Cardinal Health’s Respiratory Testing Reserved Inventory Program is designed to help customers make preparations for respiratory season
December 2021 – Repertoire Magazine
Respiratory season is always unpredictable, says Tekita Mckinney, MT (ASCP) M.Ed., infectious disease and PCR laboratory manager at LeBonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis. “The laboratory is tasked with keeping up with testing volume that fluctuates from week to week. The upcoming 2021-2022 respiratory season is even more unpredictable. Not knowing when or if we will have spikes in COVID viral infections along with the usual flu and RSV viral infections at any given time makes being prepared for the increased testing even more important.”
The hospital is an early adopter of Cardinal Health Laboratory Products’ recently introduced Respiratory Testing Reserved Inventory Program.
“We developed the program to help customers be prepared for the upcoming season,” says Chris Huber, director, point-of-care and infectious disease product marketing at Cardinal Health. Always difficult, assessing demand for respiratory testing is especially complicated this season, given the sustaining pandemic and the low prevalence of flu in the 2020-2021 season.
“Typical purchase patterns include a stock-up in late-August and September by customers as they build inventory in the event of an early season,” he says. “In this new program, we are asking customers to think differently and take a longer time horizon into consideration in their preparation for respiratory testing inventory needs.
“To assist customers in this transition, we applied advanced analytics to help guide their decision-making, and we helped manage the purchase of dated materials. While we recognize that this shift in mindset will take time, based on the early adoption of the program, we’ve seen customers of all sizes engage in the program.”
Huber explains the process. “Once product arrives from the manufacturer, that product is held in reserve specifically for customers, in the exact amount requested. As product quantities decrease, we will work collaboratively with customers on necessary repeat orders, based on their individual needs.” The program has also enabled select diagnostic manufacturers to plan their manufacturing more effectively for crucial respiratory tests, he says.
Customers are required to commit to purchasing the balance of the inventory secured on their behalf. “Even in an allocated situation, the inventory remains theirs and theirs alone,” says Huber. “Once reserved from the manufacturer on their behalf, it puts the customer in the driver’s seat to know exactly how much respiratory inventory they will have dedicated to them despite the severity of the season or manufacturer allocations and/or backorders.”
The program incorporates a tool that aggregates historical demand at IDN levels, which allows customers to see historical utilization trends both at a facility and network level, says Huber. This historical utilization provides a roadmap on prior usage, and customers can then determine at what percent of historical usage they would like to reserve. The tool also helps identify assay menu gaps at the facility level. “While there is always the need for redundant testing platforms, we believe that maximizing the utility of an analyzer drives clinical workflow and supply chain efficiencies.”
Says Mckinney, “The advanced analytics data has helped our lab predict future usage over the next few months. Using the snapshot of our ordering history in an easy-to-read format makes the process simple. In addition, having access to multiple years of data is helpful. With 2020 being such an odd year, having access to historical data from 2019 helped us predict possible flu and RSV usage for this respiratory season. The advanced analytics will help my lab save time gathering data manually.