CLN Daily
As clinical laboratories grapple with rising costs, supply chain instability, and increasingly complex technologies, a growing consensus is emerging: vendor relationships are no longer a peripheral concern but rather central to operational success and patient care.
In Thursday’s scientific session at ADLM 2026, “Fundamentals of interacting with vendors: Friends or frenemies?” speakers Edmunds Reineks, MD, PhD, DABCC, FCAP, and Ruhan Wei, PhD, DABCC, NRCC, will discuss how to optimize these relationships.
As the presenters will emphasize, laboratory professionals often underestimate how deeply vendors can influence day-to-day operations, from equipment reliability to crisis response. In some areas, particularly point-of-care testing—which Reineks will focus on—vendor-related issues may occupy more time than traditional concerns such as quality control or workflow optimization.
The implications are significant. When managed poorly, vendor interactions can waste time, complicate decision-making, and leave laboratories vulnerable during disruptions. When approached strategically, however, those same relationships can provide a critical lifeline, offering technical expertise, training support, and problem-solving resources that extend beyond contractual obligations. In her presentation, Wei will focus on providing useful dos and don’ts for lab professionals who want to partner with vendors effectively.
She will point out that the key to successful projects and initiatives may lie in preparation and intentional engagement—areas that are frequently overlooked in laboratory training.
Many laboratorians enter leadership roles with little formal guidance on how to manage vendor relationships, negotiate effectively, or structure productive interactions. As a result, early-career professionals often learn through trial and error, sometimes realizing too late that poorly planned meetings or unclear expectations have led to missed opportunities.
A lack of structured processes can further complicate vendor interactions. Effective vendor management requires clear communication channels, defined escalation pathways, and established trust. Laboratories that take time to build these frameworks are better equipped to resolve problems quickly and maintain continuity when challenges arise.
Simply knowing a sales representative may no longer be enough. Leaders may benefit from building relationships across multiple levels of a vendor’s organization, including technical specialists, service leaders, and executives who can intervene when needed.
Preparation before vendor interactions is equally important. Reineks will emphasize that vendor meetings, whether sales calls, business reviews, or technical discussions, should not be approached casually. Laboratory teams should align internally, consult with key stakeholders such as supply chain and administrative leadership, and define clear objectives in advance.
Without this groundwork, meetings can become unfocused or dominated by a single issue, such as pricing or operational troubleshooting, while more strategic concerns go unaddressed.
Real-world examples will be shared in this session that illustrate both the risks and rewards of this approach. In one case, a laboratory leader anticipated that a vendor might fail to meet long-term commitments and negotiated a contingency clause in advance. When the vendor later fell short, the lab was protected through prearranged discounts.
These lessons come at a time when external pressures are intensifying. Supply chain disruptions have become more frequent in recent years and costs continue to rise, factors that can quickly strain laboratory operations. Strong vendor relationships can help mitigate these pressures by improving communication, enabling faster responses, and providing more accurate information during shortages or delays.
Even when vendors cannot resolve an issue directly, timely updates can help laboratories manage expectations with clinical teams and institutional leadership.
The path forward, Reineks will explain, requires a shift in mindset. Vendor engagement should be viewed as a dynamic, evolving partnership that demands continuous attention, evaluation, and improvement. This includes formalizing expectations through service-level agreements, anticipating potential risks, and ensuring both sides remain accountable over time.
The message is clear: in an increasingly complex healthcare environment, laboratories cannot afford to treat vendor relationships as an afterthought. By approaching these partnerships with the same rigor applied to clinical operations, laboratory leaders can avoid costly missteps, strengthen resilience, and unlock new opportunities for innovation.