October 14, 2021 – Beside domestic manufacturing, are there any other ways to prevent future shortages of healthcare products? Repertoire posed this question to a group of healthcare supply chain experts in the cover story of the October 2021 issue.
Linda Rouse O’Neill, vice president of government affairs, Health Industry Distributors Association, said it’s critical to build a bigger cushion of medical supplies to fulfill providers’ initial demand during a crisis, “giving critical time to ramp up manufacturing. Providers’ first call for product is to their distributors, so product reserves should be dispersed at distribution warehouses across the country. We recommend that the federal government contract with or fund distributors to increase inventory levels for PPE and other critical supplies at their approximately 500 locations around the country. Distributors should be funded to carry up to 90 to 120 days’ supply of an agreed-upon critical supplies list. Distributors have the expertise and infrastructure to keep inventory current by monitoring expiration dates, rotating, and replenishing these buffer reserves as needed.”
Laura Reline, vice president, supplier management, NDC Inc., said a better Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) would certainly assist in preventing future shortages of critical healthcare products. “Two major healthcare distributors have already been awarded contracts for PPE and COVID-related supplies to support the SNS. The SNS has also collaborated with HIDA to coordinate manufacturer and distributor efforts. This commitment and cooperation among all parties will enhance the availability of stockpiled product for future pandemics and disasters.”
When it comes to stockpiling, a lot of the discussion is about on-hand quantities, “and rightly so,” said Soumi Saha, vice president, advocacy, Premier. “Never during the pandemic did we have a firm grip on how much of a particular product category was on U.S. soil at any time, or where it was, specifically. We could have used that information to move product where it was most needed. As it was, when a manufacturer said, “I want to help,” we often didn’t know who needed that help the most.
“But in addition to keeping track of on-hand quantities, we are also thinking in terms of ‘time in inventory.’ It’s more of a ‘How do you ramp up for war?’ scenario, or a virtual stockpile. In this case, you have a primary and second manufacturer contracted and ready to go when you say “go.” And you test the system periodically, as the federal government does.”