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6 Ways to Revive the Healthcare Supply Chain As Experts Predict Increased COVID-19 Cases

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Medical personnel in face masks

Scientists have warned of the looming threat of a pandemic for decades, and yet the world’s healthcare systems were woefully underprepared when COVID-19 struck at the beginning of 2020.

In particular, the coronavirus pandemic has exposed major weaknesses within healthcare supply chains, which struggled to cope with the sudden and enormous demand for personal protective equipment (PPE), medicine, testing kits, and ventilators.

Pre-coronavirus, the healthcare supply chain represented just 35% of a typical U.S. hospital’s expenses. Now, it has become a key focus as medical facilities across the country ready themselves for a potential second wave, hoping to avoid the inefficiencies, delays, scams, and stockouts of the past few months.

But it’s not enough to revive healthcare supply chains to their pre-pandemic levels. Rather, this is the time to drive innovative new processes and implement new policies to ensure healthcare providers can deliver efficient, cost-effective, and high-quality services.

Here are six ways the healthcare supply chain can prepare for a second wave of COVID-19.

1. Centralize Sourcing

With many hospitals scrambling to acquire the necessary equipment and medicine, procurement processes have been far from efficient. There have been numerous reports detailing cases of vastly inflated PPE prices, and equipment that does not meet regulatory standards.

Moving towards a centralized sourcing system, which includes updating approved vendor lists, will help to prevent these issues. In addition, a centralized system will reduce the duplication of efforts — which saves money — and make it easier for medical centers to monitor and optimize their inventory.  

2. Move Away from Lean Practices

Lean procurement serves to lower costs and minimize waste throughout the supply chain, but this approach is not necessarily conducive to effective risk mitigation strategies and supply chain resiliency. Instead, healthcare providers must move away from the just-in-time supply chain model and focus on building a much greater reserve of safety stock — known as the just-in-case model.

Advanced analytical tools will help supply chain managers to more accurately forecast demand and establish minimum inventory levels.

3. Leverage ERP Systems

Investment in, or better usage of, cloud-based ERP systems within healthcare supply chains could be transformative in the event of a second wave of coronavirus. For example, these systems will enable the accurate tracking of critical supply levels across networks of medical centers and hospitals, as well as monitoring the flow of goods.

4. Find Local Suppliers

The pandemic has exposed the major risk in the healthcare supply chain relying on overseas, single-source suppliers for critical supplies. Data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services revealed that 95% of surgical masks and 70% of respirators used in the U.S. are made overseas.

In some cases, it emerged that only a handful of manufacturers worldwide were producing a key component, such as the nasal swab needed for coronavirus testing. In others, better contingency strategies could have prevented stockouts and delays. 

To address shortages, several manufacturers retrofitted their business to produce PPE and other pandemic-critical items. Now, the healthcare supply chain should put its efforts into identifying good, local suppliers who can meet their needs.

In the event that an overseas supplier(s) is the only option, it’s especially important to develop meaningful and trusting relationships to guarantee supplier loyalty in what will continue to be a highly competitive market.

5. Be Proactive, Not Reactive

With some notable exceptions, governments across the world have typically taken a reactive approach to managing the pandemic. In the U.S., many medical facilities failed to take radical action until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared an emergency situation.

Ahead of a potential second wave, the hospital supply chain must take a more proactive approach to managing its critical supplies. This includes monitoring coronavirus and other disease outbreaks both locally and internationally and analyzing how these might impact the supply chain, as well as carrying out regular checks on stock levels and reviewing demand.

Atlantic Health, a network of six hospitals in New Jersey, plans to stockpile enough PPE to last 90 days at a burn rate 20% higher than the worst day they’ve experienced thus far during the pandemic. Applying a model such as this one puts less strain on a community should there be an outbreak.

Medical facilities could also consider setting up program buying procurement, which involves arranging quotas of products from a supplier that are automatically replenished when stocks drop below a certain point.

6. Make Telemedicine Easy and Accessible

Telemedicine has become an important tool in the fight against the coronavirus, but the healthcare supply chain could further invest in technology that makes it easy and accessible for patients, including establishing help desks and other channels that can provide patient support.

For example, Holy Name Medical Center in New Jersey has plans to expand its inventory of home telemonitoring equipment to minimize the number of patients coming into the hospital.

Join Thomas in the Fight Against COVID-19

Thomas is working with federal and state government offices to help mobilize manufacturers that can create critical supplies.

  • If you already manufacture or can pivot to fulfill the demand for critical products, such as PPE, please register here.
  • To find suppliers who have already confirmed their availability of materials, products, or other manufacturing services related to critical supplies, please go here.

 

Image Credit: Halfpoint / Shutterstock.com

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