A group purchasing organization (GPO) is an entity that helps health care providers-such as hospitals, nursing homes and home health agencies-realize savings and efficiencies by aggregating purchasing volume and using that leverage to negotiate discounts with manufacturers, distributors and other vendors. Hospitals and other health care providers use group purchasing to obtain the right products at the very best price. Overall, about 72 percent of purchases that hospitals make are done using GPO contracts. The US healthcare industry spends $200+ billion annually in medical and non-medical products with more than 70% allocated through a GPO. GPOs save hospitals and free standing nursing homes between 10 to 15 percent off their purchasing costs. Additionally, GPOs provide valuable cost-avoidance savings to hospitals and other providers by helping them standardize and streamline their purchasing, as well as reduce the number of non-clinical staff that hospitals must employ to negotiate purchasing contracts. There are more than 600 organizations in the United States that participate in some form of group purchasing. Knowledge Source's 2007 Group Purchasing Organizations Market Overview, 210 pages, identifies the market issues and trends, and provides brief profiles on 40 of the leading GPOs. | 
Healthcare Market Overviews