Purchasing for people and place
Part of the Democracy Collaborative’s Hospitals Aligned for Healthy Communities toolkit series.
This toolkit offers a guide for how health systems can leverage their supply chains to support diverse and locally owned vendors and help to incubate new community enterprises to fill supply chain gaps.
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Toolkit Contents:
By aligning the sourcing of goods, services, and food with their mission, health systems can address the upstream economic and environmental conditions that have the greatest impact on the health of local residents. In doing so, they can create family-supporting local jobs and build community wealth. This toolkit on local and diverse purchasing showcases examples of how hospitals and health systems are reevaluating their roles as their community’s largest purchasers, supporting diverse and locally owned vendors and helping to incubate new community enterprises to fill supply chain gaps, hospital and health systems like yours can leverage existing resources to drive local economic growth and build a culture of health in their communities. This toolkit can help you get started.
In the toolkit you will find:
Overview: The overview section of the toolkit explores the overarching framework of the impact purchasing strategy. This section includes a list of defined key terms used throughout the toolkit.
Case Studies: This section includes case studies from five institutions provide an in-depth look at how hospitals and health systems are implementing this work on the ground and the key strategies they are employing.
Strategies: The strategies section outlines the specific processes and practices needed to localize and diversify your supply chain, focusing on 1) CREATING CONNECTIONS between local, diverse businesses and your institution, and 2) BUILDING CAPACITY of the local business community to meet your supply chain needs.
Laying the Foundations: The laying the foundations section focuses on institutionalizing these practices, providing worksheets to begin and guide the conversation at your institution. This section guides you through 1) MEASURING YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN BASELINE, 2) SURVEYING YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN POLICIES AND PRACTICES, 3) MAPPING YOUR COMMUNITY’S ASSETS, 4) IDENTIFYING YOUR PARTNERS, 5) UNDERSTANDING YOUR PURCHASING PIPELINE, and 6) SCALING AND SUSTAINING YOUR IMPACT.
Return on Investment: The return on investment section provides language and metrics to measure and assess business impact of impact purchasing strategies.
Tools for Getting Started: This section includes four tools to help you get started: 1) DIVING IN: Ideas for where to get started, 2) READINESS CHECKLIST: Do a basic
assessment of where your institution is at, 3) BIG QUESTIONS: Getting clarity on what
matters for your mission, and 4) OVERCOMING BARRIERS: Promising
solutions to common challenges.
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