Elliot El-Amin fears that his business would implode if the Cook County Health and Hospital System moves forward with a plan that would eliminate competitive bidding for medical supplies.

“We do other business, as well, but we’re growing our business in the medical arena. It would cease to exist,” says El-Amin, whose CE Services has done business with the county’s health system for about four years.

El-Amin and other small business owners are gearing up to lock horns with the hospital system, hoping to stop the proposal, which they say would keep local merchants from doing business with the system.

At issue is a plan put forward by the hospital system that would route business to pre-qualified vendors that have joined a so-called group purchasing organization.

As the hospital system’s independent board considers the proposal, which would eliminate the competitive bidding process, local business owners are considering a class action lawsuit.

They are also seeking meetings with County Commissioners Peter Silvestri and Jerry Butler. Commissioner Roberto Maldonado has offered the group his support already.

“My biggest concern in the present situation, with the GPO arrangement, there would be no opportunity for a minority company or majority companies to participate,” El-Amin says.

While initially concerned with the effect a GPO arrangement would have on minority- and woman-owned businesses, El-Amin and others now say all local businesses that deal with the county system would be negatively affected.

The county formerly required some purchases be made at local businesses. The new policy cites a preference to work with local businesses, but classifies out-of-state corporations doing business in Illinois as local vendors.

The hospital system’s board says a GPO arrangement, in tandem with a new procurement policy approved earlier this month, would save about $20 million a year. It would be more efficient, and centralize purchasing.

The new policy eliminated purchasing power from individual facilities, putting that task in the hands of the system’s procurement director, Leslie Duffy.

A small group of local business owners gathered last night on the Far North Side to discuss their options, and they asked why the county would revise its policy now, just weeks before a new hospital system CEO, William Foley, takes over.

But the sudden move is not surprising to Donald High, president of Palatine-based Advanced Management Services Midwest.

“I live in Cook County. Nothing surprises me,” he says.

Last year, the system’s board of directors was made independent of the county board, in order to free it of political influence.

But with the purchasing power centralized, local vendors wonder if officials will end up buying from politcally connected companies. 

“This type of arrangement goes against the grain of all that has been worked for in this town for many a year,” El-Amin says.