For more than four years, Bridgett Battles has managed community engagement and supplier diversity for Jefferson Health (No. 13 on the Fair360 2023 Top Hospitals and Health Systems list).
The Director for Community Engagement and Supplier Diversity was constantly approached by vendors of color asking how they could conduct business with Jefferson Health.
“One of the challenges in the industry is often MWBEs aren’t aware of open-to-bid opportunities,” she says. “The second challenge is with capacity. With an organization as large as Jefferson, MWBE’s may not be able to deliver the scale to our demands. We also must keep in mind incumbent vendors who have strong relationships with our supply chain which makes it difficult to compete.”
