Office Supply Purchasing: How to Get the Lowest Prices, Period.
Are you spending too much for your office supplies? Are you and your staff spending far too much time hunting down the lowest prices and the best suppliers? Most medical offices can save significant money and staff hours by outsourcing the purchasing of all office supplies.
Here’s how I learned about getting the lowest prices the hard way:
When I first started running Bloomington Bone & Joint Clinic, I reviewed very closely how our office purchased office supplies. After much research and seeking out the best vendors, I was extremely pleased with the results. I believed our office was doing everything in our power to purchase everything from toilet paper to copy paper to charts to drugs at the lowest possible price.
One day, however, I received a call from someone calling herself a purchasing agent. She specialized in purchasing supplies in medical offices. I had no idea what a purchasing agent was or why one would benefit my office. But I soon found out.
The cost to have the purchasing agent review my accounts receivable was zero. It also cost me none of my valuable time to have my expenses reviewed because I let her take my invoices with her. She copied my invoices and brought them back two weeks later, along with the results of her research.
What I discovered from that audit of our office’s expenses made me sick to my stomach. Even though my staff and I had done everything in our power to save money on office supplies, we did not even come close to the very low prices the purchasing agent could obtain for us. Some of the more stunning results are listed below.
Item: Percent Savings:
Computer paper (2 part) 54%
Standard computer paper 50%
Marcaine .5% 50 ml 40%
Depo-Medrol80 mg/ml 35%
Cast Tape 40%
Needles 20×11-1/2 25%
Syringe 3cc LL 25%
Table Paper 18”Crepe 34%
and the list goes on and on
Needless to say, I immediately signed up to use the purchasing agent. The very first quarter our office used the purchasing agent we saved approximately $2,500. That number increased after the addition of a new physician and our office’s use of more injection drugs.
And not only did we save money, our staff spent significantly less time when ordering office supplies. Before using the purchasing agent, the staff and I would spend several hours a month shopping our supplies with different vendors. With the purchasing agent, we simply made one phone call to her (or sent a fax or e-mail), and we knew that our office would get the best price available in the marketplace. Less headache and lower prices—what a concept!
Of course there are other options in the marketplace as well. VHA has a purchasing program you can join through your local VHA affiliated hospital. There are also several Internet purchasing sites. I have looked into those options and passed on them for one simple reason — no personal service. If you want to order something not on “the” list offered by the website or VHA, you have to find it somewhere else.
With our purchasing agent, I knew that when I called I would be talking to someone who knew my account, could order anything I requested, and treated me less like a number and more like an important client. And I would always get the lowest prices available, period. So can you.
Chances are that your office will achieve similar results by using a personal purchasing agent and save thousands of dollars a year, not to mention countless hours of work. In an effort to keep this article non-commercial, I won’t list the contact information of our agent in this place.
However, if you too want to get your office supplies for the lowest prices possible, you are very welcome to contact us and request the name of the purchasing agent, and we’ll send it to you.
