Perhaps you’re already among the health care leaders who know it’s time for supply chain to move from transactional to strategic. In a world of mounting uncertainty, health care supply chain leaders can no longer afford to take a reactive stance.
From pandemics to tariffs, climate-related disasters to cyberattacks, the past few years have delivered a churn of disruption. Complexity and uncertainty are permanent supply chain variables.
As 2025 brings fresh risks — geopolitical tensions, shifting trade policies, and rapid digital threats — health care organizations must safeguard continuity of quality care and protect their margins.
So how do you prepare for the next disruption when you expect it to be, well, unexpected?
You can lead with clarity, not chaos, by:
- Embracing transparency
- Building strategic supplier relationships
- Leveraging digital forecasting
- Making proactive planning part of daily operations
The Evolving Risk Landscape: Always Something New
Disruptions are no longer rare, high-impact events — they’re a recurring feature of the global economy. In 2025, supply chain leaders are contending with:
- Tariff volatility, especially as U.S. trade policy continues to evolve rapidly
- Cyber threats targeting supplier networks and logistics systems
- Climate disruptions, such as flooding or extreme weather affecting upstream suppliers
- Public health events, including localized outbreaks that halt manufacturing or transport
Uncertainty poses the biggest challenge, and organizations can waste energy and effort trying to predict what they’ll need.
The new playbook doesn’t just call for faster reactions — it calls for smarter foresight.
Lessons from the Pandemic to Trade Tensions
COVID forced every health care organization to confront the limitations of their supply chain. Many were blindsided by shortages, delays, and the opacity of global supplier networks. But it also prompted crucial progress.
It became essential to know what the full supply chain looked like, from start to finish, and beyond tier one suppliers.
That level of insight has proven just as critical in the face of tariff uncertainty. Organizations that invested in understanding their supplier networks down to the SKU level are better equipped to assess risk, estimate financial impact, and identify alternate products quickly.
The Bullwhip Effect: How Overreacting Makes It Worse
Bulk buying in response to uncertainty can backfire. It creates artificial scarcity and pricing volatility that leads to the bullwhip effect: when panic-driven decisions create more disruption than the original threat.
The just-in-time model many manufacturers still follow means sudden surges in demand can derail availability and spike prices. Worse, it can deprive smaller or rural health systems of the supplies they need.
Mitigating the bullwhip effect requires measured responses guided by data, not emotion. It also depends on strong partnerships, which ensure better visibility and communication when events arise.
Transparency and Country-of-Origin Visibility
A cornerstone of effective risk mitigation is understanding where your products truly come from — not just where they’re assembled, but where their raw materials and core components originate.
The U.S. health care system relies on foreign producers — particularly in China and India — for more than 50% of its most critical medical supplies, including pharmaceuticals, personal protective equipment (PPE), and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). While shortages in recent years have prompted efforts to increase domestic production, foreign dependence remains significant for many products.
Visibility to country of origin helps organizations:
- Assess tariff or sanction impact
- Understand environmental or climate risks
- Plan for alternate sourcing
- Negotiate more effective contracts, including tariff protections
Mapping supply chains for health care products is challenging due to fragmented and privately held data. While many manufacturers resist sharing this level of detail, growing industry pressure is forcing greater transparency. Organizations with leverage or strong strategic relationships often have better access to this information.
Inventory Strategy: Buffering Without Breaking the Bank
During the pandemic, many health systems overhauled their inventory strategies to avoid future shortages. That means some inventory buffers remain in place — but these cushions only go so far.
Strategic inventory buffering involves:
- Prioritizing high-risk SKUs for redundancy
- Identifying clinically acceptable substitutes
- Aligning buffer levels with disruption probability and criticality
- Planning for rotation to avoid waste or expiration
The goal isn’t to stockpile indiscriminately—it’s to build resilience without inefficiency.
Digital Tools and Real-Time Forecasting
A modern risk mitigation strategy hinges on data and digital visibility. Tools that analyze disruption indicators — such as global trade movements, geopolitical trends, weather events, and public health data — can help leaders anticipate risks earlier and act smarter.
But the data alone isn’t enough. The right insight will help you avoid overreaction or paralysis.
Effective use of digital tools means:
- Monitoring signals, not just reacting to alerts
- Tying risk insights to financial models
- Supporting proactive, not panic-driven, decisions
- Integrating with contract and inventory systems for real-time readiness
The combination of predictive analytics and measured response enables health care systems to maintain continuity and confidence in the face of uncertainty.
Building Strategic Supplier Relationships
One of the most effective forms of disruption insurance? Mutual trust between provider and supplier.
Historically, health care’s supply chain has been transactional and adversarial. But organizations that treat supply as a strategic function rather than a support service are reaping the rewards.
When there’s a deep relationship, you hear about a disruption before it hits your loading dock, giving you time to respond, substitute, and mitigate.
Advantus encourages health care systems to narrow their vendor pool and invest in high-trust, transparent partnerships. That includes:
- Open sharing of production and logistics concerns
- Clarity around pricing and contract language (especially on tariffs and substitutions)
- Joint scenario planning and risk assessments
This shift not only improves resilience but drives long-term value.
A Proactive Model for 2025 and Beyond
At Advantus, we offer more than supplier connections and a GPO. We help health care organizations build lasting resilience through hands-on consulting, forecasting, and readiness planning.
Our strategic approach includes:
- Deep SKU-level and contract analysis
- Custom disruption response
- Tariff impact modeling
- Alternative sourcing strategies
- Strategic supplier partnerships
Whether the next disruption stems from a port closure, political upheaval, or climate catastrophe, we help you stay informed, responsive, and ahead of the curve.
Because in 2025 and beyond, resilience isn’t optional—it’s operational.
From Risk to Readiness
Uncertainty may be the only certainty in today’s health care supply chain. The next disruption is already on the horizon — even if you can’t see it yet.
At Advantus Health Partners, we believe disruption readiness isn’t just a defensive strategy — it’s a competitive advantage. Contact us to begin building a more resilient supply chain.
