchmarking than most sectors.
Healthcare has more published benchmarking than most sectors, and the figures are consistent enough to be worth stating.
Indirect spend in healthcare is put at 60% to 80% of total company spend — the highest of the sectors in that study.
Efficio, 2026
Health system indirect spend and purchased services are projected to rise 4.73% in 2027.
Vizient spend management outlook
Purchased services are commonly put at 40% to 50% of non-labor spend.
Purchased-services sector analysis, 2025
Approximately 97% of US hospitals are affiliated with at least one group purchasing organization.
GPO industry research, 2025
Roughly 56% of hospital product purchases are routed through the primary GPO agreement.
Survey conducted by Wharton for the hospital associations
Fleet spend is put at about 0.6% of revenue, with roughly 52% of it going to fleet management services.
Sievo State of Spend, transaction data 2024Q3–2025Q2

These describe ranges across an industry, drawn from samples that may or may not resemble your organization. We publish the source and the sample size for each because a range is useful for orientation even when it cannot be a conclusion. None of them describe you.

WHERE WE WOULD NOT START
Medical supply and pharmacy. Both are shaped by clinical need and purchasing arrangements more than by procurement, and they are the categories your supply chain team watches most closely. If your agreement covers them well, that is the right answer and we would say so.
How the work runs
The same four stages as every engagement. The first costs nothing and you can stop there.
STAGE 01
Diagnostic
We examine current spend and terms in the categories worth examining. No fee, no commitment.
STAGE 02
Baseline
Agreed in writing before any work begins, at today’s volumes and terms.
STAGE 03
Execute
Incumbents first. Every supplier decision stays yours.
STAGE 04
Verify & Earn
Confirmed against your invoices. A share of verified recovery, and nothing else.
CONTINUE
See how cost recovery works
The four stages, the categories, and the fee model.
Read →
Other sectors
How the pattern differs elsewhere, and why.
Read →
The research behind this
What we publish, and what we are building next.
Read →
A 45-minute working session. No fee.
We will talk through which categories are worth examining and which are not. If a category is already well covered by your agreement and recently tested, we will say so and move on.
Start a conversationSee how cost recovery works
© 2026 Wylie Performance PartnersOutcomes, not activity.