RWJBarnabas Health (RWJBH) has launched BuyLocal, an online platform designed to increase opportunities for certified local and diversified New Jersey businesses to engage directly with the health care system.
BuyLocal is part of RWJBH’s mission to be physically and financially anchored in the communities it serves by buying, leasing and investing locally and with a variety of businesses.
“Small businesses can register on our portal, they can upload their certificates, and then it allows our employees at RWJBarnabas Health to identify those businesses,” said program manager Diana Candelejo, assistant vice president of economic inclusion, social impact and community investment at RWJBH. “Now it’s very accessible to us to find them and offer opportunities, orders and contract opportunities with these local companies.”
The platform was launched on June 27 and more than 200 eligible companies have already registered. The program is also committed to providing non-certified diversified businesses with the education and tools they need to become state certified and eligible to participate.
More: RWJBarnabas, Saint Peter’s Healthcare abandons merger plans
Businesses can engage directly with RWJBH and its facilities in a variety of ways.
“Anything from marketing to providing other products and services that our hospital and facilities need,” Candelejo said. “That’s really what the portal is all about: to scale and reach and engage and make sure it matches the opportunities that are tangible in our system, so people can actually type and search across categories and products and services.”
Local, minority and women-owned businesses that could meet future service or supply chain requirements for RWJBH can register at RWJBH.org/BuyLocal. Businesses that successfully register on the platform will be listed as RWJBarnabas Health BuyLocal sellers and included in the database of businesses eligible for ordering and contracting opportunities within the system. Businesses based in New Jersey, Certified Minority-Owned, Women-Owned, Small Business, Veteran-Owned, Disabled Veteran-Owned and Disadvantaged Businesses are eligible to participate.
“When we look at the social mission of the organization, the economic stability of the surrounding communities is also important,” said Dr. Paul G. Alexander, Executive Vice President and Chief Health Equity and Transformation Officer at RWJBH. “… Most of these businesses are small and sometimes they struggle to stay afloat in economic times like this, so we really want to make sure that we’re committed to maintaining that economic stability in the surrounding communities.”
Brad Wadlow is a staff writer for MyCentralJersey.com. Email: bwadlow@gannettnj.com
