Advertised Sustainability Practices Among Suppliers to a University Hospital Operating Room

ABSTRACT

The present study aimed to identify firms supplying products to our university operating room (OR) that promote sustainable manufacturing methods. Results show that 72% of our suppliers, or 152 of 211 companies, do not promote sustainability practices in a salient manner. Multi-national firms document sustainability methods significantly more than U.S. divisions of multi-nationals or U.S. firms with chi-square = 157.93 (p < 0.001). Although the current study did not evaluate real manufacturing methods, sustainability promotion is an important marketing tool through which purchasers may begin the process of due diligence for product selection. Lack of sustainability information among suppliers in this study suggests that hospital procurement departments likely focus solely on issues like price or quality when making purchase decisions. These results also suggest an opportunity for healthcare administrators to evaluate more fully the products involved in the healthcare supply chain; the intrinsic, intangible value added to hospital products through sustainable manufacturing is consistent with responsible patient care and has the potential to create marketing and public relations value.

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainability
• supply chain
• social responsibility
• healthcare economics