Finding the right Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) vendor or manufacturer can feel overwhelming. You know that reliable gear is crucial for the safety of your facility’s patients and staff, and you know that your hospital’s reputation depends on that safety.
With recent global health challenges and national health policies feeling more up-in-the-air than ever, choosing high-quality PPE will save the lives of both patients and healthcare workers in the months and years to come.
When you’re researching your options for PPE vendors, suppliers, and manufacturers, remember the five key steps we’ll outline next. Your choices today can help save lives tomorrow – and isn’t that why we all got into healthcare in the first place?
1. Choose a North American Supplier
Choosing a North American PPE manufacturer is the starting place for hospitals and surgical centers in the United States. This single choice can help avoid crippling supply chain issues. Local suppliers provide quicker delivery times. They’re not as affected by international shipping delays, dock strikes, and geopolitical events. On-time deliveries are incredibly important here, and location impacts this more than many other factors.
North American manufacturing facilities often have higher safety standards, too. They offer quality products that meet strict regulations. This ensures that your healthcare workers and patients get top-notch protection.
Plus, local production often leads to cost savings in the form of required minimum order size and even per-piece pricing.
Most North American PPE vendors have a solid track record of being more reliable suppliers than their overseas competitors. They may serve a variety of industries, including healthcare. Choose a manufacturer that offers a wide range of products to reduce the total number of vendors and manufacturers you need to work with.
2. Buy PPE Developed By Doctors, For Doctors
Hospitals and surgical centers should prioritize buying PPE designed by medical professionals and surgeons. These experts understand the unique challenges healthcare workers face, and the PPE they craft meets specific safety requirements for medical environments.
It just makes sense, right? Doctors and healthcare staff have been in the trenches. They know where bodily fluids and blood can end up during surgery. They’ve had to throw out their shoes, or send their instrument pedals off to sterile processing to clean the goop out.
Because they know, they can help develop the products they wish they’d had, like pedal covers and foot protection. (That’s actually how Sloan Medical got started!)
Why Choose PPE Designed by Medical Experts?
- Better Fit and Comfort: Doctor designers consider long working hours and the need to balance protection with comfort and ventilation.
- Higher Safety Standards: Their products meet the strict safety requirements essential for healthcare. Doctors would never want to risk another doctor’s, nurse’s, or patient’s safety – you’re more than an order number to them.
- Improved Usability: Doctor designers understand what works best in a medical setting, boosting usability. When staff like a product, they use it.
PPE designed by fellow medical experts often incorporates real-world feedback. They focus on essential protection products like surgical masks and body protection. This ensures high-quality products suited for a wide range of medical tasks.
Choosing PPE crafted by those who understand the medical field contributes to better workplace safety. These products have a proven track record and are crucial for healthcare workers’ daily protection.
3. Strike a Balance Between Cost and Quality
Balancing the cost and quality of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is crucial for hospitals and surgical centers. You have people to protect, but you also have a budget to stick to.
Before you buy cheaper, bulk PPE, consider that investing in higher-quality PPE provides long-term benefits that outweigh initial expenses.
High-quality, North American-manufactured PPE ensures better protection for healthcare workers. It reduces the risk of infections, leading to fewer sick days and lower costs related to employee absence. Durable products last longer, saving money on continuous replacements, ripped PPE, and unused stock.
Choosing quality PPE from a manufacturer with a wide range of options also boosts workplace safety and compliance with safety standards, minimizing hospital liability issues. Moreover, it enhances the trust of both staff and patients, reflecting a commitment to their well-being.
Benefits of Choosing High-Quality PPE:
- Longer-lasting equipment saves money over time.
- Higher protection reduces risks and potential lawsuits.
- Boost staff morale and patient trust, preventing turnover.
Investing in quality PPE is smart for the long term. The benefits far exceed the costs, making it a wise choice for safety and efficiency. Check out this guide on how to run a cost-benefit analysis on your next PPE order.
4. Check Their Materials & Test Results
When looking for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) vendors, hospital purchasing managers need to check if the disposable medical apparel they’re ordering is made of the right materials and has passed the right testing.
For example, body protection and disposable medical apparel should be fluid-impervious and at least 2 mil thick, which helps protect both patients and healthcare workers against bloodborne and fluid-borne illnesses.
Another critical step is to ensure the supplier provides their testing results. Sticking with our example above, all fluid-impervious materials should meet the ASTM F1671 standard. This standard tests to ensure that blood-borne pathogens cannot pass through a given material, such as polyethylene, and ensures safety in medical environments.
Here’s a quick checklist for Disposable Apparel PPE evaluation:
- Material Type: Should be fluid-impervious.
- Thickness: At least 2 mil thick.
- Testing Standards: Must pass ASTM F1671.
By sticking to this checklist, hospitals can maintain high safety standards and ensure the protection of everyone involved. Always choose vendors who provide complete testing results and adhere to these requirements.
Taking these steps guarantees reliable protection and contributes to workplace safety in healthcare settings.
5. Choose a Supplier With Ordering Options That Work for You
Choosing a supplier with flexible ordering options benefits hospital purchasing managers. It simplifies buying Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and ensures timely delivery.
Hospitals and surgical centers often face urgent needs. Having various ways to order helps meet these demands promptly.
Hospitals should have the option to order directly from the manufacturer. This can lead to faster response times. It often means getting PPE without going through multiple layers of distribution, and it can mean PPE arrives from the manufacturer to your facility within days instead of weeks or months.
Using an Electronic Data Exchange (EDI) like Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX) is also efficient. EDI makes the ordering process seamless. It integrates directly with your existing healthcare software systems and departmental processes, reducing manual errors and speeding up your orders.
The right PPE supplier or manufacturer will offer both methods.
By choosing a supplier with these options, hospitals can ensure reliable delivery of protective equipment. This flexibility supports the vast needs of healthcare workers, maintaining workplace safety standards. It’s vital to select a vendor that understands these requirements and offers solutions that match their operational needs.
Sloan Medical PPE: Easy to Order, Easier to Love
Sloan Medical provides premium PPE designed by surgeons for surgeons. We’ve been keeping healthcare staff safer and drier since 1989.
Our wide range of patient transfer and disposable medical apparel products have been perfected, using feedback from real medical professionals, over the last 36 years in business. Our PPE is guaranteed to perform in all types of environments.
With all our products handcrafted in North America and tested against the ASTM-F1671 standard, we never cut corners when it comes to protecting medical professionals.
You can order exactly what you need when you need it and protect your cash flow. Our Midwest-based, family-owned company genuinely treasures the healthcare community and values personalized service.
Test it out at your facility with one of our free sample packs!
