The partnership type of vendor relationship is built on a high level of trust between the laboratory and the supplier. The supplier does only limited business with the competition - so they may then move their resources toward serving the needs of the client laboratory. Long-term contracts are involved, and detailed information is shared between the laboratory and the vendor.
An example of a partnership in the medical laboratory setting might be a hospital laboratory that partners with a university to provide specific research testing unique to the hospital patient population, or the partnership with the university provides specific pathology residents only to your hospital and to no one else. These partnerships involve pooling resources. The use of partnerships incorporates a high level of trust from both participants since some of these partnerships may provide access to proprietary methods.
