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Healthcare Insights

Top 25 hospitals by medical supply costs

Supply chain costs account for a large portion of hospital expenses, averaging about 14% of total hospital operating expenses. Expenses that qualify as medical supply costs include:

Supply costs are impacted by external factors like rising pharmaceutical prices, as well as internal expenses like physician preference items (PPIs). Though PPI spending and medical supply expenses are more discretionary than other hospital expenses, supply chain spending has been on an upward trend since at least 2014. According to data from the Definitive Healthcare HospitalView product, total supply expenses at U.S. hospitals increase by about 6% each year.

Using data from Definitive Healthcare’s HospitalView product, we created a list of the top 25 U.S. hospitals by medical and surgical supply costs. Data is sourced from the Medicare Cost Report and aggregated from the most recent 12-month interval tracked in our database.

Top U.S. hospitals by total medical and surgical supply costs

Rank Definitive ID Hospital name  City   State   Total Med/Surg Supply Costs  Explore dataset
2843 Tisch Hospital  New York   NY   $ 1,609,045,216  Explore
2096 University Hospital  Ann Arbor   MI   $ 1,589,931,888  Explore
588 Stanford Hospital - 300 Pasteur Dr  Palo Alto   CA   $ 1,541,446,896  Explore
4017 University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center  Houston   TX   $ 1,356,123,968  Explore
274110 UK Albert B Chandler Hospital (AKA Kentucky Hospital)  Lexington   KY   $ 1,317,615,205  Explore
1365 IU Health Methodist Hospital  Indianapolis   IN   $ 1,306,709,568  Explore
873 AdventHealth Orlando (FKA Florida Hospital Orlando)  Orlando   FL   $ 1,211,917,888  Explore
541974 NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center  New York   NY   $ 1,143,008,092  Explore
550 Hillcrest Medical Center at UC San Diego Health  San Diego   CA   $ 1,095,035,904  Explore
10 3015 UNC Medical Center (FKA University of North Carolina Hospitals - Memorial Hospital)  Chapel Hill   NC   $ 1,083,315,560  Explore
11 3120 Cleveland Clinic Main Campus  Cleveland   OH   $ 1,060,265,104  Explore
12 3623 Medical University of South Carolina Medical Center  Charleston   SC   $ 1,024,703,856  Explore
13 1978 Dana-Farber Cancer Institute  Boston   MA   $ 1,010,714,547  Explore
14 4310 University Hospital  Charlottesville   VA   $ 998,060,304  Explore
15 2973 Duke University Hospital  Durham   NC   $ 982,250,192  Explore
16 851 Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center  Miami   FL   $ 970,888,817  Explore
17 1678 Norton Hospital  Louisville   KY   $ 938,449,568  Explore
18 1000 Northside Hospital Atlanta  Atlanta   GA   $ 914,076,216  Explore
19 872 Orlando Health Orlando Regional Medical Center  Orlando   FL   $ 882,822,288  Explore
20 2818 Strong Memorial Hospital  Rochester   NY   $ 880,498,016  Explore
21 3742 Vanderbilt University Medical Center  Nashville   TN   $ 862,748,840  Explore
22 995 Emory University Hospital Midtown (FKA Emory Crawford Long Hospital)  Atlanta   GA   $ 821,829,936  Explore
23 1981 UMass Memorial Medical Center - University Campus  Worcester   MA   $ 821,786,688  Explore
24 1973 Massachusetts General Hospital  Boston   MA   $ 820,203,544  Explore
25 370 Helford Clinical Research Hospital (AKA City of Hope National Cancer Center)  Duarte   CA   $ 815,638,791 Explore

Fig. 1 Data is from the Definitive Healthcare HospitalView product and aggregated from the most recent 12-month interval tracked in our database. Data is sourced from the Medicare Cost Report release. Accessed October 2025.

Which hospitals have the highest total medical supply costs?

Tisch Hospital in New York City has the highest hospital medical supply costs among U.S. hospitals at $1,609,045,216. Tisch is the main teaching hospital for the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and appears at the top of several other hospital expense lists, including accrued salary expenses, operating room costs, and housekeeping expenses.

In second place is University Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan with $1,589,931,888 in total medical supply costs. This facility is the top hospital in the state of Michigan based on net patient revenue and is one of the largest academic medical centers (AMCs) in the nation.

Rounding out the top three is Stanford Hospital, with total medical supply costs reaching $1,541,446,896.

Interestingly, all the top three hospitals on this list are AMCs, meaning that they have integrated with medical schools to provide primary education for medical students and residents. Most AMCs are also teaching hospitals, but not all teaching hospitals are AMCs. This is because AMCs can issue medical degrees while teaching hospitals cannot.

The remaining hospitals on the list are among the top U.S. hospitals by net patient revenue and include many other AMCs and cancer centers.

How to use medical supply costs in your healthcare sales and marketing strategy?

Healthcare sales and marketing professionals can use medical supply cost data to gain a clearer picture of a facility’s operations, budget priorities, and pain points. Hospitals with high or rising supply costs often indicate growing patient volumes, complex case mixes, or inefficiencies within procurement and inventory management. These insights help commercial teams identify high-value prospects—organizations that are more likely to invest in solutions designed to reduce costs, improve efficiency, or modernize their supply chains.

Finally, when integrated into account-based marketing (ABM) strategies, supply cost data enables deeper personalization. Sales teams can reference cost trends in their outreach, tailor ROI discussions around measurable savings, and time their engagements based on shifts in supply spend. In a market where healthcare organizations are under constant pressure to balance quality with cost, using medical supply cost data gives sales and marketing professionals a competitive edge.

What costs hospitals the most money?

The biggest expenses for hospitals are the salaries of their employees. According to HospitalView data, on average, salary expenses account for more than one-third of total hospital operating expenses. The second highest expense for hospitals is medical/surgical supply costs, followed by employee benefits.

Overall, employee-related expenses like salaries, fringe benefits, and contract labor account for nearly half of a hospital’s operating expense, on average.

How much does a hospital spend on supplies?

Based on data from more than 4,100 hospitals in HospitalView, the average total supply expense is $38 million per hospital. On average, hospital supply expenses have increased by more than 6% annually since 2017.

In comparison, the average total medical and surgical supply expense for the 25 hospitals on the list is $849 million, or about 22% of total operating expenses.

What is included in total hospital supply costs?

Total hospital supply costs include:

It also includes overhead costs such as:

Learn more

Healthcare Insights are developed with data from the Definitive Healthcare platform. Want even more insights? Start a free trial now and get access to the latest intelligence on hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare providers.