The Institute for Supply Management launched its first vertical ISM Report On Business in a critical services sector: hospitals. The Hospital PMI is the first report of its kind, delving into areas that specifically cover hospital supply chains. The inaugural report will feature July 2020 data.

Amid the COVID-19 global pandemic, the Hospital PMI represents an opportunity to assess and better understand domestic hospital supply chains. The Hospital PMI will feature the same depth of data that is included in the long-standing ISM Report On Business reports, along with several hospital-specific dimensions.

“ISM is proud to expand the depth of our economic insights as we look to serve the supply management profession and the greater economic community,” Thomas Derry, CEO of ISM, said. “Long planned, the Hospital PMI promises to be a valuable tool to clinicians, administrators and policy makers just as the fragility of medical supply chains has become a pivotal topic.”

Hospital-specific data has been collected since April 2018, and monthly reports will be released on the fifth business day of the month. Just as with the established indexes within the ISM Report On Business, a reading above 50% indicates the hospital sector of the U.S. economy is generally expanding, while a reading below 50% indicates the U.S. hospital sector is generally contracting.

The Hospital PMI committee chair representing the hospital supply chain community and panel respondents will be Nancy LeMaster. LeMaster spent most of her career at BJC HealthCare in St. Louis, where she was the vice president of supply chain transformation. She has since parlayed her health care supply chain experience into consulting.

“The fact that ISM chose the hospital industry as the first vertical to have its own index tells you a lot about the far-reaching impact healthcare has on the overall economy,” LeMaster said. “This new tool will provide insight that previously was unavailable to the industry as it works to restructure its supply chains in the wake of COVID-19.”

In creating this index, ISM collaborated on initial recruitment activities with the Association for Health Care Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM), a professional membership group for the health care supply chain of the American Hospital Association, along with Strategic Marketplace Initiatives (SMI). This collaborative framework helped to shape this report and assisted in driving panel participants.

“The Hospital PMI is an important initiative for the health care supply chain profession as well as the health care field at large,” Debbie Sprindzunas, executive director of the AHRMM, said. “Collaborating with ISM on the expansion of their portfolio was a natural fit.”

“Our vision is that this report becomes another valuable source of information that healthcare executives, business and policy leaders can use as a guide for their strategic planning,” Mike Schiller, senior director of supply chain for the AHRMM, said.

In addition, to better align with economic and industry terminology, along with the ISM Manufacturing PMI, the Non-Manufacturing Index (NMI) will be renamed as the Services PMI as of its next report. The data, report, methodology and process for the non-manufacturing services sector report all remain unchanged. This rebrand only represents a change to the report’s naming convention.

Click here for more information on the Hospital PMI and Services PMI (formerly NMI).