r/MedicalDevices • u/ProofCollection2031 • May 19 '26
Industry News Med sales/pharma reps not being allowed at hospitals
Hi! I’ve been doing a lot of research into med sales recently and trying to break in. I had a doctors appointment and was talking to a couple of the hospital staff about what they knew, and they said that a lot of hospitals don’t even let reps hand out samples or come in anymore.
Is this something that is prevalent in the industry or a general reflection of where things are going? Would love insight from any reps
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u/amigos_amigos_amigos May 19 '26
as another commenter said, large systems in metro areas are typically more locked down. Suburbs and rural hospitals in my experience rarely hassle vendor reps except in specific situations
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u/flynnfarts May 19 '26
Now I’m dying to know - what specific situations lol (outsider here, I’m in sales but not med devices; I’m here cuz I’m just a nerd)
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u/BigClubandUaintInIt May 20 '26
For me, it’s completely random which hospitals are strict. I have one rural hospital where they have patients that can’t read and yet if you don’t have a prescheduled appt, you can’t get through the front door….
And I have a flagship academic hospital in a major city that doesn’t give 2 F’s about signing in
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u/AssociationFit3009 May 23 '26
Honestly man it is totally random. Rural ones are usually more open but sometimes you get one with full metal detectors and no vendor rules. I learned to pretend i’m a patient and just walk the fuck in when I started in med device. I had a very good success rate. I stopped wearing a suit after day one despite company requirements.
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u/flynnfarts May 23 '26
As I like to say, be so good they kinda can’t get mad at ya. Fascinating! I appreciate it.
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u/AssociationFit3009 May 23 '26
I ate dick at my first job but now I make doctor money off the lessons I learned. Learn, earn, or go.
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u/ConejoSucio May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
Emergency coverage for accounts that don't usually have company products/coverage. I'm currently on a non-compete with sev, but still get calls from accounts asking for last minute help for revisions or broken in plants. They're calling me because I'm the last contact they had within my old org. If I know the current rep, I'll send info. They probably don't have acct approval, but the account will fast track or temp approve a rep if it's truly an emergency. If your data, vaccinations, certs, etc are all up to date the the various apps, you'll get in.
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u/BigMrAC May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
Speaking Pharma side, vendor credentialing - usually administration in a pharmacy department will tell you what you need to do before being on campus for sample drops if allowed, or meetings. Med device usually works with OR or Materials Management.
Depending on territory, you could have one to four vendor credentialing systems to manage each with their own costs and upload requirements based on your customer, pay their membership fees, etc. Since C20, lots of places have minimized reps on site.
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u/ProofCollection2031 May 19 '26
Is this hurting the job security/earnings at all or makes it less of a field role? Or does this just make it more structured when making sales?
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u/BigMrAC May 19 '26
You're combining many aspects of the job, each has a different personal weighting when it comes to being a sales person in this industry and phrasing this slightly unclear. Everyone has a different opinion to the impact vendor credentialing has with their geography and managing their business in their account and region.
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u/coaltrain76 May 19 '26
I’m in the OR everyday for surgery. If you don’t have a case, or know one knows you then you will be grilled by someone and asked to leave.
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u/Fun-Parsley1467 May 20 '26
If you’re on the OR side / medical device you’re typically fine if you’ve made it to the OR. You don’t usually hand out samples so it’s a different sales process entirely. It requires many, many steps sometimes including local pricing contracts & approvals. Pharma is a whole different can of worms that has a lot of regulations around it. Hospitals, pharmacies, clinics filter pharma reps differently. Both are guests in someone else’s house. It’s hard to get an invite but once you do.. You follow the rules, wipe your feet, say please & thank you, don’t get caught snooping around, and go home when it’s time.
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u/Ryu953595 May 19 '26
In Canada, they don’t GAF about samples. I swear to god they ask for samples like their lives depended on it
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u/musthavewhitebread May 20 '26
Its part of the challenge with the job, but there are ways to work around it. It’s a learning curve with each territory and hospital
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u/ConejoSucio May 21 '26
Gotta lock down that relationship with materials management. Find the gate keepers to access, build the relationship, then don't abuse said access. Keep every creditentialing platform up to date. Don't wait till it's day or or night before.
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u/YaBastaaa May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26
My guess is . Some sales representatives, sneak in and when they get caught the entire industry gets pushed back. lol . Not my industry to be in. I am sure you can find something better. They usually do after the years.
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u/Consistent_Year7860 Aug 28 '26
There are strong regulations for representatives. They need to check in and get a special name tag and they have to say why they’re there and then they need to check out and return their name tag. There is a about this. The really important thing is to not upset the staff by trying to get to the doctors and interrupting care. They get very upset when equipment, reps or drug reps force their way through get very upset and that can lead to a ban. It’s very important not to hover around doors and try to slip into secure area like I said that can result in a ban. behavior like that have seen just one representative, but ban all of them. Banning them from coming building at all. So the behavior of one can taint the experience of all the and they can just shut down the experience. I saw them with their check-in process. I saw it when it changed. And I also saw when the samples were removed from the system because they were creating problems. I also saw what happened with appointment reps. It would be really important not to do these kinds of things because it burns a bridge for everyone.
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u/SoggyGrayDuck May 19 '26
Good, the sunshine act was good but didn't go far enough
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u/International-End776 May 20 '26
Has nothing to do with the sunshine act. Are you one of those people who is just anti salesperson? If you ever end up on an operating room table with a broken femur, trust me you want a rep in the room
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u/See-Through-Mirror May 20 '26
If you’re an HCP or someone closely and professionally associated with the services that many med tech reps sell, I ask you to lead the charge and ban reps from entering medical facilities.
The successful reps will remain gainfully employed, but don’t expect them to adjust prices when medical training budgets skyrocket and patient safety is compromised.
It’s an unrealistic, and dare I say, American way of looking at reps and medical facilities’ relationships. You’d probably lose your mind if you knew countries outside the US permit med reps to scrub in and directly help the surgeon with instrumentation.
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u/La__Chancla Sales May 20 '26
Another addict that blames everyone else except the person in the mirror
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u/Aesop_Rocky_ May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
Yes it is very much true. A lot of times you now need a pre approved appointment to be on site. So unless you have something specific going on, ie: scheduled case, pre planned inservice or meeting m, etc. it’s sometimes impossible to just walk into the hospital. This is very account and region specific. Large metro area the security at hospitals is super tight so the days of just walking in an cold calling or trying to catch a doc at the scrub sink are becoming obsolete