The global hospital supplies market has shown a significant increase in growth over recent years, indicating that the market will continue to grow significantly throughout this decade. Here is a breakdown of the global hospital supplies industry.
Market Overview
The hospital supply market is made of the buying and selling of medical & surgical products used within a hospital and across many different departments. The universal hospital supplies generally include syringes and hypodermic needles, catheters, IV administration sets, disinfectant wipes and cleaners, disposable exam gloves, mobility aids, and patient examination devices across many hospital departments that are constantly in need of supplies.
Here are just some of the hospital departments that require constant supplies.
Inpatient wards
Emergency: This is an integral part of a hospital that caters to life-or-death situations that need immediate medical attention. This department may be divided into sub-units for trauma, burn, trauma surgery, and urgent care.
Cardiology: This ward caters to patients diagnosed with heart problems that need constant monitoring and observation due to fluctuations and abnormalities in the blood circulation and cardiac function.
Infection Control: Primarily responsible for conducting surveillance of hospital-acquired infections and investigating and controlling outbreaks or infection clusters among patients and health care personnel. This department will often calculate the rates of hospital-acquired infections, collates antibiotic susceptibility data, performs analysis of aggregated infection data, and provides comparative data to national benchmarks over time.
Intensive care unit (ICU): This department is where critically ill patients with life support apparatuses get admitted to making sure that they are being monitored by specially trained staff nurses and doctors who closely supervise their vital signs. This department may have three categories, the pediatric, neonatal, or cardiovascular ICU.
Maternity: Maternity wards provide antenatal care, delivery of babies and care during childbirth, and postnatal support after the birth of the baby or babies.
Microbiology: This department provides extensive clinical services, including mycology, parasitology, mycobacteriology, a high security pathology unit, and a healthcare associated infection investigation unit, as well as routine bacteriology and an expanding molecular diagnostic repertoire.
Neonatal: This department is closely linked with the hospital maternity department, provides care and support for babies and their families.
Neurology, oncology, OB departments: These are specialized wards that deal with admitted patients suffering from neurological problems, cancer, or pregnancy and reproductive complications, amongst others.
Obstetrics/Gynecology: Specialist nurses, midwives and imaging technicians provide maternity services such as: antenatal and postnatal care, maternal and fetal surveillance, and prenatal diagnosis.
Oncology: This branch of medicine often deals with cancer and tumors. The Oncology department provides treatments, including radiotherapy and chemotherapy, for cancerous tumors and blood disorders.
Ophthalmology: This branch of medicine deals with the diseases and surgery of the visual pathways, including the eye, hairs, and areas surrounding the eye, such as the lacrimal system and eyelids. The Ophthalmology department provides a range of ophthalmic eye related services for both in and outpatients.
Orthopedics: This department treats conditions that are related to the musculoskeletal system, which includes joints, ligaments, bones, muscles, tendons, and nerves.
Otolaryngology (Ear, Nose, and Throat): This department provides comprehensive and specialized care that covers both Medical and Surgical conditions related not just specifically to the Ear, Nose and Throat, but also will cover some other areas within the Head and Neck region. They are often divided into sub-specialties that will deal with only one part of the traditional specialty (ontology, rhinology, and laryngology).
Urology: This department is commonly run by consultant urology surgeons and investigates areas that are linked to kidney and bladder conditions.
Other Hospital Departments
Nursing administration. This is one of the departments in a hospital that is somehow overlooked by patients, mainly because its function is not necessarily for their welfare. This department caters to the needs and discipline of the staff nurses in the hospital. This is the office of all the nursing directors of managers in each department of the hospital.
Outpatient departments. These comprise of different outpatient clinics and treatment units for behavioral health, dental services, dermatology (skin diseases), physical therapy, internal medicine, rehabilitative medicine, and psychiatry/psychology.
Pharmacy: All medications prescribed to be taken in or out of the hospital can be purchased in this department. Licensed pharmacists manage the distribution, dispensing, use, and supply of medications within the entire hospital facility.
Purchasing & Supplies: This department is responsible for the procurement of nursing, medical, and surgical supplies for the hospital.
Radiology: This is where imaging tests are performed. X-rays, CT-scans, MRI, ultrasounds are just some of the diagnostic procedures that are performed in this department.
Pathology / Laboratory: This is also a department that handles diagnostic tests that deal with the secretions and body fluids of a patient to determine diagnosis or a disease etiology. Blood tests, urine exam, stool exam, sputum test, biopsy, and other medical laboratories that are needed to confirm disease or presence of bacteria in the body.
Medical Records: This is where patients can get a medical summary of their hospital admission for legal or occupational purposes. Documentation of a patient’s stay, the lab test results, and the doctor’s charting can be obtained only through a valid request.
Key Players in the Wholesale Hospital Supplies Industry
There are plenty of factors that have contributed to the growth of the hospital supply market, including the public awareness of hospital-acquired infections and incidences of communal diseases. This has led more countries to increase the number of sterilizations and single-use, disposable supplies that prevent the spread of infection. For example, catheters, bandages, and wraps are all single-use and hold a significant part of the hospital supplies market. The increased use of hospital supplies is primarily an attempt to eradicate hospital-acquired infections.
COVID-19 was also a significant factor since the hospital staff had to wear full personal protective equipment (PPE). The common PPE supplies include disposable gloves, isolation gowns, drapes, and PPE masks, including KN95 & N95 respirators. The disposable medical gloves such as nitrile, latex, and vinyl exam gloves also made up 3/5ths of the overall demand for hospital supplies. Hospital supplies have also been in high demand in developing countries. Countries such as Brazil and India have been increasing the number of people hospitalized, and hospital-based infections are contributing to the amount of base space available. Because of this, there is a large need for sterilization and disinfectant wipes & cleaners too.
Hospital Supplies Market Growth and Revenue
The hospital supply market size was at $28.17 billion in 2020, which was significant at its time. However, the global hospital supplies market is now estimated to hit $53.3 billion by 2026. This is in line with the projection that the CAGR will grow at a rate of 9.4% from 2021 to 2026.
These projections were calculated by the mathematical equation for CAGR (compound annual growth rate), which shows the growth from the beginning of the balance to its ending. This can be used to calculate future estimations about the growth or loss of the hospital supplies market.
How Healthcare Tech Startups are Impacting the Market
Upstarts in the healthcare industry have also been growing their share into the hospital supplies market as well. One to note is the Seattle-based healthcare technology startup, Bttn, who has helped bring in far more advanced technology, big data insights, and more efficiencies that lower hospital supply costs to hospitals nationwide.
Bttn’s ease of use and convenience make it easier for hospitals and clinics to find medical & surgical supplies that in stock and order them via their intuitive ecommerce platform, which often saves hospital procurement teams dozens of labor hours and 20-40% on their medical supply bills too. In addition, it helps the procurement teams understand supply chain data so they can remain efficient & effective with their hospital supply ordering to meet the demands of their patients and staff with intuitive big data insights.
