Gartner 2011 Healthcare Supply Chain Top 25 puts Cardinal Health at No. 1

Gartner’s 2011 Healthcare Supply Chain Top 25 shows considerable movement from last year’s, with Cardinal Health replacing Owens & Minor as the top billing. “Cardinal made significant gains in the opinion component of the poll, a reflection of the credibility it has established with healthcare providers, manufacturers and the analyst community. Cardinal has the closest thing to a "one-stop shop" in serving providers and gets credit for having a unique ability to support its trading partners,” according to the Stamford, CT, market research firm.

The top pharma manufacturer on the list (see below) is Becton Dickinson; J&J, Abbott and Novartis also were in the Top 10.

Gartner’s annual analysis is more properly a value chain analysis, emphasizing how the companies add value by means of the services they provide. By taking a focus on the “patient-based moment of truth” when services roll up to healthcare delivered to the patient, it says it can draw relative comparisons among manufacturers, distributors and healthcare systems. Mercy, a hospital network in Janesville, WI, is the top-rated healthcare system.

“In analyzing our list this year, we see a ranking that demonstrates the importance of maintaining focus on both internal and external collaboration as the vehicle to drive industrywide change,” says Barry Blake, Gartner research analyst. “Leaders here are persistent in applying smart and thoughtful pressure to persuade their organizations to adopt processes and metrics that ultimately will lead to cost and quality enhancements for the patient.”

The complete ranking is listed here:

1. Cardinal Health

2. Mercy

3. BD

4. Mayo Foundation

5. Owens & Minor

6. Johnson & Johnson

7. Intermountain Healthcare

8. Abbott

9. Novartis

10. Geisinger Health

11. Cleveland Clinic

12. AmerisourceBergen

13. Boston Scientific

14. McKesson

15. Bristol-Myers Squibb

16. BJC Healthcare

17. CVS Caremark

18. Baxter

19. Pfizer

20. AstraZeneca

21. UPMC

22. Alcon

23. GlaxoSmithKline

24. Amgen

25. Kaiser Permanente