Cardinal Health repeats as No. 1 organization in Gartner healthcare supply chain rankings

The annual mashup of manufacturers, distributors, retailers and healthcare providers that is the Gartner Healthcare Supply Chain Top 25 came out in late November, and Cardinal Health retained its No. 1 position or the third year running , following by Mayo Foundation (repeating as No. 2) and Owens & Minor (replacing Becton Dickinson, now No. 6).

Gartner (Stamford, CT), the global IT and technology consulting firm, combines general financial performance data with a survey of industry professionals who rank organizations on a variety of supply-chain performance metrics, and rankings from its own analysts, to compile the ranking. It’s unusual to put this variety of organizations, ranging from a manufacturer like J&J (No. 7 on the list) to a retailer like CVS Caremark (No. 9) with a variety of health systems, but the overall intent is to measure how successfully they are delivering healthcare products or services to patients ultimately, and how well they are creating savings in deliver practices while performing well financially.

"The past couple of years have seen more large distributors and wholesalers investing in global growth markets that expand their scope and importance to the manufacturers. Likewise, retail pharmacies are vertically integrating supply chain while they position themselves as healthcare and wellness providers to their patient-consumers. Leading providers are innovating in new areas as well," summarized Eric O'Daffer, research director at Gartner.

Current and 2012 rankings are listed below, together with the 2013 composite score assigned by Gartner: