Supreme Medical increases transparency

THEODORE, Ala. – Supreme Medical Fulfillment has launched a new online ordering portal with real-time inventory to help its provider customers better respond to everything from the COVID-19 pandemic to supply chain challenges. 

“Some portals will say a product is available or that it’s in stock,” said Colton Mason, senior vice president. “We found providers didn’t want to know that; they wanted to know if we had six or 60. Now when they’re placing orders in our portal, they can see that in real time.” 

Supreme Medical piloted real-time inventory with large customers at the end of last year and made it available to all customers in June. 

When oxygen concentrators were scarce in early 2021 due to the pandemic, Supreme Medical’s provider customers leveraged real-time inventory to buy 1,000 oxygen concentrators in the first few months of the year, Mason says. 

“A category like oxygen – most providers purchase those direct from the manufacturer at scale, so it hasn’t been a core business of ours in the past,” he said. “But some of our manufacturer partners had availability and the main concern of providers was, ‘We need concentrators; people have to breathe.’” 

Supreme Medical’s provider customers have also been leveraging real-time inventory when supply chain challenges create significant back orders for a certain product, Mason says. 

“We don’t just carry one line, we carry eight,” he said. “If one line goes on back order, we will up our stock in the other seven lines. We’ve found that providers are very open to a different line if one isn’t available. They just want the product.” 

At its foundation, real-time inventory allows providers to act fast and that, not price, is the new currency in the industry, Mason says.

“We made the decision at the tail end of last year to change our messaging to focus on a service area of 13 states in the Southeast where we can get packages to porches and stores in one to two days,” he said. “Price used to be top of mind because of competitive bidding, but now it’s speed.”