Innovation Procurement in Health Systems: Exploring Practice and Lessons Learned

As rising healthcare costs continue to challenge the sustainability of global health systems, there has been a strategic shift toward a focus on value, which considers the outcomes and value of healthcare delivery relative to the costs of care delivery. A unique feature of this focus on value has influenced a shift in procurement whereby health organizations are advancing the procurement of innovative solutions to achieve defined outcomes that overcome challenges such as the quality, safety and cost of care delivery. In this paper, we report on the implementation of three innovation procurement models in four Ontario healthcare organizations. These case studies provide evidence of the value and impact of innovation procurement approaches emerging from the four healthcare organizations. Three models of innovation procurement are described in the four cases, along with qualitative analysis of experiences and outcomes for both the organizations and the participating vendors. Evidence of the value and impact of procuring innovative solutions to address health organization challenges offers insights and new approaches to leveraging public procurement methodologies to achieve value and impact for health systems.