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:
- Medical and surgical supplies
 - Pharmaceuticals
 - Medical devices
 - Personal protective equipment (PPE)
 - Food preparation
 - Laundry and linens
 
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.
| Rank | Definitive ID | Hospital name | City | State | Total Med/Surg Supply Costs | Explore dataset | 
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2843 | Tisch Hospital | New York | NY | $ 1,609,045,216 | Explore | 
| 2 | 2096 | University Hospital | Ann Arbor | MI | $ 1,589,931,888 | Explore | 
| 3 | 588 | Stanford Hospital - 300 Pasteur Dr | Palo Alto | CA | $ 1,541,446,896 | Explore | 
| 4 | 4017 | University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center | Houston | TX | $ 1,356,123,968 | Explore | 
| 5 | 274110 | UK Albert B Chandler Hospital (AKA Kentucky Hospital) | Lexington | KY | $ 1,317,615,205 | Explore | 
| 6 | 1365 | IU Health Methodist Hospital | Indianapolis | IN | $ 1,306,709,568 | Explore | 
| 7 | 873 | AdventHealth Orlando (FKA Florida Hospital Orlando) | Orlando | FL | $ 1,211,917,888 | Explore | 
| 8 | 541974 | NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center | New York | NY | $ 1,143,008,092 | Explore | 
| 9 | 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:
- Buildings and fixtures
 - Maintenance
 - Operation of the facility
 
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