Locating Good Sources for Hospital Medical Supplies and Medical Equipment

Hospitals have a obligation to give their patients quality healthcare. This means not only providing excellent service from doctors, nurses and staff members, but also to make certain the medical equipment used is up-to-date and fully operational. Locating sources of medical supplies is one of the most important functions of a hospital's administrators.

A good place to start the search for medical supplies is by contacting the purchasing managers of other medical centers. These people have experience in obtaining medical equipment for their institutions and can usually offer sound advice on what manufactures and distributors offer quality supplies at reasonable prices. You can simply call the hospitals in your area and tell them your looking to locate a new supplier.

An even easier way to find suppliers is to go online and perform a web search. Just type in "medical supplies" into the search box of your search engine and visit the various websites of the distributors. Virtually all of the major hospital supply companies have websites that showcase the types of products they sell. These websites will also provide contact numbers so that you can contact them directly to ask for more details, such as whether the distributor rents hospital equipment in addition to selling it, and also for pricing information.

If you are looking for a supplier who focuses on a particular need, such as acute care, for instance, you can type this phrase into the search box and discover companies that specialize in a particular field.

After finding a company that seems to offer the type of quality supplies you need at a price you can accept, its time to do further research to make sure they are reputable and have a history of customer satisfaction. You can check with your state's consumer safety agency or Attorney General's office to find out whether they have any complaints against them. You can also contact the supplier directly and ask him to provide a list of recommendations from hospitals or medical centers with which he has done business.

Another good resource to ensure that you are purchasing from a business with a good reputation is to check with the Better Business Bureau, or BBB. You can do this easily online at the BBB website, which grades businesses from A to F depending on the numbers and types of complaints that have been lodged against them.

For hospital purchasing managers looking to obtain quality supplies, another option is to utilize the services of a group purchasing association or co-op. These organizations have staff who are skilled in getting discount prices from manufacturers in exchange for doing a large volume of business. Hospitals can take advantage of their expertise and experience and allow the purchasing group to find the suppliers themselves. This will free up the time of hospital staff for other functions. The purchasing group knows what companies offer the best quality equipment for specific areas, such as surgical instruments or wound care supplies, and can simplify the overall process considerably.